Western Digital have outed a new portable hard-drive, the My Passport Studio, and like the My Book Studio before it they've slapped on a super-frugal E Ink panel to show drive status details. Available in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB capacities, the My Passport Studio has both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connections and comes ready formatted for use with a Mac.
They're also compatible with Time Machine, Apple's backup system, and WD SmartWare, Western Digital's own backup system. That allows for automatic and continuous backup programs, complete with 256-bit hardware encryption for data security.
Since the display uses E-Ink it's persistently visible despite the HDD having no internal battery; it's also user-customizable, and as well as showing capacity status it can show a drive label. The Western Digital My Passport Studio is available now, priced at $149.99 for the 320GB model, $179.99 for the 500GB and $199.99 for the 640GB.
MY PASSPORT USER MANUAL Unlocking the Drive with the WD Drive Unlock Utility Whenever you connect your password-protected drive to a computer that does not have the WD SmartWare, WD Security, or WD Drive Utilities software installed, you can use the.
Press Release:
The Western Digital My Passport Studio is a quick and affordable way to add up to a terabyte of storage to your Mac, thanks to its fast FireWire 800 port (compatible with all current Macs other. WD - My Passport for Mac 4TB External USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive with Hardware Encryption (Latest Model) - Blue. Model: WDBA2F0040BBL-WESN. User rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars with 148 reviews. (148) Price Match Guarantee. $109.99 Your price for this item is. WD My Passport Studio 500 GB FireWire 800/400 USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Silver).
WD® INTRODUCES NEW MY PASSPORT™ STUDIO™ PORTABLE DRIVES, DELIVERING SUPER-FAST, GO-ANYWHERE PERFORMANCE FOR MAC® COMPUTERS
E-Label Smart Display Helps Creative Professionals Organize Their Storage
LAKE FOREST, Calif.- Mar. 1, 2010 – WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new My Passport™ Studio™ portable drives featuring the super-fast FireWire® 800 interface and a customizable e-label that's always visible, even when the drive is unplugged. Sporting a sleek and stylish design, the new high-performance My Passport Studio drives are formatted for Mac® computers, compatible with Apple® TimeMachine® software, and feature automatic and continuous backup with WD SmartWare™ software, and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. Available now at select retailers and shopwd.com, the new My Passport Studio drives are offered in capacities of 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB.
WD's My Passport Studio drives are designed for creative professionals and Mac enthusiasts. Their production and use of many large files require the fast transfers from computer to My Passport Studio drives that FireWire 800 provides. Professionals such as photographers also benefit from the e-labeling system to effectively organize their work.
The e-label smart display on the front of the My Passport drives can be changed as often as desired using the included WD SmartWare software. Users can easily create a label to personalize their drive or remind themselves of its contents. The e-label also shows available capacity and whether the drive is locked. Utilizing e-paper technology, the information on the display remains clearly visible, even when the drive is unplugged.
According to research firm Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 GB of digital media and files which is projected to grow to over 1 TB of data by 2013.
'Many of our customers store their content on multiple external drives, making it difficult to know what content is on each drive,' said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing of WD's Branded Products group. 'The e-label smart display is an elegant and practical solution for organizing and keeping track of one's digital life and work. WD SmartWare software makes it easy for users to protect their valuable content with automatic and continuous backup and encryption.'
The new My Passport Studio is fully compatible with Apple TimeMachine software for easy backup of your most important files. It also offers the option of the simple and intuitive WD SmartWare software, with automatic continuous backup and real-time visual interface, giving users a reassuring view of their backup as it happens. After the first backup, users' files are backed up automatically every time they change or add a file.
My Passport Studio drives also feature user-selected password protection combined with 256-bit hardware-based encryption, which scrambles files before they are stored. Typically found only on much more expensive drive systems, the encryption acts as a virtual padlock to keep users' data safe.
Price and Availability
The new My Passport Studio drives are offered in capacities of 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB and have a 3-year limited warranty. My Passport Studio ultra-portable drives are available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. MSRP for the My Passport Studio drives ranges from $149.99 USD to $199.99 USD depending on capacity.
My Passport Studio
The new WD My Passport Studio ultra-portable drives feature:
Smart display – a customizable e-label that reminds users of what is stored on the drive and provides available capacity and security status at a glance even when the drive is unplugged;
FireWire 800 – users can save and access data at top speeds with the high-performance FireWire 800 interface;
Plug-and-play, designed for use with Mac computers and compatibility with Apple TimeMachine software;
WD SmartWare software that visually presents consumers' data in a software control center;
256-bit hardware-based encryption and password protection for peace of mind knowing that data is protected from unauthorized access;
USB 2.0 interface – for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers;
Planet-friendly packaging derived from recycled materials to minimize waste;
HFS+ Journaled formatting and are compatible with Mac OS X Tiger®, Leopard® and Snow Leopard®;
3-year limited warranty.
WD SmartWare Software
WD SmartWare software features:
Visual backup displays that show content in categories and shows the progress of backup;
Automatic, continuous data backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file;
Retrieve valuable data to its original location whether it's lost data or the file has been overwritten; and,
Customizable data backup that allows users to set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.
About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.
WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
by Jerry Jackson
The 'My Passport' series of external hard drives has been Western Digital's most successful line of portable external hard drives for several years. The sleek casing, solid build quality, reasonable speed and tons of storage space continue to keep these USB-powered 2.5″ 5400RPM SATA notebook hard drives popular. The all new My Passport Studio drives offer Mac users greater capacities and flexibility thanks to 320GB or 500GB storage options and the ability to connect the drive over USB, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800.
I am no stranger to external hard drives. I own a half dozen 3.5″ hard drives in external USB enclosures and 2.5″ notebook hard drives in external USB enclosures for a total of almost three terabytes of external storage. All of my external notebook drives are earlier versions of the Western Digital My Passport series. While I like the older My Passports, they are not without their flaws. Did Western Digital improve on an already popular design? Is this drive even better if you're using a new MacBook? Let's take a look.
Build and Design
In terms of the basic external shape and dimensions the My Passport Studio is is almost identical to the My Passport Elite that we reviewed earlier this year. The biggest difference is that the My Passport Studio has one mini USB port and one FireWire 800 port instead of just one mini USB port.
- Dimensions (H/L/W): 0.59″(15mm)/4.967″(126mm)/3.1″(80mm)
- Weight: 0.4 lbs/0.18 kg
- USB cable (USB-A to mini-USB) length: 11″
- FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 cable length: 11″
- Firewire 800 cable length: 11″
While the size and shape are impressive, the single design element that impressed me was the finish. Since the dimensions of the My Passport Studio are almost identical to the older Passports there wasn't much to catch my eye until I touched the new 'soft-touch' finish on the Passport Elite. A common criticism users had with the older Passports was the glossy finish was a magnet for fingerprints and made it difficult to securely hold the drive in your hand.
I've dropped my old My Passport drives several times because of the glossy finish on those drives is almost 'slippery' after some oil from your skin is applied to the surface. The matte finish on the My Passport Studio and My Passport Elite not only makes it easier to grip the drive, but it looks cleaner because it doesn't show off your fingerprints.
The enclosure is very sleek and stylish with a minimalistic design and a subtle Western Digital 'WD' logo. The bottom is likewise simple in design, with four rubberized feet like those found on earlier models. The only thing to see on the bottom of the My Passport Studio is a small white sticker containing the product information, such as the serial number, model number, and country of manufacture.
To get to the point, Western Digital continues to make some of the best looking external notebook hard drives we've seen. On one hand, it's just a rounded box, but look a little closer at the design and you might just have to call it sexy. At the time of this writing the My Passport Studio is only available in one colors (titanium) but Western Digital does offer their other My Passport series drives in multiple color choices.
One of my favorite improvements over the design of the previous My Passport series is that the small rubberized flap that opens to reveal the mini-USB port has been replaced with a sliding panel that protects the mini-USB port and FireWire 800 port while traveling. In addition, the small blue LED ring (which looks like a miniaturized version of the LED ring in the MyBook) has been replaced in favor of a series of four LED indicators that also serve as the new 'capacity gauge.'
The capacity gauge enables users to know at a glance how much space is available on the drive. The Capacity Gauge consists of four sections which illuminate left to right to indicate space used on the drive during power-on state. Each section represents approximately 25 percent of drive capacity. Because this drive is preformatted and contains software, utilities and user manuals, the first section is illuminated upon installation.
The LED indicators also serve as standard activity indicators:
| Appearance | Drive State |
| Steady | Power-on or power-save mode |
| Slow Flashing | System standby |
| Moving Left to Right | Drive in use |
Western Digital also includes three cables for connecting the My Passport Studio to either a Mac or PC.
Performance and Benchmarks
The My Passport Studio drives are available in two capacities at the time of this writing: 320GB ($199.99) and 500GB ($249.99). With the maximum capacity 500GB drive, that translates to just under 150,000 high resolution digital photos (saved as compressed JPEGs) or approximately 220 hours of DVD quality video. That might not be as impressive as a one terabyte desktop hard drive, but that's a lot of storage for a portable hard drive.
In terms of speed, the My Passport Studio delivers similar performance to other USB and FireWire external hard drives. This is where it gets interesting. Observant readers probably already know this, but Apple decided to eliminate FireWire ports from the newest MacBooks … meaning that current MacBook owners will only be able to use the My Passport Studio via the slower USB connection.
The HDTune benchmark measures the overall performance of a drive both in terms of transfer speeds (read/write), 'access time' (the amount of time spent searching for data on the disk) and CPU usage (how hard your computer has to work in order to use the drive). The HDTune benchmark indicates the My Passport Studio actually performs quite a bit faster via FireWire 400 than it does via USB 2.0. We didn't have a FireWire 800-equipped Mac in our lab during the testing period, but it's safe to assume that FireWire 800 will deliver almost twice the transfer speeds over FireWire 400.
WD My Passport Studio connected via USB 2.0:
WD My Passport Studio connected via Firewire 400:
WD My Passport Studio connected via USB 2.0:
As mentioned previously, the My Passport Studio is a completely USB-powered or FireWire-powered device, so the single 11-inch cable supplies both power and data connectivity. The power requirements for this drive are so minor that most laptops will have no problems supplying enough power via USB or FireWire. All of the notebooks I tested with the My Passport Studio were able to provide enough power while running on battery.
Western Digital
One final thing worth mentioning is that the My Passport Studio drive comes formatted in HFS+ format, meaning that Mac OS X users can start using the drive straight out of the box, but PC users will need to either re-format the drive or install special drivers (MacDrive or HFSExplorer) that allow the Windows operating system to recognize HFS+ formatted drives.
Heat and Noise
The My Passport Studio runs quiet and cool. There isn't much more to say on that note. The drive gets 'warm' after hours of serious use, but never gets hot. The average external temperature of the enclosure was 82 degrees Fahrenheit in an office with an ambient temperature of 72 degrees. In terms of noise, even when transferring files, the drive makes only the softest audible noise. Of course, when the drive isn't accessing any files it's completely silent.
Conclusion
The Western Digital My Passport Studio is a wonderful update to one of the best portable external hard drives on the market. The elegant design has been improved with a 'soft-touch' finish that makes it easy to hold and won't collect fingerprints. Mac users will benefit from the HFS+ formatting, and PCs can use this drive as well with a little extra work. The solid performance is complemented by a convenient capacity gauge and the ability to use USB, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800 … assuming your computer has one of the ports in question.
As a mobile storage solution, the Western Digital My Passport series continues to prove that it is simply one of the best.
Pros:
- Attractive enclosure … and no more fingerprints!
- Nice sliding port protector and capacity gauge/activity indicators
- Perfectly portable
- Simple to set up and use
- Solid performance
Western Digital My Passport Studio
Cons:
Wd My Passport Review
- The 500GB model is a little expensive
- HFS+ formatting means Windows users will need to reformat the drive or use special drivers
