WD Ships "World's First" Portable 2TB HDD
Now you can cram 2 TB into your pants and honestly brag about it.
On Tuesday Western Digital said that it has shipped the "world's first" 2 TB portable hard drive, the latest addition to its My Passport line of pocket-sized HDDs. Now consumers can shove seemingly tons of on-the-go music, movies, TV shows and whatnot into their pants in five different premium colors of white, black, silver, blue and red, depending on their fancy.
The new My Passport 2 TB model costs $249.99 USD, and is available online at the WD store at www.wdstore.com and at select retailers and distributors. It joins the current 500 GB model costing $129.99 USD, the 750 GB model for $149.99 USD, the 1 TB model for $179.99 USD, and the 1.5 TB model for $199.99 USD.
According to WD, all My Passport models sport WD SmartWare automatic backup software and WD Security for password protection and hardware encryption. The included software allows the user to customize the drive to his/her storage preferences by installing all the listed features, just the components needed, or using the drive without the software.
"Given the small form factor and easy portability of My Passport drives, the built-in security features of password protection and hardware encryption help protect files from unauthorized use, making the drives safe data repositories for data while offering peace of mind to busy consumers on the go," the company said.
As seen on this spec list, the 2 TB model (WDBY8L0020BBK) is currently available only in black -- the 1.5 TB version is nowhere to be found, and the white model only comes in a 500 GB capacity. However the new 2 TB model announced on Tuesday is compatible with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, and offers a max transfer speed via USB 3.0 of 4.8 Gb/s (WD says 5 Gb/s). The actual size is 0.820 x 4.4 x 3.2-inches, and it weighs a mere 0.51 pounds.
A limited number of My Passport models, including the new 2 TB version, can be purchased directly from WD's online store here.
wow thats a bit much isnt it?
That... didn't sound right to me. xD
wow thats a bit much isnt it?
That... didn't sound right to me. xD
That is a ripoff for 2 gb if you ask me.
Its a very advanced 2gb, you don't even know...
That's basically $20 for 500GBs.
For the price of the 500GB version I would buy a 120GB SSD on sale with an external enclosures first.
Thank you drive thru!
I think there is a misconception that because these drives are "portable" that they can also be considered "rugged". But in actual fact, you will notice that most of these portable drives don't differ much from their enclosed desktop counterparts, except for size. Even some of the extra "padding" provides marginal protection at best. At the end of the day, you are carrying around a Hard Drive with the same sensitive components as any other HDD, only this time it's in your backback, on the bus, and anywhere else it might get shaken about. You might get lucky, you might not. Simple solution: don't keep your mission critical data on it, and if using it as a go-between, make sure it is synched on both ends!