Better than a pen drive and prettier (Western Digital Passport WDXMS2500 250 GB)

Member Name: Chinablue

Product:	Western Digital Passport WDXMS2500 250 GB
Date:	19/04/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads of hard drive space on a real hard drive

Disadvantages: You might want to buy the full colour range

I tried a variety of smaller hard drives for work before I found this one. 6GB or 8GB sounds quite large until you start filling them up. This one though with its 250GB has still to be filled. This is obviously a fair bit bigger than your average pen drive or giga cube, but its still small enough to slip into a handbag or pocket. You can also pick up a protective hard case for about £8.

I now do all my work directly from this drive so I dont have to worry about which is the most up to date version of files. I then use Microsoft sync toy to provide a home backup. Western Digital also provide a sync tool but I havent tried it. There is also an option in the settings so that you dont have to "safely eject" the drive - which is good - just rip out and go.


These are currently selling at around £62. You can pay slightly more to have them in a different colour, and more again if you dont shop around. I am considering getting another as a spare.

There is quite a handy feature which is that it supports portable applications. This is great because you can use applications that are not installed on the host computer. It wont let you use MSN at work if its blocked on the firewall, but it will let you use VLC portable, so you can watch file types that you may not have been able to, and audacity is also available as a portable app. In fact there are so many from things that let you read the Bible to magnify your screen - should the need arise.

The usb cable supplied is long enough to reach from the high usb ports on the front of the PC down to the desk, so that it doesnt just hang there like some of the cube types and there is no need for external power unlike some of the traditional external hard drives, as it is powered via the usb.

There is a pretty blue circle which acts as an on light, fits neatly on the palm of your hand, is quite possibly as slim as your phone, uses USB 2 and can be used without taking it out of the (extra) protective case.

Theres not really much more to say because it really is so simple to use. Plug and play, doesnt need drivers, or things installed onto the host PC and I have used it with XP and Vista.

Summary: Say goodbye to having pockets full of pen drives

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