Western Digital 60 GB Passport 2.0" External Hard Drive

Although sold for the Macintosh, this drive apparently requires too much power to be driven by a Powerbook USB port. It works on desktops, but failed to mount on two different (15" aluminum) Powerbooks. The manufacturers position is that if it doesn't work, you should buy an external power source which must plug into the wall

This is a very sleek and handy external hard disk. The data transfer rate is really fast.

The drive has been a good companion since I bought it and has not showed much problems. Sometimes it takes a little delay to get recognised after I connect it to my dell notebook.
Data transfer is speed is excellent.

I was looking for a portable HDD and amazon had it at a gud price.. Would recommend this HDD. Slim, portable, fast speed.

Works fine, no problems. Easy to use, never needed AC adapter, USB port power is fine.

It does not come with a case, which would have been useful.

This is a great product. Simple to use, just plug it in, easy to throw in a briefcase and a large storage capacity.

I had to take away one star for the packaging. I almost lost a limb trying to open the plastic and get at the thing. It took me over 10 minutes to pry/cut it open. Worth it in the end, but a hassle.

I recommend the product, just get your chainsaw ready to open it.

I chose the WD external hard drive even though it was a little more pricey than some of the others. It runs beautifully on my Dell laptop on just the power supplied by the USB port.

Both the solid feel of the enclosure and the fast transfer speed make it a great addition to my laptop bag.

The drive is compact. However the price little bit high compare to simillar product.

Extremely quiet, portable and no power cables involved. It is also quite sturdy. Add an MP3 playback feature and that will be the end of iPods :)

The Western Digital porable USB drive is great! Small and compact, yet fully functional and fast!

I've had this drive for more than 2 months, and have found it pretty useful. The capacity is good, much better than the 1GB you can get in flash drives. I've found it to work effortlessly with an IBM thinpad, a Dell Latitiude and Windows dekstops. However, other reviewwers seem to have encountered problems using this drive with Macs/Powerbooks - bear that in midn if you own one.

* The transfer is pretty fast - I record 10MBps on average atleast.
* However, I would've liked if estern Digital had provided a small case of some sort so I could carry this around more eaily. The drive itself is enclosed in a cushion on all sides, but it's not rugged enough to be carried by itself. That's my only complaint.

A good buy otherwise, and I'd very much recommend it if you aren't looking for something to carry with you extensively.

No doubt about its look and performance. Just fantastic

WD 60GB Passport 2.5 External does not work with PowerBook G4 by Macintosh.
The PowerBook G4 computer will not recognize this product so Passport cannot function as an external drive or to download data.

Data transfer rate is very fast, except its big little bit.
It will be better if its still smaller in size.
But overall performance of the product is good.

I'll have to agree the drive is easy to setup and use, however, you'll have to get used to the noise. There is no ON OFF funtion, no SLEEP mode. The drive has to be turned off, and unplugged each time it's used. WD has a sleep utility for download but it doesn't function, with my system.

The spinning noise is annoying and to make matters worse the spinning causes a noise viration or humming noise on my wood desk. Double trouble. If noise isn't an issue the drive works as advertised.


Great Drive but I had to buy an external power source so that it would work with my Dell D600. Just to be on the safe side, I would budget in buying an external plug. They say it doesn't need it but that wasn't true for me.

If I was to write a review a month ago I'd have give n 5 stars.. but we had a power cut at home and when it came back on, the drive was no longer working.
I had it full of music and video that I'd spent a lot of money on and it's all gone.
I went to go see if I could contact WD but fat chance.. the website won't give you any way to contact the company and for data retrieval, they refer you to VERY expensive companies for the service.
I was told it was gonna be $400-$3000 to retrieve my data...

My advice:
Stay away from this product. Stay away from Western Digital and just buy some DVD/CD and keep your files backed up on disc instead!!

This has been a rather nasty experience for me.

The box is not the shirt pocket size of the Apricorn, but most important, the drive measures up to the WD reputation of reliability.

I purchased one of these WD 60 GB external drives several weeks ago for use in transferring data from one PC to another. The drive has been performing quite well so far. The read and write transfer speeds between this 60 GB external drive and the drives in my PC's are very fast and quite impressive especially compared to flash cards with readers. I use the drive between a laptop and a desktop PC. The drive works well with both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 connections. I have a USB 1.1 port on my Toshiba laptop and a USB 2.0 port on my desktop PC. The drive works without external power when connected to either PC. I have found that I have to be extra careful with this drive when it is in use - especially with my laptop. Unlike a flash card in a reader, this drive uses a true mechanical hard drive inside the portable case and therefore is much more subject to damage due to handling and movement while the heads are reading or writing to the disk inside the drive's case. Please be careful to not bump or move the drive around when it's in operation. This is one of 2 reasons I gave the drive 4 stars instead of 5. The second reason is that the drive has a slight vibration when it is running although it is very quiet. The vibration may or may not be an issue, however, vibration could also indicate that the moving parts in the drive are slightly out of balance and this could ultimately shorten the unit's overall life by putting extra strain on bearing surfaces. I would not recommend using a portable drive like this for long term storage of important files or data because of easy theft and because of a higher risk of damage due to shock from bumps and motion while the unit is running. It would however, be a great way to transfer large amounts of data or files from one PC to another.

The backup works flawlessly so far. It's speedy and easy to hook up. I would have given it a 5 star if the handling is better. I honestly cannot believe how any engineer would design edges that are so slippery to handle. Every time I try to hold it, the shinny and tilted edges would cause it to slip away from my hand and bump on the table. I'm extremely worry that it would damage the drive soon. I tried putting tape on the edges, which actually made them harder to slip. Finally, I found that by turning the drive over, i.e. putting the top down as bottom, the problem went away. Western Digital should fire the engineer who designed this stupid thing.

I will be honest with my review here: First I want to explain that all things are not the same to everyone. I think, if you have the right equipement to be able to shake hands with each other flawlesly, YOU have a System! It is good to do your research beforehand to make sure this is the right thing for you.

For me, this is the right external drive. I can run the drive on my PC or my Compaq laptop with no problem at all, and just love it. It's transfer rate speed is pretty fast for what I do. And the fact I don't have to use a power suply, is a plus. I don't find the desing of the case to be of any incovenience to how I can handle it. In fact, it lends itself to a nice ergonomical design. You just have to be careful not to abuse its intent. I am able to transfer 1/2 Gig in just a few seconds. Contrary to any miniscule negativism in others' reviews, I strongly recommend it! I would buy it again! By the way, I am not affiliated with any of the companies promoting this drive in any way or form. LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I've had this drive for about a month and so far it's been a perfect companion for my Mac G4 iBook. Unlike a 20 GB drive I had been using, this drive requires just a single USB port for power, which leaves my other port open for other devices. I am using this drive pretty much exclusively for music and a small portion for photos and it is plenty fast enough. I transferred the entire contents of my 20 GB drive to it in a little more than 15 minutes. Contrary to some other reviews mine is completely silent and I like the ergonomic design. It fits nicely on the corner of a TV tray I use my laptop on in the living room and the rubberized edges make it easy to hold on to. The blue "on" light is bright enough to let you know it's on but not so bright as to be annoying. If this drive holds up as well as it feels like it will (it feels quite solid) I will be very pleased with it.

I recently bought this (3 days ago) to back up all the files on my school-loaned laptop, an iBook G4. No setup involved, I just plugged it in, and dragged and dropped. I had filled my laptop to less than 800 MB left, and I tend to be a big GB hog, i.e. whatever I found on my computer that I didn't need, I deleted. I practically drooled when i saw how quickly it transported my music, less than 20 minutes for over 12 gigs. I then moved onto my old Dell desktop, and again, had less than 850 MB of free space left (It's disgusting, I know). The drive QUICKLY and QUIETLY handled everything I threw at it, though it seemed to work a little slower on the Dell than the Mac. I was a little worried about loading it up so quickly, for fear of overworking it, but this little drive came through and worked to the maximum.

I honestly wish I could get another one of these drives, it works so seamlessly with the computers I have. There is a tiny hint of vibration, which I don't mind, but there is no noise, unless you place your ear right next to it, and you'll hear a slight hum.
Highly recommended.

For a number of years now I have used a Western Digital external drive to store files and music for use both at work and at home. My original drive was a 30 gig with firewire connections. After many years of service, the drive started making noises and subsequently failed. I ran out and replaced it with a brand new 60 gig Passport drive, which I was absolutely thrilled with for two months. Then I plugged it into my PC one morning and it just didn't work. It didn't work with any computer I plugged it into. The drive was spinning, you could feel it humming away, but the machine no longer recognized it... The computer found new hardware and then asked for drivers for a "Cypress AT2LP RC42". I've run a search on this and it seems that Cypress manufactures either the drive enclosures (the case) or possibly the board that interfaces the USB port to the drive. I searched Western Digital's Knowledge Base to no avail, there's nothing in the help forums on the Western Digital site, but there are lots of folks complaining about this problem on various "technology" sites across the internet (this IS NOT unique to Western Digital). I sent Western Digital a message using their help form, and they have never responded. Others with the same problem say that they gladly offer to replace the drive, but I've got over 9 gigs of files on it that I can't reach. WD says they're not responsible for lost data... sorry! You can pay hundreds of dollars to one of their "partner" data recovery services, but they don't cover the costs of data recovery. I ended up having to tear the drive out of the original enclosure and buy a new enclosure ($30.00) to get my drive running again.

I understand this does not have anything to do with the durability of the drive, but Western Digital should support the work done by their sub-contractors. The customer service I (didn't) recieve from Western Digital was totally lacking. And even after years of buying ONLY WD hard drives, I would be wary of purchasing another Western Digital product after this experience.

This Drive performed superbly for a few weeks, then upon plugging into the USB port the computer would begin to ask for a driver; specifically a driver for "cypress AT2Lp RC42" which of course does not exist. The manufacturer was unable to help but agreed to replace the item. Not so bad?? Well data recovery costs about $400-500 on this type of drive, that is if data recovery is at all possible. I'm not sure if this is specific to this brand, but beware Western Digital's customer service isn't really much of a service.

I had to use it to restore some files I had backed up on it. About 5% of the files were corrupted. I lost valuable photos and documents.

Thank you Western Digital for the crappy product.

Before you buy this drive, be sure to Google "Cypress AT2LP RC42" and "western digital".

Until yesterday, I recommended this drive to everyone. Then my drive failed, prompting me for new hardware and to install a driver for Cypress AT2LP RC42. It appears that there is a chip in the drive housing manufactured by Cypress that is failing in drives left and right. (Class action suit anyone?)

The Western Digital support staff is no help. Act like they have never heard of this error. Offer no option to just switch out the housing. Will replace drive- but you lose all the data. There are $30 replacement housings available - but you void your warranty.

Bottom line - if you buy this drive, be prepared for it to fail. Keep everything backed up, because there will come a day that this drive will fail.


I've been extremely happy with the WD 60GB drive. It's a smidge larger than I wanted, but it's performance and reliability have been great over the 3 months I've owned it.



My hard drive crashed after 5 months and only a handful of uses due to a USB power surge. I've learned later that the power adapter is pretty much needed even though they don't tell you that. Anyway, in addition to the crash, Western Digital refused to replace my hard drive. They said the warranty expired because it was sold to Amazon (who I purchased it from) over a year ago. After my explanation and faxing in of the receipt they still didn't accept my warranty. It was also horrible to get through to support. I will definitely not buy Western Digital products again. LaCie here I come!!!

It doesn't recognize the drive. Wish I hadn't bought it until reading the posts. Buyer beware.

I, too, was one of those struck by the "Cypress AT2LP RC42" bad enclosure. Basically, everything worked fine for the first few months until the day my computer didn't recognize the drive anymore, prompting me to find a driver for the forementioned Cypress. There is no driver for it. The "Cypress AT2LP RC42" is the enclosure that houses the drive; an enclosure is basically the 'box' that provides the interface between drive and computer.

I contacted Western Digital and, while they had lots of flowery language, did absolutely NOTHING for me. Sure, they offered to replace the drive but wouldn't do a thing for the data except give me a list of companies to contact for data recovery. Do you know how expensive data recovery is? It's painful. You could buy a drive or three with the same money you'd use to recover your data from WD's piece of junk.

So, after doing some research on Google and seeing the hundreds if not thousands (or more) of problems with this enclosure (and it's not limited to Western Digital drives), I tried to reprogram the enclosure but that didn't work. I ended up spending $25 on a new enclosure, broke open the WD case, placed the drive in the new enclosure and was able to recover my data (which I promptly copied to my Lacie external drive). My warranty, by my actions, is now voided but I don't care... after this first round of 'service' should I rely upon them to help me in the future? I don't think so.

I would actively recommend you NOT to buy this drive, nor anything else from Western Digital, after my experience with their product and lack of service. I won't buy anything from them ever again, nor will my company. And, I will post stuff like this so hopefully someone else won't go through what I (and MANY others) have.

I hope someone pursues a class action suit against Western Digital and/or Cypress for their faulty product. I will gladly join. It's one thing if a drive now and then goes bad for some reason... when hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands (?) do... and the company does nothing about their obviously flawed product, I would think a lawsuit in order.

In the meantime, I am looking for a Maxor drive to use as my 'normal' backup.

When I work from home, the applications I use have to pull in files from a server drive in Harrisburg, PA. This can take over an hour sometimes. Now I just download the files over the LAN from the server to my portable disk before I leave the office and wala, I can access my files instantly...Harrisburg in a box. Of course, I have to fake out the applications by setting my portable drive letter to the shared drive letter.

This pocket drive saved my [...] when I had to send in my laptop in for repairs. My laptop was gone for almost half of the first college semester, but I borrowed a different laptop and ran everything off the pocket drive. When my laptop finally got back, it was effortless to plug in the pocket drive, and to bring my laptop up to date. It also works fantastic to back up all my notes and music so that everything is in one place (unlike on multiple CD's), and so that I don't wear out the CD burner (which is why I had to send my laptop in!). It's also really great for keeping all my home pictures and video, to save space on my laptop. . . and I can just plug the drive into friends or family's computers and show them pictures & video, or to do work. I have had no problems with it, and I was really impressed at the speed that it saved all my iTunes music at. All-in-all, it's a great investment, and I love it! (I own an HP Pavilion dv1000, and used it on an ancient Sony VIO. I did encounter the problem where it didn't work on my mom's G4 powerbook (mac), but it did work on her larger mac desk-top) I just hope non of those problems other people are talking about happen to me (which is why only 4 stars!)


I just wanted to confirm that the power supply is necessary for many computers, especially laptops. If I wanted to use a power supply, I can get a bigger external HDD for the same price (so I did). Note that my 80gb iPod works great on my laptop - so its not impossible for a large-ish HDD to be powered from my USB ports.

Almost EVERYONE should be concerned with this. Why? Well, if it works on your computer that is great. But if you ever need information off the drive when your computer crashes, you run the risk of not having one nearby that works (or that it works on your new computer). Second, if you want to transfer some files to a friend's computer, it may not work.

WD should just ship every unit with the power supply, or solve the problem so that no one needs it.


Never had any problems with this device. The USB connection makes it easy to connect and disconnect from the computer.

I had high hopes for this drive. It was said to be compatible with MAC and PC.
The MAC OS X recognized the WD but it never functioned.
THe PC recognized it but speed was very slow.

I had this drive for about 6-9 months before the stupid thing gave out on me. In my opinion, this should have lasted well over 2 years to be a worthwhile investment. The drive got corrupted from normal wear and tear. I recommend going with either another drive or preferably another company altogether. I no longer trust WD's quality.

I bought the hard drive in the month of September and has been using it to back up my stuff from my school's account. It has proven to be a handy device that can be carried around without fuss. It is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and it does not stand in the way. Copying to and retrieving the data from it is fast while using with a PC. However, I had difficulty in using it with a MAC powerbook after a while when the hard disk was about 2/3 full. I did not have any problem using it initially with a powerbook. Even so, there is no issue at all while it is used with a MAC G5 Towertop.

I love this device. I was going to get a large size USB, but I need more space to move files or keep them backed up. This Passport is great. I can back up all of "my documents folder" so that incase my PC dies, I'm covered. Plus I take hundreds of digital photos and if my drive fails, all my photos are gone. with the passport I'm protected. its a bit slow on the transfer rate, but the ability to hold them in such a small compact drive it great. Also, it needs no power other than the usb, so its very simple to use. As for some of the features the software brings. I had trouble loading it, and I have not had a chance to re-try loading it, I just back up complete items instead of using the sync. function that will only back up the new stuff.

Good device / Very portable / Include a good and optimized way to make back up

This seemed like a nice drive when I bought it. Compact, quiet, no external power brick required. And although I only used it a handful of times, it always worked fine. But now, after about 6 months, it no longer shows up in Windows after I plug it in. It makes repeated periodic clicking noises, so I'm guessing the hard drive has failed. But WD's website is quite useless for troubleshooting. And I tried to send them an email through their support system, but their system is so confusing I'm not sure if it worked or not. They have a support number, but will charge for the service. And do I really want to spend 20 dollars for them to tell me to send in the drive, so that they can diagnose and repair it? Upfront costs, + shipping, +diagnosis, + repair, = more than I paid for it in the first place. I don't expect any company to stand behind their products forever, but I would like to get more than half a years life out of a "backup" hard drive.

I bought this after the hard drive in my laptop crashed and I almost lost everything! Now I use this external and 1 or 2 times a week I sync it with my laptop just in case! It could not have been easier to use. I just plugged it in, hit the key and bam, it did it's thing!
I recommend this to anyone who has a laptop, and please don't suffer from the "it cannot happen to me", cuz it can......

I purchased this drive a little over a month ago. It worked fine until a couple of days ago. I plugged it in and then nothing. My laptop (and another computer I tried it on) won't recognize/read the drive. I wrote WD tech services and didn't receive a reply in the 1-2 business days as promised on the site. I called WD customer service and the only solution they offered me is drive replacement. I saved over 60GB of information (including many important files that I cannot replace) on this drive, with full confidence that it would last me at least a couple of years. I contacted the data recovery partners WD has on their site and was quoted $500-$3500 to recover my data. If I could afford that, I would have purchased a more expensive hard drive in the first place. Now my only option according to WD customer service is to accept a replacement drive and lose all of my data. I am completely dissatisfied with this solution. I don't understand why they won't check to see if the drive can be repaired, especially when they say on their site that many of the drives they receive for replacement are not defective and could have been repaired with a simple solution. I don't recommend buying this product!

I RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE who needs a disk drive for backups. I built my own backup disk a number of years ago using spare parts and it finally quit. This is exactly what I needed. I plugged it in and it works perfectly. I use it for my system backups using Microsoft OneCare. Also, read the manual before you do anything. It explains some of the features that have been critized in previous reviews.

I RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE who needs a disk drive for backups. I built my own backup disk a number of years ago using spare parts and it finally quit. This is exactly what I needed. I plugged it in and it works perfectly. I use it for my system backups using Microsoft OneCare. Also, read the manual before you do anything. It explains some of the features that have been critized in previous reviews.

I bought this after the hard drive in my laptop crashed and I almost lost everything! Now I use this external and 1 or 2 times a week I sync it with my laptop just in case! It could not have been easier to use. I just plugged it in, hit the key and bam, it did it's thing!
I recommend this to anyone who has a laptop, and please don't suffer from the "it cannot happen to me", cuz it can......

I purchased this drive a little over a month ago. It worked fine until a couple of days ago. I plugged it in and then nothing. My laptop (and another computer I tried it on) won't recognize/read the drive. I wrote WD tech services and didn't receive a reply in the 1-2 business days as promised on the site. I called WD customer service and the only solution they offered me is drive replacement. I saved over 60GB of information (including many important files that I cannot replace) on this drive, with full confidence that it would last me at least a couple of years. I contacted the data recovery partners WD has on their site and was quoted $500-$3500 to recover my data. If I could afford that, I would have purchased a more expensive hard drive in the first place. Now my only option according to WD customer service is to accept a replacement drive and lose all of my data. I am completely dissatisfied with this solution. I don't understand why they won't check to see if the drive can be repaired, especially when they say on their site that many of the drives they receive for replacement are not defective and could have been repaired with a simple solution. I don't recommend buying this product!

This seemed like a nice drive when I bought it. Compact, quiet, no external power brick required. And although I only used it a handful of times, it always worked fine. But now, after about 6 months, it no longer shows up in Windows after I plug it in. It makes repeated periodic clicking noises, so I'm guessing the hard drive has failed. But WD's website is quite useless for troubleshooting. And I tried to send them an email through their support system, but their system is so confusing I'm not sure if it worked or not. They have a support number, but will charge for the service. And do I really want to spend 20 dollars for them to tell me to send in the drive, so that they can diagnose and repair it? Upfront costs, + shipping, +diagnosis, + repair, = more than I paid for it in the first place. I don't expect any company to stand behind their products forever, but I would like to get more than half a years life out of a "backup" hard drive.

Good device / Very portable / Include a good and optimized way to make back up

I love this device. I was going to get a large size USB, but I need more space to move files or keep them backed up. This Passport is great. I can back up all of "my documents folder" so that incase my PC dies, I'm covered. Plus I take hundreds of digital photos and if my drive fails, all my photos are gone. with the passport I'm protected. its a bit slow on the transfer rate, but the ability to hold them in such a small compact drive it great. Also, it needs no power other than the usb, so its very simple to use. As for some of the features the software brings. I had trouble loading it, and I have not had a chance to re-try loading it, I just back up complete items instead of using the sync. function that will only back up the new stuff.

I had this drive for about 6-9 months before the stupid thing gave out on me. In my opinion, this should have lasted well over 2 years to be a worthwhile investment. The drive got corrupted from normal wear and tear. I recommend going with either another drive or preferably another company altogether. I no longer trust WD's quality.

I bought the hard drive in the month of September and has been using it to back up my stuff from my school's account. It has proven to be a handy device that can be carried around without fuss. It is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and it does not stand in the way. Copying to and retrieving the data from it is fast while using with a PC. However, I had difficulty in using it with a MAC powerbook after a while when the hard disk was about 2/3 full. I did not have any problem using it initially with a powerbook. Even so, there is no issue at all while it is used with a MAC G5 Towertop.

I had high hopes for this drive. It was said to be compatible with MAC and PC.
The MAC OS X recognized the WD but it never functioned.
THe PC recognized it but speed was very slow.

Never had any problems with this device. The USB connection makes it easy to connect and disconnect from the computer.

I just wanted to confirm that the power supply is necessary for many computers, especially laptops. If I wanted to use a power supply, I can get a bigger external HDD for the same price (so I did). Note that my 80gb iPod works great on my laptop - so its not impossible for a large-ish HDD to be powered from my USB ports.

Almost EVERYONE should be concerned with this. Why? Well, if it works on your computer that is great. But if you ever need information off the drive when your computer crashes, you run the risk of not having one nearby that works (or that it works on your new computer). Second, if you want to transfer some files to a friend's computer, it may not work.

WD should just ship every unit with the power supply, or solve the problem so that no one needs it.


This pocket drive saved my [...] when I had to send in my laptop in for repairs. My laptop was gone for almost half of the first college semester, but I borrowed a different laptop and ran everything off the pocket drive. When my laptop finally got back, it was effortless to plug in the pocket drive, and to bring my laptop up to date. It also works fantastic to back up all my notes and music so that everything is in one place (unlike on multiple CD's), and so that I don't wear out the CD burner (which is why I had to send my laptop in!). It's also really great for keeping all my home pictures and video, to save space on my laptop. . . and I can just plug the drive into friends or family's computers and show them pictures & video, or to do work. I have had no problems with it, and I was really impressed at the speed that it saved all my iTunes music at. All-in-all, it's a great investment, and I love it! (I own an HP Pavilion dv1000, and used it on an ancient Sony VIO. I did encounter the problem where it didn't work on my mom's G4 powerbook (mac), but it did work on her larger mac desk-top) I just hope non of those problems other people are talking about happen to me (which is why only 4 stars!)


When I work from home, the applications I use have to pull in files from a server drive in Harrisburg, PA. This can take over an hour sometimes. Now I just download the files over the LAN from the server to my portable disk before I leave the office and wala, I can access my files instantly...Harrisburg in a box. Of course, I have to fake out the applications by setting my portable drive letter to the shared drive letter.

I've been extremely happy with the WD 60GB drive. It's a smidge larger than I wanted, but it's performance and reliability have been great over the 3 months I've owned it.



My hard drive crashed after 5 months and only a handful of uses due to a USB power surge. I've learned later that the power adapter is pretty much needed even though they don't tell you that. Anyway, in addition to the crash, Western Digital refused to replace my hard drive. They said the warranty expired because it was sold to Amazon (who I purchased it from) over a year ago. After my explanation and faxing in of the receipt they still didn't accept my warranty. It was also horrible to get through to support. I will definitely not buy Western Digital products again. LaCie here I come!!!

It doesn't recognize the drive. Wish I hadn't bought it until reading the posts. Buyer beware.

I, too, was one of those struck by the "Cypress AT2LP RC42" bad enclosure. Basically, everything worked fine for the first few months until the day my computer didn't recognize the drive anymore, prompting me to find a driver for the forementioned Cypress. There is no driver for it. The "Cypress AT2LP RC42" is the enclosure that houses the drive; an enclosure is basically the 'box' that provides the interface between drive and computer.

I contacted Western Digital and, while they had lots of flowery language, did absolutely NOTHING for me. Sure, they offered to replace the drive but wouldn't do a thing for the data except give me a list of companies to contact for data recovery. Do you know how expensive data recovery is? It's painful. You could buy a drive or three with the same money you'd use to recover your data from WD's piece of junk.

So, after doing some research on Google and seeing the hundreds if not thousands (or more) of problems with this enclosure (and it's not limited to Western Digital drives), I tried to reprogram the enclosure but that didn't work. I ended up spending $25 on a new enclosure, broke open the WD case, placed the drive in the new enclosure and was able to recover my data (which I promptly copied to my Lacie external drive). My warranty, by my actions, is now voided but I don't care... after this first round of 'service' should I rely upon them to help me in the future? I don't think so.

I would actively recommend you NOT to buy this drive, nor anything else from Western Digital, after my experience with their product and lack of service. I won't buy anything from them ever again, nor will my company. And, I will post stuff like this so hopefully someone else won't go through what I (and MANY others) have.

I hope someone pursues a class action suit against Western Digital and/or Cypress for their faulty product. I will gladly join. It's one thing if a drive now and then goes bad for some reason... when hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands (?) do... and the company does nothing about their obviously flawed product, I would think a lawsuit in order.

In the meantime, I am looking for a Maxor drive to use as my 'normal' backup.

I had to use it to restore some files I had backed up on it. About 5% of the files were corrupted. I lost valuable photos and documents.

Thank you Western Digital for the crappy product.

Before you buy this drive, be sure to Google "Cypress AT2LP RC42" and "western digital".

Until yesterday, I recommended this drive to everyone. Then my drive failed, prompting me for new hardware and to install a driver for Cypress AT2LP RC42. It appears that there is a chip in the drive housing manufactured by Cypress that is failing in drives left and right. (Class action suit anyone?)

The Western Digital support staff is no help. Act like they have never heard of this error. Offer no option to just switch out the housing. Will replace drive- but you lose all the data. There are $30 replacement housings available - but you void your warranty.

Bottom line - if you buy this drive, be prepared for it to fail. Keep everything backed up, because there will come a day that this drive will fail.


This Drive performed superbly for a few weeks, then upon plugging into the USB port the computer would begin to ask for a driver; specifically a driver for "cypress AT2Lp RC42" which of course does not exist. The manufacturer was unable to help but agreed to replace the item. Not so bad?? Well data recovery costs about $400-500 on this type of drive, that is if data recovery is at all possible. I'm not sure if this is specific to this brand, but beware Western Digital's customer service isn't really much of a service.

For a number of years now I have used a Western Digital external drive to store files and music for use both at work and at home. My original drive was a 30 gig with firewire connections. After many years of service, the drive started making noises and subsequently failed. I ran out and replaced it with a brand new 60 gig Passport drive, which I was absolutely thrilled with for two months. Then I plugged it into my PC one morning and it just didn't work. It didn't work with any computer I plugged it into. The drive was spinning, you could feel it humming away, but the machine no longer recognized it... The computer found new hardware and then asked for drivers for a "Cypress AT2LP RC42". I've run a search on this and it seems that Cypress manufactures either the drive enclosures (the case) or possibly the board that interfaces the USB port to the drive. I searched Western Digital's Knowledge Base to no avail, there's nothing in the help forums on the Western Digital site, but there are lots of folks complaining about this problem on various "technology" sites across the internet (this IS NOT unique to Western Digital). I sent Western Digital a message using their help form, and they have never responded. Others with the same problem say that they gladly offer to replace the drive, but I've got over 9 gigs of files on it that I can't reach. WD says they're not responsible for lost data... sorry! You can pay hundreds of dollars to one of their "partner" data recovery services, but they don't cover the costs of data recovery. I ended up having to tear the drive out of the original enclosure and buy a new enclosure ($30.00) to get my drive running again.

I understand this does not have anything to do with the durability of the drive, but Western Digital should support the work done by their sub-contractors. The customer service I (didn't) recieve from Western Digital was totally lacking. And even after years of buying ONLY WD hard drives, I would be wary of purchasing another Western Digital product after this experience.

I recently bought this (3 days ago) to back up all the files on my school-loaned laptop, an iBook G4. No setup involved, I just plugged it in, and dragged and dropped. I had filled my laptop to less than 800 MB left, and I tend to be a big GB hog, i.e. whatever I found on my computer that I didn't need, I deleted. I practically drooled when i saw how quickly it transported my music, less than 20 minutes for over 12 gigs. I then moved onto my old Dell desktop, and again, had less than 850 MB of free space left (It's disgusting, I know). The drive QUICKLY and QUIETLY handled everything I threw at it, though it seemed to work a little slower on the Dell than the Mac. I was a little worried about loading it up so quickly, for fear of overworking it, but this little drive came through and worked to the maximum.

I honestly wish I could get another one of these drives, it works so seamlessly with the computers I have. There is a tiny hint of vibration, which I don't mind, but there is no noise, unless you place your ear right next to it, and you'll hear a slight hum.
Highly recommended.

I've had this drive for about a month and so far it's been a perfect companion for my Mac G4 iBook. Unlike a 20 GB drive I had been using, this drive requires just a single USB port for power, which leaves my other port open for other devices. I am using this drive pretty much exclusively for music and a small portion for photos and it is plenty fast enough. I transferred the entire contents of my 20 GB drive to it in a little more than 15 minutes. Contrary to some other reviews mine is completely silent and I like the ergonomic design. It fits nicely on the corner of a TV tray I use my laptop on in the living room and the rubberized edges make it easy to hold on to. The blue "on" light is bright enough to let you know it's on but not so bright as to be annoying. If this drive holds up as well as it feels like it will (it feels quite solid) I will be very pleased with it.

I will be honest with my review here: First I want to explain that all things are not the same to everyone. I think, if you have the right equipement to be able to shake hands with each other flawlesly, YOU have a System! It is good to do your research beforehand to make sure this is the right thing for you.

For me, this is the right external drive. I can run the drive on my PC or my Compaq laptop with no problem at all, and just love it. It's transfer rate speed is pretty fast for what I do. And the fact I don't have to use a power suply, is a plus. I don't find the desing of the case to be of any incovenience to how I can handle it. In fact, it lends itself to a nice ergonomical design. You just have to be careful not to abuse its intent. I am able to transfer 1/2 Gig in just a few seconds. Contrary to any miniscule negativism in others' reviews, I strongly recommend it! I would buy it again! By the way, I am not affiliated with any of the companies promoting this drive in any way or form. LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

The backup works flawlessly so far. It's speedy and easy to hook up. I would have given it a 5 star if the handling is better. I honestly cannot believe how any engineer would design edges that are so slippery to handle. Every time I try to hold it, the shinny and tilted edges would cause it to slip away from my hand and bump on the table. I'm extremely worry that it would damage the drive soon. I tried putting tape on the edges, which actually made them harder to slip. Finally, I found that by turning the drive over, i.e. putting the top down as bottom, the problem went away. Western Digital should fire the engineer who designed this stupid thing.

I purchased one of these WD 60 GB external drives several weeks ago for use in transferring data from one PC to another. The drive has been performing quite well so far. The read and write transfer speeds between this 60 GB external drive and the drives in my PC's are very fast and quite impressive especially compared to flash cards with readers. I use the drive between a laptop and a desktop PC. The drive works well with both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 connections. I have a USB 1.1 port on my Toshiba laptop and a USB 2.0 port on my desktop PC. The drive works without external power when connected to either PC. I have found that I have to be extra careful with this drive when it is in use - especially with my laptop. Unlike a flash card in a reader, this drive uses a true mechanical hard drive inside the portable case and therefore is much more subject to damage due to handling and movement while the heads are reading or writing to the disk inside the drive's case. Please be careful to not bump or move the drive around when it's in operation. This is one of 2 reasons I gave the drive 4 stars instead of 5. The second reason is that the drive has a slight vibration when it is running although it is very quiet. The vibration may or may not be an issue, however, vibration could also indicate that the moving parts in the drive are slightly out of balance and this could ultimately shorten the unit's overall life by putting extra strain on bearing surfaces. I would not recommend using a portable drive like this for long term storage of important files or data because of easy theft and because of a higher risk of damage due to shock from bumps and motion while the unit is running. It would however, be a great way to transfer large amounts of data or files from one PC to another.

The box is not the shirt pocket size of the Apricorn, but most important, the drive measures up to the WD reputation of reliability.

I'll have to agree the drive is easy to setup and use, however, you'll have to get used to the noise. There is no ON OFF funtion, no SLEEP mode. The drive has to be turned off, and unplugged each time it's used. WD has a sleep utility for download but it doesn't function, with my system.

The spinning noise is annoying and to make matters worse the spinning causes a noise viration or humming noise on my wood desk. Double trouble. If noise isn't an issue the drive works as advertised.


Great Drive but I had to buy an external power source so that it would work with my Dell D600. Just to be on the safe side, I would budget in buying an external plug. They say it doesn't need it but that wasn't true for me.

If I was to write a review a month ago I'd have give n 5 stars.. but we had a power cut at home and when it came back on, the drive was no longer working.
I had it full of music and video that I'd spent a lot of money on and it's all gone.
I went to go see if I could contact WD but fat chance.. the website won't give you any way to contact the company and for data retrieval, they refer you to VERY expensive companies for the service.
I was told it was gonna be $400-$3000 to retrieve my data...

My advice:
Stay away from this product. Stay away from Western Digital and just buy some DVD/CD and keep your files backed up on disc instead!!

This has been a rather nasty experience for me.

My Dell D600 notebook PC nor the dock would power this device properly. Would run ~3-4 min on the dock fine, then the USB power would overload and shut down with an XP message saying "USB power spike...". Would not even power-up on the D600 USB ports, the HDD light would come on and it would rumble, but not actually work.

This product works wonderfully. (...) It arrived in a timely manner and I am happy to have purchased it.

I bought this drive a couple weeks ago, as I was in need of a portable drive to store large client files as a backup mechanism when not connected to their network.

Key for me was the ability of this drive to function using only the USB cable for power - i.e., no new big, bulky power supply to drag around. The drive is fast, utterly silent, and appears to be quite durable and invulnerable to slight shakes while connected.

The only potential drawback I've noticed is that it does not seem to work with Dell Inspiron laptop running WinXP SP2 - this configuration gives a "power surge on USB port error." Same model laptop running Win2K, WinXP nonSP2, or Win2003 server does just fine. Dunno why. However, I've connected it to lots of other laptops and desktops to transfer files and had no problems.

In any case, I would recommend this drive as a good purchase.

The disk is very fast, indeed pocket-size and very good design. It is quiet and rubbered. Very easy to use - just plug into the usb and ready to go. The only drawback is that it supports only USB 2.0 so it does not work on my old PC as well as on my girl-friend PC. But I am going to buy new usb 2.0 controllers and solve that problem.

Works great. It would have been better if it was a little smaller. Transfer speed is good.

Data transfer rate is very fast, except its big little bit.
It will be better if its still smaller in size.
But overall performance of the product is good.

Extremely quiet, portable and no power cables involved. It is also quite sturdy. Add an MP3 playback feature and that will be the end of iPods :)

The Western Digital porable USB drive is great! Small and compact, yet fully functional and fast!

I've had this drive for more than 2 months, and have found it pretty useful. The capacity is good, much better than the 1GB you can get in flash drives. I've found it to work effortlessly with an IBM thinpad, a Dell Latitiude and Windows dekstops. However, other reviewwers seem to have encountered problems using this drive with Macs/Powerbooks - bear that in midn if you own one.

* The transfer is pretty fast - I record 10MBps on average atleast.
* However, I would've liked if estern Digital had provided a small case of some sort so I could carry this around more eaily. The drive itself is enclosed in a cushion on all sides, but it's not rugged enough to be carried by itself. That's my only complaint.

A good buy otherwise, and I'd very much recommend it if you aren't looking for something to carry with you extensively.

No doubt about its look and performance. Just fantastic

WD 60GB Passport 2.5 External does not work with PowerBook G4 by Macintosh.
The PowerBook G4 computer will not recognize this product so Passport cannot function as an external drive or to download data.

I chose the WD external hard drive even though it was a little more pricey than some of the others. It runs beautifully on my Dell laptop on just the power supplied by the USB port.

Both the solid feel of the enclosure and the fast transfer speed make it a great addition to my laptop bag.

The drive is compact. However the price little bit high compare to simillar product.

This is a great product. Simple to use, just plug it in, easy to throw in a briefcase and a large storage capacity.

I had to take away one star for the packaging. I almost lost a limb trying to open the plastic and get at the thing. It took me over 10 minutes to pry/cut it open. Worth it in the end, but a hassle.

I recommend the product, just get your chainsaw ready to open it.

The drive has been a good companion since I bought it and has not showed much problems. Sometimes it takes a little delay to get recognised after I connect it to my dell notebook.
Data transfer is speed is excellent.

I was looking for a portable HDD and amazon had it at a gud price.. Would recommend this HDD. Slim, portable, fast speed.

Works fine, no problems. Easy to use, never needed AC adapter, USB port power is fine.

It does not come with a case, which would have been useful.

Although sold for the Macintosh, this drive apparently requires too much power to be driven by a Powerbook USB port. It works on desktops, but failed to mount on two different (15" aluminum) Powerbooks. The manufacturers position is that if it doesn't work, you should buy an external power source which must plug into the wall

This is a very sleek and handy external hard disk. The data transfer rate is really fast.