Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
Affordable Backup for Your Laptop February 6, 2009
It is good practice to backup the files on your computer. If you are a notebook user it is even more crucial to keep a backup of your drive’s contents because they are more prone to crashing at a young age from being moved around so much.
Western Digital’s solution is the WD Passport. The Passport is a USB-powered, portable hard drive that includes backup and synchronization software and even a tool that lets you take your desktop wallpaper, email, and internet favorites, to any computer you want.
The drive has a single blue light to show the drive is plugged in and powered on, aside from that, there is just a single USB port that lies behind a small, rubber flap. The flap prevents dust from getting into the USB port when the drive is not in use.
A USB cable is included, but it’s short (about seven inches or so). There have been a few occurrences, when plugging into a desktop computer where a longer cable would have come in handy. We feel that the short cable is ideal for laptop usage and prefer it over the unnecessarily long cables found with other USB drives.
Software Bundle
Every backup drive needs backup software, and WD’s solution is named WD Sync. The software lets you sync folders between your computer and the drive, so you always have a backup on the drive in case something happens to your PC’s hard drive. It also lets you bring your web browser’s bookmarks, and Outlook email, to any PC, and you can even have your desktop wallpaper on whatever computer you connect to as well.
In addition to the features just mentioned, the WD Passport also lets you initiate a “secure” browsing environment on whatever computer you plug it into, so you could theoretically plug it into a coffee shop PC, surf the net, and then disconnect, and nobody would know what you did (except your conscience).
Conclusion
The WD Passport is an excellent product. We love being able to have our bookmarks and files synced all the time, and to be able to essentially take “our PC” with us to any computer. The Passport provides a large amount of storage capacity in a very small, slim, sexy glossy case and works well with both Macs and PCs. We have referred many clients to this product and have received no complaints in return.
Purchase a Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive