WD has revealed updates for their My Book and My Passport drives. Both products are external USB drives, with added software (WD SmartWare) that allow users to easily make backups of their important data. The updates include new casings and higher capacities.
WD My Passport
The My Passport Essentials drive uses a 2.5 inch disk, and is available in capacities of 320, 500 and 640GB. A slightly thicker (0.7 instead of 0.6 inches) My Passport Essentials SE model is available in 750GB and 1TB. The Essentials models are meant for PC users, and are bundled with WD SmartWare backup software.
For Mac users, WD provides a special WD My Passport for Mac range, which are pre-formatted for MacOS and can be used with the Time Machine software bundled with MacOS X. For those that are still on older MacOS versions without Time Machine, the WD SmartWare software is also available for Mac. For some reason Western Digital has decided Mac users need less disk space, so the “for Mac” edition is only available in 320 and 500GB sizes.
All these models use a USB 2.0 host interface, and are bus-powered, removing the need for an external power supply. And for Mac users: there doesn’t seem to be anything preventing you from buying a 1TB “PC” model and re-formatting it for use with Time Machine… Pricing for the drives ranges from $109.99 to $249.99 according to the press release, but WD’s own store has the 320GB model starting at $99.99.
WD My Book
The My Book series is the larger cousin of the My Passport, using 3.5 inch drives. These are available in capacities of 500 GB, 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. Because of the larger disks, these need a separate power adapter which makes them less suitable for mobile users. The My Book is also available in Mac and PC versions, with a MSRP between $99.99 and $249.99.
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