use during round-the-world trip -- bad idea? Taking off soon for eight months of travel around the world. Would love to have a sleek lightweight external hard drive. I would use it at cybercafes to upload/backup all photos from my camera to the hard drive, and update our blog with new pics at the same time. My concern is the power issue. Are cybercafe desktops in Thailand, Philippines, India likely to have usb ports with sufficient power to run this drive? Thx for any insight, KATE (Eugene, Oregon) use during round-the-world trip -- bad idea? Taking off soon for eight months of travel around the world. Would love to have a sleek lightweight external hard drive. I would use it at cybercafes... » Read More use during round-the-world trip -- bad idea? Taking off soon for eight months of travel around the world. Would love to have a sleek lightweight external hard drive. I would use it at cybercafes to upload/backup all photos from my camera to the hard drive, and update our blog with new pics at the same time. My concern is the power issue. Are cybercafe desktops in Thailand, Philippines, India likely to have usb ports with sufficient power to run this drive? Thx for any insight, KATE (Eugene, Oregon) « Show Less
216684
most internet cafes (at least those I've been to in Europe and Mexico) won't let you use your own hardware/peripherals. And I doubt you will be able to dump your camera directly into this drive, since it doesn't have its own power source, and only connects via usb. You're probably better off buying extra memory cards for your camera.
2230695
I personally have not had a problem. You will not be disappointed if you buy this computer. I work in PNG in the Jungle, Travel all the time.I Love this computer.
382733
First I didn't pay $75 for mine. I paid about $60, including shipping. I'm very satisfied with it; it automatically backs up my computer every night, and just a few days ago I accidentally deleted my Outlook .pst file, which I easily restored from the backup on my WD external drive. I just looked up the WD drive you referred to, and it seems like it would do what's needed for an external drive, and I'd probably buy it. Mine came with easy-to-use backup software; I'm not sure about the WDBUZG5000ABK-NESN. The thinness is/was not an issue for me.
629562
Agreed superrabbit, my Passport died after 8 months. Thank god I have backed up everything to my other Seagate drive that I use as a secondary backup to my mac. I am looking to get either Iomega or Seagate 500G drive soon for my primary backup unit.
352435
To be honest have not used this product for the question you are referring to. On a drive for 4 - 10 hrs long. But no more.This is a difficult question for me.Since I have not done that.Apologies that cannot be too much of help
308964
Me too! I'm not going to seriously consider purchasing anything computer related unless I see the manual that goes with it. Is it (i.e., Canvio) truly plug and play? Can you selectively choose individual files to back up? I'm not at all interested in wasting time and space backing up files that I really don't wish to back up. (I only wish to back up photographs.) Filtering through all the comments, while helpful writ large, takes a lot of time when looking for particular information. A manual please.
368781
Tested with a WD Passport USB 3.0 2TB 2.5" drive. It seems to power it, though it turned off after 6 or 8 seconds the first time. After powering off, it came back on, my device said it detected mass USB storage, but there are no new mount points created, probably because the drive is formatted in NTFS and not exFAT or whatever it needs to be.
568848
I wouldn't recommend any of the My Book series for frequent moves, they just don't seem substantial enough. Don't get me wrong, they're good drives, just not built for moving around alot. You might want to look at the Western Digital Passport series of hard drives instead which are supposedly very rugged.
1611173
I used it only once when I was out of the country as attachment to me laptop. I preferred to save large files on this drive then on my laptop's hard drive and save lot of space.
797705
If you travel, especially if you travel light, you can ditch the laptop. If you are on the go for extended periods without access to a power point, your laptop is likely to die. Heck, even calculator emulators on an iPad are at the mercy of the battery life...Pocket calculators are the "go to" solution when portability and low power are paramount.
766399
We have had the product for some time now. We have gone on vacation for a week or so at a time and have never had any issues with its performance. Definitely no issues after just a few hours.
652980
I did use it in the Philippines and Hong Kong but would be careful as it will heat up. Don't leave it plugged in for prolonged periods.
1391388
The Seagate is not as portable. This WD is meant to travel with you on a daily basis. It doesn't need an external power supply and is very small and light. The Seagate is meant to sit on your desk, but its faster and cheaper per gig. Assess your needs and purchase accordingly.
754124
Water, dust, and life always poses a risk for portable electronics. However, over the last 3 months (post purchase) I have traveled to CHina, Europe and Sri Lanka with this little buddy and had no issues. Because the end does not retract the connections stay pretty well protected. Impervious? Doubtful. Rugged? for sure. Great value and performance. Snap it on a carabiner in your backpack and hit the road.
308963
Frankly I have found NO external drive either desktop or portable that have been particularly easy to work with and customer service of all (WD, Seagate, or Toshiba) either don't reply period or if they do it's gooble-de-gook. Seems as though that the hardware is perfectly capable of storing data but retrieving it is another question. The software is totally, absurdly complex. (Ditto thumb drives with password protected sectors. Impossible!) IT folks decry the fact that no one bothers to back up anything. Guess why?
140719
This device does not have an external power supply. It is charged through the USB port, which is a serious weakness in my opinion. That means I can use it on the go, but you can not permanently have it connected to an external drive and SD card, the battery will eventually drain. I really like this system for on the go, but I would also like a permanent set up where it does have external power, can connect to my 5tb external drive and put MicroSD cards in it to copy data to/from.
367938
no it's a piece of junk send it back. I tried it in 3 different computers with 4 different drives emailed to me from the company and never got it to work. All I got for the seller was a sorry and to send it back to some place in China at my own expense. also they have poor tech support not really knowing their product.