This model is a 80gb drive although much large and indeed smaller and therefore cheaper models are available, the connection is USB 2.0 and it is self powered if used with the short USB lead supplied as standard. This is a huge advantage over other disks which have power supplies with block style packs just to power them which makes them cumbersome and also requires another spare power socket next to the PC.

The WD passport drive is very rugged, ok we haven't been out the in the car park and played football with it but it has been dropped down a stairwell and takes a lot of abuse. The case is silvered on the upper side and has a rubberised underneath and side, this rubber coating is very non slip and manages to keep it balanced nicely on top of a PC while it's connected.

Again unlike many portable USB drives we've tested the WD Passport seems to mount on the PC very quickly and also without failure, it is easily identified when browsing the PC as it has a clear blue WD logo next to it in Windows explorer. Plus the transfer speed is first class easily moving large video files 10gb in a minute or so. Then we get to our biggest bugbear with portable drives, normally if they are not removed "safely" you risk losing the data last transferred, many times we have got all the way across the car park to another building only to find no files on the disk. However the western digital drive does not seem prone to this and we have even stopped "removing it safely" without seeing any problems.

So just why is our WD passport a bit like the Ford Transit of the PC world? Well for us it works as a file transfer device which can cope with more than a few MP3 files (we often move GB's of video). Then it serves as an excellent back device and holds a complete weekly backup of this site, plus it rather handily backs up al of LP's MP3 collection (some 32gb). All of this in a size(8.9 cm x 14.4 cm x 2.1 cm) that makes it easy to slip in a laptop bag and take when travelling, it can be like a second hard drive to many users.

Finally the killer deal, the model we use (80gb) is just £79 which is superb value for money for such a robust and reliable device  that has a hint of style, well as much style as a USB hard drive can have!

Published - 01/07/2006

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