Western Digital launches My Passport Pro, first Thunderbolt-powered portable dual hard drive

Shawn Knight

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Western Digital recently introduced the My Passport Pro. The storage solutions company describes it as the first portable, Thunderbolt-powered dual-drive solution that operates without the need for an AC adapter or any extra cables.

The My Passport Pro features dual 2.5-inch drives enclosed in an aluminum shell that has been thoroughly shock-tested for extra durability. The setup can be configured in either RAID0 or RAID1 for added speed or redundancy, respectively.

Western Digital claims the drive clocks in at speeds up to 233 MB/s and when compared to a USB 3.0 drive, it can copy a 22GB high-definition video file twice as fast. It’s available in capacities of 2TB and 4TB but best yet, the enclosure is designed with the Thunderbolt cable built right in so you don’t have supply your own and you won’t have to worry about losing it.

thunderbolt wd

As outlined by Western Digital executive Jim Welsh, the drive is geared toward creative professionals – photographers, videographers, musicians, graphic designers, architects, etc. – that depend on portable storage for their livelihood.

The drives have been designed for Mac as Thunderbolt hasn’t really taken off on PCs. They ship formatted for HFS+ J for OS Mavericks and Mountain Lion. Apple Time Machine has also been added for backup needs.

Pricing starts at $299 for the 2TB drive and $429 for the larger 4TB model, both of which are available as of writing.

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Just another BS product. There isn't s single portable hard drive today that could use up the throughput of USB 3.0, and while the latter is ubiquitous, thunderbolt is totally not, and an absolute overkill for such a device.

The only area in which it will perform faster than a USB 3.0 equivalent is sucking money out of your pocket, because thunderbolt connectivity is more expensive.
 
VitalyT, you should learn a bit about RAID-0, this mode increases the speed by reading/writing data simultaneously from/to both drives.
 
The 230mBps iw for sure in raid0. a regular mechanical drive can do 100-150mBps. bottom line is usb3 is enough for this kind of speed. thunderbolt is not needed here.
 
..There isn't s single portable hard drive today that could use up the throughput of USB 3.0,...
...thunderbolt connectivity is more expensive.

Absolutely true. Not sure what Guest #1 is talking about; even with RAID-0, there's plenty of throughput available in a USB 3.0.
 
It is ridiculous that this is being called the first Thunderbolt bus powered drive. I have been using the G-Tech 1TB drive for over a year. That is powered by either the Thunderbolt port or a USB 3 port. Does not even have a power adapter and gets speeds of 130 MBs with a single drive inside.
 
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