Computer Hope
Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: Chilly on February 14, 2008, 09:53:16 PM
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Hi, I would like to know if the Western Digital Passport External Hard Drive would work with my Toshiba laptop (A100-SK900E), I have seen reviews of the hard drive itself saying that it will not work with SOME laptops, will this work with mine?
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Seems most likely any problem is associated with driver availability in the operating system being used. Drivers are available in XP but not in SOME versions of Vista. Here's (http://www.amazon.com/Compatible-with-Vista/forum/Fx16W3C4FBG975X/Tx16ULJCOR8M9ZC/1/ref=cm_cd_ef_rt_tft_tp?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdAnchor=B000HZD2XK&asin=B000HZD2XK) a link to comments by other owners. Below is an extract dated Jan 25 this year..
Like Coolreem, I have spent hours trying to research this drive. WD Support is useless. They kept insisting that something is wrong with my USB port, the drive itself, etc. After 2 hours with Dell Support and upgrading a USB port just for the heck of it, the drive still does not work. Works great on my XP! Some have suggested reformatting the drive itself but I haven't found a way to do this yet. Upgrading to Ultimate is not an option for me - I'm not putting out the money for the upgrade just so I can get this Passport to work.
As much as I hate to admit defeat, I think I am throwing in the towel on this one and looking for something else. I'll just consider this poor decision making on my part and a lesson learned. I will NEVER buy another Western Digital just because of the name value. After the utter nonsense from their support department, I may never buy another Western Digital product period!
Sorry - cannot answer your question, it looks like a suck-it-and-see problem and hope it's not a lemon!
Good luck
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Have you installed the WD software for the drive ? ?
Unfortunately this makes the drive propietary and hard to work with as a normal drive would.
Inability to format is just one of the side effects.
I don't think WD really thought this one through.
I can dig up the article if you like but if it's still under warranty i'd return it and demand a replacement.
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lol no I didn't buy it YET thats why I am asking if it will work with my computer :) oh and my OS is XP, and what I mean if it will work with my computer or not is the power supply problem with it, it works fine with desktops from that reviews that I read but not with some laptops...
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So it is not a powered external ? ?
You can buy a powered USB hub to run it off of...
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The Drive itself is powered through USB, however this mainly works for Desktop, my problem is that through out the reviews I have read, the USB Buses on some laptops are not powerful enough to power up the Drive itself so thats why people sometimes need to buy a power supply, so I am wondering if this Drive can run off of my laptop without any problems meaning without me buying a power supply for it.
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Western Digital addresses low power concerns with its WD Passport Drive(s) here (http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1296&p_created=1102356370&p_sid=-OnzErYi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MzYsMzYmcF9wcm9kcz0yMjgsMTk1LDIxMiZwX2NhdHM9MTMwJnBfcHY9My4yMTImcF9jdj0xLjEzMCZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MyZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXRvc2hpYmEgbGFwdG9w&p_li=&p_topview=1). Read it carefully. (I have not tried either option.)
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You can buy a powered USB hub to run it off of...