I have had a hard time with PCs and have lost a lot of data that, quite frankly, I would have preferred not to lose. So I invested in a rather bulky hard drive that required external power, just more cables to carry around. I then decided after about 2 years that that was too bulky and I should invest in a smaller, more portable version. This is what I chose. I paid around £60 for this about 3 months ago from Amazon.co.uk. I went for the 500GB version so I could back up all of my music, pictures and videos as well as have enough space for carrying files around. I use it on my Macbook. FUNCTIONALITY, Straight out of the box it is all very easy to use. No set ...  Read the complete review

To clarify my position: I am pretty computer illiterate. I deal with books (English degree) not binary. Unfortunately, my laptop recently took it upon itself to get the famous 'blue screen of death', give up the ghost and largely implode. THANKFULLY due to some lovely guys I am at uni with, I was able to rescue my main files (all dissertations included-phew!) using some Linux ninja wizardry. That accomplished- I of course needed to purchase somewhere to house all my English essays and drunken Friday night photos, so I set about buying an external hardrive. Now I won't lie to you dear reader, I majorly copped out and half chose the passport for a) its funky ...  Read the complete review

This was the first external hard drive I ever bought and I'm so happy with it that all the other drives I've bought since have been made by Western Digital. The 500GB WD My passport is an absolute cracker! It's even smaller that the pictures of it suggest! It's covered in an attractive black plastic gloss finish, which apart from easily picking up finger print marks looks really stylish. I actual storage space is actually 470GB (I think, it's around that anyway). It comes with WD smartware which is supposed to make it easier to back up your files. I really don't know how the smartware works because I've never used it! I just drag and drop whatever ...  Read the complete review

Less is more. This is an essential addition to your laptop. I decline to bore anyone with a lot of turgid technical detail. These come in different sizes - I have the 750 GB model but they can go to 1TB (and maybe even more) Password protected to ensure privacy to your documents. I travel a lot, with a lot of documents. This is the 21st Century...and this can save you a few kilos in weight of carrying paper, save the environment and an awful lot of trees, and allow you to take ALL of your favourite movies and music around with you. Essential for the business traveller - and especially one who needs a bit of relaxation at ...  Read the complete review

The portable storage market is a competitive one with lots of options to choose from. The WD My Passport is a great choice as its light and small enough to be easily carried around and a pretty quick access rate although there are better options if speed is important. Build quality is excellent and has a nice glossy finish that comes in several colours. On the downside the USB cable is very short which is rather annoying as it has to be placed right next to the access device and cant be hidden away. If you are a PC user but want to share with MACs, then the drive should be formatted in FAT32 format which the Mac can read without issue. Only limitation is that the maximum  Read the complete review