Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Review

My Passport Essential SE Overview
The My Passport Essential drive is very small with the dimensions of 18mm (h) x 83mm (w) x 110mm (d).  This small size makes it perfect for travel as it will easily fit inside your laptop bag.  We received the black version of the drive, but it also comes in blue, red and silver.  The reason this drive has the “SE” on the end is because the “SE” drives are the higher capacity drives.  This drive comes in 750GB and 1TB versions.

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

There is a single connection on this drive, which is made for the USB 3.0 cable.  This is the new micro USB 3.0 connector that we also saw on the OCZ Enyo drive.  This connector means you need to carry the proprietary cable around with you at all times.  On the bottom of the drive are 4 small rubber feet that will keep the drive stable on your desk.

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

Included Software
When you plug in your hard drive to either a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port Windows will automatically recognize it and it will show up.  You will notice the drive is not empty.  It has some software on it as well as the manual.  Let’s first start with the SmartWare software.

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

When you first go to install the SmartWare software it will ask you to create a backup, this is nice if you are going to be moving files from say a work PC to a home PC.  Next it will ask you to select a password for the drive.

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

Finally you are brought to the main screen of the software.  It has 4 tabs: Home, Backup, Retrieve, and Settings.  The software is pretty basic, but will help people who want to set backups and the added security is nice.  So once you set the password on the drive and you want to plug it into another PC it will not show up at first.  You will be prompted for a password, then the drive will finally show up.

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

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