Pack up your office files and take them home. Carry thousands of songs or pictures. Synchronize files between home and office and encrypt everything on the drive for added security. The WD My Passport Essential Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive combines a beautiful new gloss-black case that fits smoothly in your hand and pocket with mega-capacity for all your digital content. Installation is a snap because you don't really "install" this drive; you just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is no CD to install; the included software loads from the drive the first time you plug it in. WD Sync synchronization and encryption software lets you take your critical data with you. Plug My Passport into any PC, edit files, read e-mail, and view photos. Then sync all of your changes back to your home or office computer. Your data is protected with 128-bit encryption (Windows only). Search your drive, manage your photos, and simplify Web searches with included Google software (Windows only).
Average Customer Rating:
4.9 out of 5
Rating Snapshot
(20 reviews)
5 stars
19
4 stars
1
3 stars
0
2 stars
0
1 star
0
20 of 20 (100%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.
Ordering Information
Price:
$ 99.95
Status: Ships Today
Quantity:
Customer Reviews for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
FEATURED REVIEW
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Great External drive Folks
Date: August 3, 2009
Written By:
tobyjhFrom: Springfield, MO
Owned this Product for:
3-12 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible
Reviewer Images (click to see full-size image)
(Click anywhere inside this popup to close it)
Me loving my drive!
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black I've had this portable drive for half a year now and I can safely say it is the easiest way to backup your computer on the go. I've helped numerous people reformat their computers and back up with this Hard Drive. Western Digital knows what they are doing!! You just plug it in and off it goes. The capacity is a large size and can keep an incredible amount of data on it. I recommend to everyone.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
Share this Review:
Review 2 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
45
Ease of Use:
55
Inexpensive additional capacity
Date: November 5, 2009
Written By:
JayCFrom: Richmond, VA
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, high capacity, quiet, Highly Compatible
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black I've purchased six of these WD Passport drives in the last couple years from the 250GB to the 500GB. I've only had issues with one drive that may have taken a lightening surge, but still works well in a read-only capacity. The drives are very reliable over all and fairly fast. They are even cheap enough to buy a couple to use in a mirrored capacity. I highly recommend them if you need to clean up an internal drive or do some minor archiving. They are excellent choice as a backup drive for Mac's Time Machine.
Share this Review:
Review 3 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Passport 500GB
Date: November 3, 2009
Written By:
FredericFrom: PA
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Average
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, reliable
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black I had to push the cable in further than I thought I had to, which was my fault. However, after that it worked fine.
Share this Review:
Review 4 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
500 Gb My passport portable hard drive
Date: October 27, 2009
Written By:
tmlaneFrom: Cedar Rapids, IA
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Average
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black Excellent product very easy to use and set up. I would recommend
Share this Review:
Review 5 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 1000 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
1 TB in your shirt pocket
Date: October 14, 2009
Written By:
ColinHFrom: Conn.
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Good
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black If you still have shirts with pockets, then this tin little package is an amazing way to carry 1 TB around. V fast, totally silent, and runs directly from a USB 2.0 port. Can't speak highly enough of this litte, affordable gadget.
Share this Review:
Review 6 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
45
Ease of Use:
55
All but the the encryption sink!
Date: October 8, 2009
Written By:
djmcorpuzFrom: Virginia
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Good
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible Cons: no encryption
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black This product all you need to store your data, music, video and pictures. I myself have a collection of these files.
Share this Review:
Review 7 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Excellent Portable HDD with USB Power
Date: October 8, 2009
Written By:
warpedFrom: Los Angeles, CA
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black This is one of the best portable USB HDDs I've owned in the past few years. It has a mirror finish, and the supplied cord is short (not super long like other drives).
I've owned it for a week and its working great so far. Good transfer speeds (17-18Mb/s)
Share this Review:
Review 8 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
45
Performance:
45
Ease of Use:
45
Excellent Value
Date: August 26, 2009
Written By:
StorminFrom: Andover, MA
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, high capacity, quiet, reliable
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black In this day and age of everything digital, (photos,music,etc...) you MUST have a backup that has capacity, is easy to use, and portable. The WD 500GB "My Passport" USB drive fits the bill. Nothing could be easier than plug it in and copy your data. You can also use the supplied software to maintain up-to-date copies of your data in several locations. And who can beat 500GB worth of data that fits in your pocket without the need for a separate power supply. A must have.
Share this Review:
Review 9 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 500 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Surprise
Date: August 18, 2009
Written By:
TransStateFrom: Florida
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Average
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black Easiest backup drive I ever used, transferring data is the fastest ever experienced. I transferred 45 databases and 150 documents in 25 seconds.
Share this Review:
Review 10 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Passport is solid
Date: May 29, 2009
Written By:
166782From: Concord, NC
Owned this Product for:
3-12 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black Priced right and great capacity. Very easy to use and very quick for large file transfers. It's a must in the IT Industry.
Share this Review:
Review 11 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Exceeds Expectations
Date: May 5, 2009
Written By:
Dave1From: Lancaster, PA
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Good
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black I'm very impressed with the abilities of this drive, more than I expected. Easily select the data you want to maintain a backup of. Subsequent backups only need to copy what has changed since the last backup. Does Encrypted backup, or just copy to the drive like an ordinary drive. Also has private email and web browsing ability.
Share this Review:
Review 12 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
WD 500GB Hard drive
Date: April 30, 2009
Written By:
NITROFrom: Lawton, OK
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Good
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible, compact-fits in pocket
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black Excellent price for this compact hard drive. It is plug and play and easily carried in your pocket unlike the bigger Hard drives on the market. I was able to free up the hard drive space on my laptop and not have to delete the files. I don't know why I didn't buy one sooner.
Share this Review:
Review 13 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Prompt and very competitive costs
Date: April 3, 2009
Written By:
EarlyFrom: Albuquerque, NM
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Average
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, high capacity, quiet
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black When search and comparing computer equipment stores, I always included PC connection.
Share this Review:
Review 14 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 10 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Price is right
Date: March 27, 2009
Written By:
DaveDFrom: New Jersey
Owned this Product for:
1+ Years
Level of Expertise:
Good
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, fast, high capacity, quiet, reliable, Highly Compatible
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black The price for this is right. More expensive at retail locations. Ships fast. Very easy to use.
Share this Review:
Review 15 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 1000 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Great Product
Date: March 18, 2009
Written By:
AssetPrincess1From: Erie, PA
Owned this Product for:
3-12 Months
Level of Expertise:
Good
Pros: Easy to Setup/Install, easy to use, reliable
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black This is an easy to use product, and is extremely portable. There is a great Belkin case that we also purchase that allows the end user to carry two external hard drives. The price is great!
Share this Review:
Review 16 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 500 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
45
so small, yet so big
Date: March 4, 2009
Written By:
quakedrFrom: laguna niguel, ca
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: small form factor, large disk space, does not get warm
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black Great little external drive which has a lot of room for storing pictures, documents, etc. Our lab has the 320GB version, and compared to it, this 500GB hardly ever gets warm. I use this drive to store my teaching files. There is plenty of space and I don't have to worry about updating files in multiple computers I use daily (home, work1, work2...). I use my home computer to back this drive up. Not the other way around. If you get a case for it, it neatly stores the USB cable.
Share this Review:
Review 17 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Number One Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Amazing little drive
Date: March 3, 2009
Written By:
malaccaFrom: Chapel Hill, NC
Owned this Product for:
0-3 Months
Level of Expertise:
Expert
Pros: styling, size, stays cool
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black Incredible what you can get a on a little hard drive these days. I mean, 500GB? Anyways, this is a sleek little drive. Quiet and doesn't get very warm. Basically a laptop drive in an enclosure, I guess. Great for carrying a huge amount of information with you (videos, uncompressed audio, huge Photoshop files, etc). Can't think of a real complaint. Does its job.
Share this Review:
Review 18 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 10 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
Great compact product
Date: January 29, 2009
Written By:
AQ70From: PA
Pros: small and lighweight, easy to use
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black We have purchased this drive for our employees that travel extensively, and need to carry sensitive data with them. The data is encrypted and the drive is small enough to carry in their laptop bag. We also purchase a padded carrying case for the drive as well.
Share this Review:
Review 19 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
55
Ease of Use:
55
How can something so small be so good
Date: December 27, 2008
Written By:
smithj1From: Georgia
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black It is had to believe how small on the outside and large on the instide. It must be a tardis! Wonderful piece of hardware and a great price. I'm running several virtual machine from this drive and they are just a fast and reliable as my desktop machines.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
Share this Review:
Review 20 for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black
Top 100 Contributor
Overall Rating:
55
Performance:
45
Ease of Use:
25
Very convinient
Date: November 27, 2008
Written By:
KratosFrom: Baghdad, Iraq
Pros: small Cons: it took too long to get here
Reviews & Ratings for 500GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black It's small and has a lot of space to store data.