Good price but has the "SmartWare" which I personally dislike.
Buy in store and save on shipping.
Officeworks Western Digital 750GB My Passport Essential SE Pocket Hard Drive $129 + Shipping
821
Related Stores
closed Comments
Damn… I paid $169 for this a few weeks back !!!
These things are TINY… 11cm x 8cm…
(and 3 year warranty)
Looks like a pricing error
They have 500GB for $149 …haha lol yes very strange pricing concept.
NOT pricing error….looks like it legit… went into store, 500gb version are $147, lol
Is this pricing error or what
cheapest on staticice is like $200 ++
???
anyone?
Not pricing error. Also appeared in the Age newspaper.
Legit deal!!! go to officeworks and see!
hmmm.. decisions, this one or the 1TB element…
If this price is right its like nearly 50% off …
more discount than the 1TB
Their previous price was $169
If anybody gets one of these, please share what's the height of the drive inside (9mm or more ?)
I'm pretty sure opening the case will void the warranty…
Also uses a Micro USB adapter rather than the relatively standard mini USB, though Micro will probably be standard after a while.
Initially I thought this was ridiculous, though a positive is the Micro USB actually clicks/locks into place so the cable won't fall out. Has saved me a couple of times when the drive has fallen off my desk.
My cable actually is very flimsy and needs a bit of wriggling to get it working.
I bought another cable off eBay and it works fine.
The cable is fine as it locks into my mouse, I believe it's the usb port on the enclosure which is the problem.
Last week COTD had a 750Gb nameless drive for same price plus shipping.
The nameless drive was the Western Digital Essentials 750Gb Drive
You guys think this is a better deal or the WD Element 1TB at $99 compared to this $129?
If you are looking at portability without having to lug around a power supply, and sacrifice some drive space, then the WD 750GB is for you.
Otherwise, the WD 1TB.
Basically if the size, portability, lack of power supply (failed power supplies have been an issue in previous models) and losing 250GB is worth an extra $30, then go for the 750GB drive.
I'd go with this one, I hate to plug the power adaptor + very convenience (less room to store it as well), it worth the $30 and 250gb :)
Yep, I'm gonna pick this one up later today, hopefully they will have stock.
Thanks for the replies guys, but this is a very tough decision as im trying to justify if the portability is worth the extra $30
going to friends to share stuff / copy stuff ?
plugging the drive on laptops / consoles / media players ?
think of doing all that without the weight or the power supply limitation ….
and best thing the drive will power off , when the device it's plugged into powers offAnd these have 3yr warranty compared to 1TB which has 1 yr warranty
hope that helps
wrong……ALL WD drive are 3yrs warranty!!!
I don't know if you're in Sydney but I just had a quick look at these guys
http://orangeit.com.au/catalog/
See their "hot specials" and they've got an Elements 3.5" 1.5TB for $129. The link for details appears to be broken so maybe give them a call or visit their shop. For me, I always love portability and I dislike clunky, bulky things but I really have no reason to lug around 750GB regularly.
eeeew Smartware. No dice :(
The SmartWare software is rather lame (made for the general home user), but enables you to configure hardware based encryption of your data. So if you're drive is lost/stolen no-one can access your data. At $129 it's a no brainer!
Also, if you don't like the SmartWare software, it's very easy to remove (I've done it on my 640GB drive):
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareuti…This doesn't remove it. It is all smoke and mirrors as It only 'hides' the SmartWare.
If you check the properties of your drive, you will still see about 800MB taken up by this crapware.Very sneaky WD.
pretend its a 749GB drive. dun.
@venu: Dont forget to factor in the partition it needs for TOC, table of contents…. knock of another approx. 40gb! Booohooo…
Yeap, so far the only fixes are hidden partitions, which apparently some people have been reporting comes back at random times.
The does not remove the smartware, only hides it.
Ah cmon guys, its only 800mb, its not a big deal
The lost space is not the issue.
The issue is the unwanted and unremovable firmware which prevents the drive from functioning normally.
If you dont have a mainstream operating system this is a $129 coffee-cup warmer, and I can get those cheaper elsewere.
And where can you get it cheaper?
Awesome deal. Just bought one, upgraded firmware, turned off Smartware, formatted (NTFS)… windows reports free space as 749,451,866,112 bytes. You've gotta be happy with that!
Which is 697GB, but that's too be expected
cool deal, and thanks for the WD crapware removal tips.
Just bought one YAY! Did i miss the crapware removal tips?
just walked into ow and picked one up, not even signed like it was a sale item…
just walked into castle hill, bought one, only 3 in stock
theres alot more than three at castle hill, i assure you… saw about 100 not at the main location
Got one from York St, Sydney CBD. It's empty on the shelf but just ask the storeperson and ye shall have one.. or two.. ;-)
Bought 2 from Office works Osborne Park, WA
They have around 70 plus in stock..
Looks pretty cool.OW Artarmon NSW have about 15-20 left on the shelf. Guy said they have more stock "out the back" :)
Actually the price for this from COTD last week was $149 plus postage…not $129 as a previous poster stated, so this is an excellent price…much better than COTD…damn I should have waited…
Bought one at the OW in villawood (corner woodville rd and fairfield rd). Plenty of drives there. Great price! Just need to format to fat32 to use on my ps3.
Also I updated the firmware, disabled the smartware, and did a QUICK format on the drive to fat32 using the software http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html running on my old computer running windows XP. If you using windows 7 you can choose the option of exFAT which i have read will not work on the ps3 and I tried using swissknife but crashed on windows 7.
Looking at the properties only 32kb used with no smartware being found!!
WARNING!! WD Passport SE 750G are not be compatable for internal PS3 use.
WARNING!! Please don't do this like my friend and fail.. If you read all the posts here the drive inside has no SATA connector only a direct USB connection.
Happy Gaming
bought 2 from officework in front of university of sydney
shelf only have the small card saying $129 but no display box
need to actually go n ask the staff
they got HEAPS of this thing hidden behind counter lol …
I can see these 750GB externals go for $99 pretty soon
are these 5400rpm or 7200rpm?
Ended up buying one today and i must say, these things are very small and compact, gotta love how portable these drives are. Definitely a plus.
Beware the drive inside has a native USB interface and is not your typical 2.5" SATA drive (hence the smaller size).
So it's not suitable for those thinking of using it to upgrade your notebook / netbook / console, etc.What is newsworthy about the My Passport is the direct integration of USB interface to the 2.5" drive. This bypasses the USB-to-SATA bridge like the Samsung S2 so you can expect performance bump, and the removal of the bridge makes the drive even more compact (a mere 0.6" in thickness).
Source: http://www.everythingusb.com/western-digital-my-passport-ess…
Great price, shame there's no store up here, and postage costs $30. :o
Got it
removed the smartware
only have 697GB free apparently
currently reformatting to see if i can recover the full 750 GB
hhmmm hope it works …
You are only supposed to get 750,000,000,000 bytes with a 750Gb drive like the previous poster above who got 749,451,866,112 bytes, but it shows as 697Gb in the system. It's been discussed online quite often. http://goo.gl/Z2uB
Oh my God
did i just format my new HDD for nothing?
its still going (the formatting process)
will it still work okay after formatting? didnt change anything at the start, still ticked the NTFS mode
wish i could read this earlier
what happen if i pull out when its still formatting?
uhm abit worried now …
Formatting will just mean you got a formatted harddrive all ready to use. Nothing bad. Just let it finish.
HMMMMM - do i get this 750GB unit, or the 1tb one from OW…..ARGH!! thoughts?
Yeap same dilemma as well. Here's to help you:
Do you have a 2.5" around 320-500GB?
Do you need this for archival process?
If both of the above is YES, then buy the 1TB.
Pretty self explanatory I think. :) I'm getting the 1TB. 9.9cent per gig as oppose to 17.7 cents per gig on the 750GB. Plus its for archival.
Great deal. I bought one yesterday at Airport west. Loved this one.
Glebe NSW store said they are bringing in more next week, none at the moment.
Read your post after picking one up from Glebe yesterday and they actually still got lots. called them just then to double check and they said they got like 10+ in stock.
They dont have a display box in the data section, only a price tag. And they keep all of them behind the counter (also no display, stored away in big roller cabinet)
Gotta ask for them at the counter.
edit:
PS hate the 'smartware'. non-intuitive, cant pick folders/files to backup (must make a folder specifically) and uses too much computer resources for just a backup program. tried to look for a solution to remove it but can only hide it (must change the firmware to get rid of it, and so far cant find anyone that has changed the firmware :P)I've changed it. Functions like a normal external hdd now, doesn't prompt for smartware install.
Since we can only hide the VCD I've decided not to, so sometimes I can get the WD drivers from it if I want.I think I did the same thing too. updated the firmware, which added the option to disable the smartware pop up (as what jezzap mentioned above).
only hope that WD will one day change/update the firmware to give the option to totally wipe smartware instead of hiding it (giving a fraction more space, 800MB compared to 750GB :P)
I just got HN to price match and I found that the micro USB cable isn't held in properly, it's very easy to pull the cable out as the cable isn't locked in like my Logitech mouse does, the glossy surface collects fingerprints very easily and the drive is also wider than a usual drive, I prefer the usual shape. Good price, just not ideal.
fits right in my pocket! just got one from OW morley WA
Just got one from OW….used my 5% discount …so I paid just under $123. Formatted 500gb to Mac journaled….. to back up my mac book with time machine,…. then formatted the remaining 249 gb. … to Fat 32…. to store some stuff I need for both PC and Mac. Nice size and no problem with the connection.
how did u get 5%? thanks
I have a Coles team member card - employee, so I get 5% off Coles, OW, K-Mart, and a few other shops. Comes in handy.
I think it's a great deal. I voted negative by mistake, how can I remove it PLS
Thanks, done it.
Abit late but got this as well.
Formatted it as FAT32 which took abit of doing and had to hide the SmartWare partition as per above.
As someone mentioned: Very well priced. Just not quite as ideal as the previous shape and construct. I really hope they can go to a matte finished casing in the next iteration.
Sweet price, this is purely USB powered with no external AC adapter i take it.. so good deal.