Western digital Passport cable
One of the nice things about portable USB hard drives is the fact they can be operated with a single cable, taking all the power they need from the same cable handling data transfer. Now Western Digital is set to offer you the same convenience, but in a much faster external hard drive due to the use of Thunderbolt instead of USB 3.0.
Western Digital has this week launched the My Passport Pro. It’s a portable hard drive that can be operated using a single Thunderbolt cable while offering up access to 2 or 4TB of storage space.
As well as the single cable convenience, the My Passport Pro contains two 2.5-inch hard drives, meaning RAID functionality is available to keep your data safer or offer a further speed bump when accessing it. Western Digital also claims transfer speed of up to 233MB/s over the Thunderbolt connection, which is almost double what you’d typically get over USB 3.0.
Of course, the My Passport Pro isn’t cheap. As well as opting for an aluminum enclosure and two hard drives, there’s always going to be a premium applied for access to a Thunderbolt connection. So the 2TB model will retail for $299.99, while the 4TB model is $429.99. A 2TB USB 3.0 external drive (containing one hard drive) is around $99 for comparison. You can pick up 4TB USB drive for $150-$200.
Both models of the My Passport Pro are available now from Apple Stores as well as the usual consumer electronics retail and online stores. At those prices they really are only going to be tempting to professionals who work with a lot of data on the move. Everyone else would do well to save a lot of money and stick with USB drives instead.
