Questions regarding WD My Passport

Hi,

I have two desktop PCs (one XP ‘server’, one Vista ‘client’), have recently purchased a Windows 7 netbook (Lenovo S12-ION), and am considering the purchase of an external USB HDD to primarily use with the netbook.

I like the look of the WD My Passport, but wish to know a little more about the device before making a decision.

  • Is it possible to get MTBF or other reliability data for the My Passport?
  • Are there any known issues with the My Passport and the Lenovo S12-ION, or Windows 7, or Vista, or XP?

I am also unsure whether I need to purchase the Elite model with the docking-station for my purposes - as I said earlier, the USB-HDD will be primarily used with my netbook (for backup and storage), but I want also to be able to use it to sync data with my client PC, and to do further backups (that’s backups of the My Passport) via my server PC.

  • What extra features does the docking station (as available with the Elite model) provide?
  • Is the docking station available seperately?
  • Is the docking station a ‘necessary’ component in portable+client/server setups or to do what I require?
  • Can a My Passport within a docking station be shared over a LAN?

Also, I wish to use both Microsoft’s Windows 7 Backup and Lenovo’s OneKey Recovery alongside Western Digital’s SmartWare.

  • Can this be done?
  • Will it require the repartitioning of the drive?
  • Can the drive be repartitioned at all?

Now, as you may know, Windows 7 Backup is a bit picky about what you can and can’t do with different media types.

  • Will Windows see the My Passport as an HDD or Removable Media?
  • Or, in other words, will I be able to ‘continue’ a Windows Backup set stored on the My Passport after a reinstall/recovery?

I’m sure I’ve other questions, but that will do for now - thanks, in advance, for any and all answers to any of my questions, or any other information you might want to chuck my way.

:slight_smile:

EDIT: Oh, actually, one last question.

  • I have two user accounts on my netbook that I wish to backup, are the My Passort and SmartWare software compatible with multiple users using the same single My Passport?

Hello?

Anyone?

Anything?

Well, this is one customer that won’t be buying WD then.

Thanks everyone.

Bye.