| Article Index |
|---|
| Western Digital My Passport Elite 320GB Review |
| 2 - Features |
| 3 - Installation/Operation |
| 4 - Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Features and Software:
“So what? It looks nice?! I don’t care about that I just want a good portable drive” you may say, and fair enough, looks aren’t everything and never judge a book by its cover etc. etc. all the things your Mum used to tell you as a kid. And she was right, so what else does the Elite range have to offer?
Well at the base of the drive next to the USB connector there is a row of 4-LED lights, these act as both activity lights and a capacity usage meter. When the drive is in use/transferring data they dance from side to side, and when it’s not, the lights are stationary lighting up the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th LED’s to tell you (roughly) how much space you’ve used. A cool feature so you can instantly know if you have enough free space by simply looking at the drive and not having to investigate through My Computer.
The included software package is another difference between the Elite and Essential range, with the Elite drives including Automatic backup software, so you can schedule your backups, or have it backup essential files whenever you plug the drive in your computer. Normally this is only included in Western Digital’s desktop range of drives (My Book’s), so to have it included in a portable drive is a welcome feature. Considering the size these portable drives are now getting up to, they’re starting to become more and more useful as a complete backup solution.
Another software feature the Passport’s have, is the inclusion of remote access software, so you can leave this drive connected and home and access its contents from any computer in the world, so long as you have an internet connection. But come on, the drive is so small that if you were travelling you’d just take it with you in the first place. Alas the included software doesn’t only work with the Western Digital drive, you can use it to access any data on any drive connected to your system, remotely, so it’s quite a neat and handy bit of software.
Value:
In a previous review of a Western Digital portable drive, the original ‘My Book Passport’ the thing we were most impressed with was the great value of the drive. It gave us a 250GB drive for less than you could buy a notebook hard drive and USB case, all in one neat package. This new drive, while it’s certainly not overpriced compared to its competitors, it just doesn’t offer the same deal. It’s about $70 more expensive than a bare 320GB notebook drive, so if you’re after very basic portable storage, a bare drive and USB case would be cheaper, but then again it wouldn’t look as good or have any of the software included with it, so it becomes a difficult choice between features and value.
