My Passport is a series of portable external hard drives produced by Western Digital.There are currently six series of My Passport drives; Essential Edition, Essential SE Edition, Elite Edition, Essential for Mac, Studio Edition and the Essential SE for Mac. Find great deals on eBay for my passport studio firewire. Shop with confidence. Sleek New My Passport™ Studio Drives Designed for Mac with Faster FireWire Interface and Time Machine™ Support. Expanding on its popular portable storage offerings, WD NYSE: WDC today introduced its new Mac-formatted My Passport™ Studio™ Portable Drives. WD My Passport Studio / Mac Portable Hard Drives Western Digital introduced its newest generation of My Passport portable hard drives specifically designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine, featuring compact, elegant Mac-inspired designs with high capacity storage options and exceptional security for today’s active lifestyles. Western Digital’s latest My Passport Studio has a solid build and multiple connections, but slow transfer speeds and a preinstalled security app hamstring an otherwise decent drive.
- My Passport Studio 500gb
- My Passport For Mac Help
- How To Use My Passport Studio For Mac
- My Passport For Mac Cable
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Western Digital My Passport Studio 1TB
Western Digital My Passport Studio 500GB
Western Digital’s latest My Passport Studio has a solid build and multiple connections, but slow transfer speeds and a preinstalled security app hamstring an otherwise decent drive.
Unlike the My Passport Essential’s () plastic exterior, the My Passport Studio is made from anodized aluminum with a black case and silver edges, giving it both a durable build and professional look. The drive weighs 0.75 pounds, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it feels sturdy when you hold it in your hand.
The drive has a USB 2.0 port and two FireWire 800 ports, and with a tiny activity light. The My Passport Studio comes preformatted for the Mac, so there’s no need to reformat it. You get the necessary cables (though no FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 cable), along with a Quick Install guide and warranty information. A full digital version of the user’s manual is included on the drive itself, or you can download it from Western Digital’s website.
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We tested the 1TB version, but WD sells a 500GB version for $170 and a 750GB drive for $200.
Every time you connect the Passport Studio to your Mac, you’re greeted by Western Digital’s Unlocker software, which requires you to type in a preset password before you can begin using the drive. [Editor's note: This was our experience with the evaluation unit used for testing. A WD representative says that with brand new drives, the Unlocker software should not ask for a password. This is to allow you to delete the software if you wish.] To get around it, you have to use the provided WD Security app. Once installed, you change the password or stop Unlocker from showing up by removing any required password. I’d prefer that Western Digital let the customer decide if they want to use their security app or not, and I find it unfortunate that you’re forced to install extra software in order to deal with a preinstalled app on the My Passport Studio. But it’s possible that you may welcome the extra security the software provides.
In every test we conducted, the My Passport Studio’s USB 2.0 transfer speeds were a bit on the slow side compared to similar drives. It netted 28.6MBps in our 2GB folder write test and 31.3.MBps in our 2GB file write test over USB 2.0. In contrast, the G-Drive Mobile (), a USB 2.0/FireWire 800 portable drive released over a year ago, obtained 30.8MBps in the 2GB folder write test and 31.7MBps in the 2GBfile write test. The My Passport Studio finished our low-memory Photoshop test in 90 seconds, one of the slowest times among the portable hard drives we’ve tested.
The drive faired slightly better over FireWire 800, where it posted 55.8MBps in the 2GB folder write test and 67.1MBps in the 2GB file write test. It also completed the Photoshop test in 64 seconds. Compared to other FireWire portable drives we’ve tested, the transfer rates were more middle-of-the-road, and the Photoshop time was sluggish, unable to surpass other drives. That’s too bad, since the drive is marketed to creative professionals, who generally need as much speed for their projects as they can get.
Macworld’s buying advice
The My Passport Studio looks good and is overall a decent drive. But it lags in the speed department and has a security app that doesn’t disappear without intervention.
Editor's note: Updated 3/23/12 at 10 a.m. PT with information about the Unlocker software on brand new drives.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.
Western Digital My Passport Studio 1TB
Western Digital My Passport Studio 500GB
There has generally been little difference from one external hard drive to the next (especially in the highly portable 2.5-inch models). Maybe one was a bit smaller than another, or it had Firewire in addition to USB 2.0, but there has often been little to differentiate them aside from capacity and price (generally a function of capacity). In the recent past we’ve seen more drive enclosures offering color options and docks of negligible usefulness, but that’s about all the drive manufacturers offered up to consumers.
Here’s a little secret though–hard drive manufacturers hate just selling hard drives. If a drive is just a dumb box for your pictures and videos (and honestly, not many casual consumers care about the specifications) then who cares if their drive is a Western Digital or Seagate? No one wants their product to be a commidity, so what we see are companies striving for innovation. Doing that with an external hard drive is tough though because it’s such a barebones product.
WD has found their answer in one of today’s hottest technologies: e-ink e-Label. The storage company has integrated an e-ink display into their 2.5-inch external hard drive, the My Passport Studio, as they did previously with the My Book Elite. The Studio series is WD’s higher-end external storage variant aimed at well-heeled Mac users who are willing to pay a premium for a Firewire 400/800 connection (in addition to USB 2.0) so e-ink is a perfect fit. It not only matches the design aesthetic of the Studio series, but it adds a bit of functionality and helps justify the price premium.
And there is a price premium. The 640GB My Passport Studio with e-ink sells for $199 from straight from WD. That’s $50 more than the standard 640GB My Passport Essential and the same prices as the 1TB My Passport Essential SE. The good news is that the street price is much less. You can find the Studio for around $160 if you do some searching online.
The e-ink display is two lines, and measures about 1.75×0.5-inches. It can display a label (12 alphanumeric characters), a fill gauge, the amount of gigabytes free storage, and if the drive is encrypted or not. It’s simple, but it gets the job done; you won’t ever have to slap a sticker on your drive or plug it in to determine how much space you have left. The coloring can be in standard or reversed mode (pictured) so that you can either have the text appear black-on-grey or grey-on-black. And, best of all, because e-ink only uses power when in changes states, the label is always there telling you want you want to know.
My Passport Studio 500gb
Along with the e-ink label the My Passport Studio has a new feature, though this one is shared with all of WD’s new external products. The software is called SmartWare, and it’s actually quite good. I have an extensive video covering it as well as setting up the drive, so check out below for a ton of details:
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In case you don’t want to check out the video, SmartWare will allow you to configure your drive, customize your e-ink label, setup a backup, encrypt/password protect the drive, and do much more. It has diagnostics tools and file backup with versioning. It’s basically a one-stop-shop for working with your WD drive. And, unlike most drive managers in the past, it’s worth checking out.
My Passport For Mac Help
The My Passport Studio is limited by USB 2.0 (unlikes some new USB 3.0 products) but it still manages good transfer rates. In the test above you can see the read/write speeds achieved by the drive, tested with a HP EliteBook 8540p. These are above-average speeds for a USB 2.0 product, so unless you are getting a new USB 3.0-enabled computer soon, there is nothing to worry about.
While the My Passport Studio includes a premium, it’s undeniably a cool product. For some people the e-ink label will just be a gimmick, for others it will be a very useful tool for cataloging their storage. So while the e-ink and Firewire mean this USB hard drive isn’t for everyone (it is aimed at Apple users after all), the new SmartWare software makes WD’s USB product range more attractive than ever.
How To Use My Passport Studio For Mac
Update: For the sake of clarification I wanted to mention that WD technically uses E-Label, not E-Ink. E-Ink is a trademarked term for a certain type of electronic paper technology, and while this is generally the term used for any display like this, it isn’t technically the correct usage here.
My Passport For Mac Cable
If used as a shorter version of the term “electronic ink” then “e-ink” could be seen as being correct, but the fact remains that WD’s built-in displays are not provided by the E-Ink Corporation. Mac visual code studio shortcut for commenting out. When is fl studio for mac coming out.