Western Digital My Passport SSD
The WD My Passport SSD is a portable drive from the My Passport series, released August 2020 in capacities from 500GB to 4TB. The smaller sizes come in five colours, and it's tiny at just 46g.
Hard drives and external storage, from portable to NAS drives.
The WD My Passport SSD is a portable drive from the My Passport series, released August 2020 in capacities from 500GB to 4TB. The smaller sizes come in five colours, and it's tiny at just 46g.
After dismantling my slow USB 2.0 Western Digital enclosures to reuse the bare drives at faster speeds, I needed somewhere safe to store them. To my surprise, dedicated hard-shell HDD storage cases exist for exactly this purpose.
WD Red was always my go-to NAS drive, but my four WD Red 3TBs in a DS918+ were a nightmare, all RMA'd, some twice. Chalking it up to luck, I switched to Seagate IronWolf drives for my DS220j.
WD's 2TB Gaming Drive for PlayStation 4 was on sale for US$59.99 during Black Friday 2019 on Amazon.com. Lazada listed it pricier at S$139, so I checked Amazon.sg and, to my surprise, found the same offer.
The Western Digital My Passport Wireless, WD's first wireless storage drive, launched in Singapore on 29th October 2014. It comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB, though only the 1TB and 2TB are sold here, at S$299 and S$399 respectively.
WD makes the best hard drives and Synology the best NAS. I run two Synology units at home with WD drives: a DS210j on two WD Green 1TB since 2010, and a DS413j on four WD Red 1TB since 2013.
Launched on 8th April 2014, the USB 3.0 Seagate Backup Plus Fast Portable Drive is a 4TB hard drive delivering transfer speeds up to 220MB/s. Weighing 307g, it retails for S$449, offered only in black.
The USB 3.0 Western Digital My Passport Air is the best-looking portable hard disk to complement your MacBook Air or Pro. It comes in two capacities, 500GB at S$129 and 1TB at S$219, in an anodised aluminium enclosure weighing 160g.
Launched on 8th April 2014, the USB 3.0 Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB, in four colours, Blue, Black, Red, and Silver, working on both PC and Mac. Prices start at S$89 for 500GB.
Western Digital announced the My Passport Pro on 31st March 2014, the first portable, Thunderbolt-powered dual-drive with an integrated Thunderbolt cable. Thunderbolt powers it directly, so no separate power source is needed. Built for Mac, it ships pre-formatted with HFS+.
The WD My Cloud lets you store files and media on your personal cloud rather than relying on third-party services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. The 2TB sells for S$239, the 3TB for S$289, and the 4TB for S$399.
On 17th October 2013, Western Digital launched the new My Passport Slim. It's the first thin drive to offer up to 2TB, a metal enclosure, and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. The bundled WD SmartWare Pro software backs up your data.
I'm a huge fan of WD Red hard drives, running four of them in my Synology DiskStation DS413j with no trouble. WD Red drives are designed and tested for 24/7 operation and the demanding needs of home and small-office NAS.
Western Digital announced the My Passport Ultra in May 2013, essentially a premium version of the popular My Passport. Available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB, it comes preloaded with WD SmartWare Pro backup software, Dropbox integration, and hardware encryption.
The Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo (8TB) retails for S$1,199, steep for an external drive. Its dual Thunderbolt ports let you daisy-chain up to six Duo drives, totalling 48TB, or other devices like monitors, media players, and editing gear.
I'm proud that Singapore made the tech news last week with the world's thinnest 2.5-inch hybrid hard drive. Just 5mm thick, it stores 1TB of regular HDD plus 32GB of SSD. The challenge was shrinking the 7mm drive by 30%.
Li Xiang got the Western Digital My Passport (1TB) from Challenger for S$189, or S$159 with member's price. In this new 2012 edition, WD has dropped the 'Essential SE' name, so it's simply My Passport, with USB 3.0 now standard.
I bought the Vantec NexStar SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter from Challenger for S$59.90, or S$53.91 with member's price. As the name suggests, it converts an internal SATA or PATA drive to USB 3.0 for plug-and-play access.
My second hoot from SITEX 2010 is the A.C. Ryan Playon! HD at S$349, bundled with a 2TB drive and a free Wireless N dongle. I chose it because it plays nearly every format, including RM and RMVB.
Hooted the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB with USB 3.0 from SITEX 2010 for S$189.90, down from S$209.90. It's my first USB 3.0 device despite owning no computer that supports it yet, purely for future-proofing.
While I was in Vietnam over the weekend, my brother kindly grabbed the Western Digital Elements Desktop 1TB drive from Bizgram's stall at Comex 2010. I'll use it for Time Machine backups of my MacBook Pro, alongside their portable range.
When I posted photos from Iomega's first blogging event, many assumed Iomega was dead after the Zip drive lost out to USB flash drives. In fact EMC, a Fortune 500 data-storage giant, bought them for US$213 million, so they're back.