External HDDs have recently assumed importance for road warriors and businessmen on the move. From serving as a means to haul data around between office and work to serving as the primary source of backup, external drives are almost indispensable these days.
The Western Digital Passport 120 GB is a fairly lightweight drive with a decent finish giving it a steady and elegant appearance. An important feature being that care has been taken to enclose the drive in a tough plastic body that can withstand shock to prevent data loss in case of an accidental drop.
Being USB 2.0 ready, drive installation is a breeze. The drive ships with an included USB cable therefore using the drive is easy. Plug it in and the drive is ready for use. Interestingly, WDC offers a 5V AC adapter for Rs 550 for outdated machines. With an average of of 21.9 MB read speeds at a random access time of 14ms in Sisoft Sandra and comparable performance in HDTach the Western Digital Passport 120 GB 5,400 RPM drive runs at very close to its rated specifications. In our write tests the drive managed a respectable 16 MB, which is very good for real time figures. The write tests were conducted using graphic files and text files to simulate real time transfer speeds.
The drive ships with WD's sync software. This data synchronization program enables us to back-up our precious data to the portable drive and encrypt it for us to retrieve at leisure. It also syncs Outlook mail and since the data is stored on the drive itself it is always available to you.
Retailing at Rs 9950, this drive is highly recommended. With its elegant looks and above average performance this drive is an excellent purchase.
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