WD My Passport Slim 2TB Portable Metal External Hard Drive USB 3.0 with Auto and Cloud Backup (WDBPDZ0020BAL-NESN)

WD My Passport Slim 2TB Portable Metal External Hard Drive USB 3.0 with Auto and Cloud Backup (WDBPDZ0020BAL-NESN)..

Grab Now WD My Passport Slim 2TB Portable Metal External Hard Drive USB 3.0 with Auto and Cloud Backup (WDBPDZ0020BAL-NESN) By Western Digital

Most helpful customer reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
Better in just about everyway than my previous drive. Data and comparisons included
By Chris Zee Shutterbug
WD 1TB USB3 slim external HD.

I routinely mirror (backup entire drive vs just the data) on all the family computers. (Over the years two laptop drives failed and we had about half dozen drive by viruses that required very lengthy repairs). The external drive I use now is a Toshiba Cavio 1TB drive, Toshiba Canvio 1.0 TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - HDTC610XK3B1 (Black)which is less than one year old and also USB3. I considered cloud backup, but at a midgrade internet cable connection, my upload speed (5-10 Mb/sec) is over 100 times slower than compared to using the external drives. I used CrystalDiskMark 3 software for comparing data rates.

The short story is that this WD drive almost 50% faster than the Toshiba (118 MB/s vs 80MB/sec). It is also 40% smaller (6.7cu inch vs 9.44, .496" thick). It also has a metal case rather than plastic, and as a consequence it's a teensy bit heavier at 5.6 vs 5.5 ounces.

Other plus is that it comes with a small black tie string silk carrying bag. Of the minuses, there is only one small one, the Toshiba had an activity light that glowed blue when plugged into a USB3 port and white when plugged into a USB2 port, the WD is always white.

Other notes. The USB cable is 19" long, and you can plug it into a USB2 plug or USB3 plug (the plastic on the inside of USB3 connector will be blue), however if use an existing USB cord (micro plug like on some phones) the data rate will only be USB2 speed. For USB3 speed you need to use the supplied cord, which has a double connector on the drive side, this is the same for the Toshiba drive. So how much do you give up when using USB3? Quite a lot, USB2 rate was 33 MB/s vs 118 or more than 3.5 times slower.

In summary this is the best external backup drive I have seen.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
A Passport Ultra Elegantly Repackaged (UPDATED)
By Stephanie Sullivan
I've been using WD My Passport Ultra 2TB drives to meet the backup needs for several of my clients' for a while. They are fast, reliable and compact. The My Passport Slim is essentially a My Passport Ultra in a slightly smaller and lighter package that is very attractive.

The Passport Slim became of interest when a client asked for a very portable external drive to take on the road where size and weight are especially important. The Passport Slim 2TB seemed a good fit for his purchase.

The Slim is "sexy and sleek" as it has been described in other reviews. It's about 1/8 inch thinner than the WD My Passport Ultra and just about 1/3 of an ounce lighter.

Like the Ultra it comes with a short cable, soft draw-string bag and has WD Smartware Pro on the drive for easy backup and sync to/from Dropbox (their "automatic cloud backup"). This Passport Slim drive was not purchased mainly for backup. It was intended to carry media, reference materials and work files on the road and as storage to off-load pictures.

To best take advantage of the My Passport Slim (or the WD My Passport Ultra) a USB 3.0 port is needed. Most modern laptops and desktops come with USB 3.0 built-in. Older computers can often be upgraded economically. I've used the ORICO PVU3-5O2I USB 3.0 7 Port PCI Express Card (5 Rear and Internal USB 3.0 20PIN Connector) on Windows 7 and Linux Desktops/Servers. If your laptop has an express card slot then a card like the HDE 2 Port USB 3.0 may provide USB 3.0 speeds to take full advantage of a drive like the My Passport Slim.

Having used Smartware on the Passport Ultra I find it a passable backup/sync tool. Calling a Dropbox client "automatic cloud backup" may be technically accurate, but I find it less than impressive.

The drive is very fast as is the My Passport Ultra. I did not run benchmarks on this drive. My time working with it was spent populating it with the files to be used in travel. With a USB 3.0 connection the drive felt much like the My Passport Ultra drive when copying files to and from the drive. Generally about 3X as fast as a USB 2.1 connected drive. The Passport Slim was more than fast enough for its intended purpose.

Here are the dimensions of the My Passport Slim and the My Passport Ultra from the WD site for comparison:
Passport Slim: H:0.70in, D:4.33in, W:3.14in, Weight 0.48lb
Passport Ultra: H:0.823in, D:4.35in, W:3.23in, Weight 0.50lb

Is the Passport Slim worth a 30% higher price, even with a more "sexy" look? The Slim is a slightly thinner and lighter version of the My Passport Ultra and for me I'm not sure. It does seems worth the extra for my client who really likes the drive.

If being ultra-portable or cool looking isn't important save about $35 (at the time I write this) and get the WD My Passport Ultra 2TB instead. If cool is worth the extra cost go for the Passport Slim. Both drives have virtually identical performance and features outside of the packaging differences.

Because the Passport Slim does what it's supposed to with very nice "style" the WD Passport Slim gets 5 stars from me.

Hope this is helpful!

Update: Mar 6, 2014
The price differential on Amazon is down to about $30 now for the 2TB Slim over the My Passport Ultra. Good looks and smaller size has become a more affordable.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Dual Toned SuperSpeed Slim Beauty!
By rbhatta
WD is known for making excellent quality hard disk drives. I have owned several WD internal desktop and external drives in the past and never had any drives fail till date. This Passport Slim portable 1TB capacity with metal top is very well made and will provide years of service. I do like the new dual tone metal design. The drive is small enough to fit in your shirt pocket and has large 1TB capacity.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface makes the drive work even faster on PCs and Laptops that have USB 3.0 interface and is fully backward compatible with older USB 2.0 interfaces. I ran some benchmark tests using HDTUNE application and here are the results:

(*)Using USB 2.0 Read Speeds: Min: 29.2 MB/s, Max: 31.2 MB/s
(*)Using USB 2.0 Write Speeds: Min: 14.5 MB/s, Max: 22.6 MB/s

(*)Using USB 3.0 Read Speeds: Min: 96.6 MB/s, Max: 106.3 MB/s
(*)Using USB 3.0 Write Speeds: Min: 54.6 MB/s, Max: 79.2 MB/s

The spindle rotational speed reported by HDTUNE application is 5400RPM. The drive runs cool even after extended period of time as the metal surface helps dissipate heat evenly. This is an 'USB BUS' powered drive. You do not need any external power adapter to run the drive and this makes it very portable.

PROS
[+] Very attractive dual tone design, Slim portable and comes with a carrying pouch.
[+] Does not need external power source. Runs with USB bus power.
[+] Speedy especially when used with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface.
[+] 3 years warranty

CONS
[-] It does not have rubber feet on the bottom and could scratch the bottom surface eventually.
[-] This drive uses WD proprietary hardware interface. Data recovery could be challenging if the interface were to fail especially if you enable hardware encryption.

When it comes to software included in the drive, you get 'WD Drive' Utilities, 'WD Security' and 'WD SmartWare Pro' backup software. These apps allow you to choose when and where you backup your data, The apps also allows you to password protect and encrypt the files on the drive or run disk drive diagnostics etc; You can also use your 'Dropbox' account to back up your files to the 'cloud' as an offsite backup.

Overall this drive performs well. It is priced right for 1TB capacity. Four Star Product! Recommended.

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TRENDnet 8-Port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Metal Housing Switch, TEG-S80g

TRENDnet 8-Port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Metal Housing Switch, TEG-S80g..

Special Price TRENDnet 8-Port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Metal Housing Switch, TEG-S80g By TRENDnet

Most helpful customer reviews

229 of 236 people found the following review helpful.
Quiet, fast, and low power as promised
By Pilchard
Recently we have installed network storage devices, and started to run backups and multi-media services on our home LAN (local area network). As a result the load on our network increased substantially. We decided to upgrade from fast ethernet to gigabit. Due to the arrangement of devices, we have several 8 port switches connected to a larger 24 bit switch which I guess is the backbone of our LAN.

When shopping for gigabit switches, the Trendnet 8 port gigabit greennet switch came up as not only a low cost, but also a low power switch. We purchased several and have been using them for almost half a year.

These switches are silent (there is no fan), and very low power (on my Killowatt meter they always show 0 watts), and very fast. They have limited support for jumbo packets (I forget the exact number, but its around a jumbo packet size of 7-9K).

This is a good solution as a low power, silent, gigabit switch that runs cool and is low cost. The switch is unmanaged, but does have status indicator lights. You will see if you are getting fast ethernet or gigabit speeds on each port. We have had no trouble with these switches.

109 of 110 people found the following review helpful.
Just works, never have to touch it!
By J. Blair
I upgraded from an 8 port Gigabit Trendnet switch to this bad boy with 16 ports. I've got 15/16 used up and it's never let me down. I can easily get transfer speeds between my two gigabit desktops of around 90-110 MB/s (using 7200RPM and SSD Hard Drives#.

All I had to do was plug in my ethernet cables, turn the power on and haven't touched it since. Reliable and fast connection for all the devices on my home network.

No fan inside, it doesn't run hot even in a wall box and it's completely silent.

LED's on the front will tell you if a device is connected and if it's Green it's connected at Gigabit and Amber if it's 10/100.

Very satisfied with the purchase and would recommend to anyone looking to venture to the Gigabit realm. FYI you will need Gigabit ethernet cards on the computers that you want to connect to the network to get Gigabit speeds #125MB/s vs 12.5MB/s on 10/100# so don't expect your 3-4 year old Desktop to connect at gigabit speeds. But don't fret, gigabit NIC's are pretty cheap, I got this low profile #for slim computers# Dynex - Gigabit PCI Desktop Adapter DX-PCIGB used for about $6 on Amazon #3rd party seller#, but you can just search "Gigabit ethernet card" and find them new for around $10-$15 new with full size bracket# Make sure it says Gigabit or 10/100/1000 in the title though as Gigabit is for some reason a key word on some 10/100 cards#

If you're wondering what you'll gain from going gigabit, here's a brief overview of bits and Bytes and 10/100 vs 10/100/1000 #gigabit#:

MB = Mega Bytes, Mb = Mega Bits. 8 bits in 1 Byte

You have a 100 MB file. If you transfer at 100 Mb/s it will download in 12.5 seconds.

If you have a 100 MB file and you transfer it at 100 MB/s, it will transfer in 1 second.

If your Internet provider says you can download at speeds up to 8 Mb/s. That means you can download 1 MB in 1 second.

If your Internet provider says you can download at speeds up to 16 Mb/s. That means you can download 2 MB in 1 second.

Transfer speed on a 10/100 router would be up to 12.5 MB/s.

Transfer speed on a 10/100/1000 #gigabit# router would be up to 125 MB/s.

Say you have a DVD rip that is 2.5GB, on a hard wire connection between 2 gigabit computers it would take roughly 20 seconds to transfer. On a 10/100 connection it would take about 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

Say you have a 1080p MKV video file that is 32GB, on a hard wire connection between 2 gigabit computers it would take roughly 4 minutes and 16 seconds to transfer. On a 10/100 connection it would take about 42 minutes and 40 seconds.

Note: These are theoretical speeds and much depends on your processing speed and also your hard drive speed.

If you have any questions just comment, I get automatic e-mail notifications on comments and will answer questions as quickly as possible.

--------------------------------------------

Update 03/01/2012:

It's been a year now since it's been installed and left in the wall. Never had an issue with it this whole time, even with power outages, lighting strikes #killed my Xbox#, it has been rock solid. Still highly recommended.

--------------------------------------------

Update 04/13/2013:

Another year and still no issues. I took it out of the wall when I moved and now it's located on a shelf in my laundry room which can get quite humid when the dryer runs and still running like a champ.

147 of 151 people found the following review helpful.
What Netgear USED to be....
By Josh Daniel S. Davis
This switch is solid. In 3 months, I've had no problems with this Trendnet switch.

Compare to my netgear crashes, gets into reboot loops, etc even after power brick and switch replacement.

The Trendnet switch runs cooler than the netgear counterpart.

The Trendnet, like the NetGear, has a metal case for better EMI control. The netgear case is just slightly thicker, which should provide better in-case ventilation.

The Trendnet switch has ports/power on the back, and activity/connection LEDs on the front. Because of this, it makes for a much more tidy desk, and easier to see link lights.

We'll see how this is doing when it's a year, or 18 months old, but so far, it's power-on durability exceeds the competition.

NOTE: This is an unmanaged switch. 10/100/1000 line speed, auto-crossover. There is no monitoring port, no web management, no SNMP, no IP sharing, and no routing.

This is a low cost, and well designed device. I highly recommend it.

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