Fast and Huge is what they are going for here. First, all 3 lines of their drives, the My Passport® Essential™ portable hard drive, My Passport® Essential™ SE portable hard drive, and My Book® Essential external hard drive will be offered in the USB 3.0. Here is a break down of USB speeds so that you can understand the transfer Rates.
| USB 1.0 | USB 2.0 | USB 3.0 |
| 12 Mbit/s | 480 Mbit/s (60MB) | 4.8 Gbps |
Now that explains what the BIG deal is, of course the USB 3.0 will not function at its full potential at all times but even at 1/2 of its speed it is still leaps and bounds above USB 2. This technology is sweet, the increase in speed will allow you to go to a shell PC with no internal hard drives and just have a multitude of the externals for which ever OS load you wanted at that time. Also moving large amounts of data from on machine to another just got a whole lot faster!
As for the 3TB size they are now offering that will only be available on the My Book, which makes send since the internal drive to the chassis is more then like full size. Below is quote on the press release about the drives:
Features:
My Book Essential external hard drives, My Passport Essential and My Passport Essential SE portable hard drives feature:
- Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 interfaces;
- Up to 3x faster transfer rates when compared to USB 2.0;
- WD SmartWare software for automatic, continuous backup;
- Password protection for privacy; and,
- Planet-friendly packaging from recycled materials which can, in turn, also be recycled.
Capacity and Compatibility:
The My Passport Essential portable hard drive is available in 500 GB capacity. The My Passport Essential SE portable hard drive is available in 750 GB and 1 TB capacities. The My Book Essential external hard drive is available in 1 TB, 1.5 TB, 2 TB and 3 TB capacities. The drives are formatted NTFS for Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Windows 7. These drives require reformatting for Mac® OS® X Leopard® or Snow Leopard®.
Price and Availability
My Passport Essential portable hard drives and My Book Essential external hard drives offer a 2-year limited warranty in the U.S. and are now available at select U.S. retailers and online at wdstore.com.
MSRP for My Passport Essential portable is $99.99 USD. MSRP for My Passport Essential SE drives range from $129.99 USD to $169.99 USD. MSRP for My Book Essential drives range from $129.99 USD to $249.99 USD.
If you have a problem with your drive visit our Western Digital page, call 727-345-9665 or fill out an online quote. We offer discounts to Western Digital drive owners.
