The duplication test finished in 1 minute and 14 seconds, putting it on top among USB performer, Buffalo’s. The 1GB copy test took 50 seconds, which is about 2 seconds faster than most competing drives.
In our performance tests, the My Passport had surprisingly fast times for an USB-only drive. Like many USB-only drives, on older laptops the My Passport may not be able to draw sufficient power to operate from the bus alone, and so an auxiliary cable may be necessary–it’ll cost an extra $10 from Western Digital.
The drive gets a bit hot as the fanless aluminum case works to draw heat away from the drive mechanism, but the upside is that the drive ran quietly throughout our tests. But for all the abuse, the drive didn’t slow down a bit and showed little wear. We put it through our series of handling tests, which include tossing the drive around my cubicle and dropping it to the ground several times to see how it handles the punishment. The My Passport is a simple, light drive.
