I am constantly being asked about my red Passport. I use it at work every day and keep loads of different kinds of files on it, which are being updated all the time. I have had absolutely no problems with it at all and I've had it about a year now.

MacBook users, your portable hard drive has arrived. The Western Digital My Passport Studio ($220 list) is the Mac OS version of the WD My Passport Elite . It has the same compact case (albeit in a slightly more silver hue), protective port cover, and velvet-like drawstring bag.

Speedy portable drive; Drive capacity indicator; Protected I/O ports; Both FireWire 400 and USB 2.0; Preformatted for Mac OS X.

Capacity indicator requires utility installation; Mac OS X (10.4) Tiger users will need a separate backup utility

These tiny My Passport drives from Western Digital earn our recommendation for a few reasons. They're extremely small and portable, they're capable of both USB 2.0 and 3.0 speeds, and priced between $90 and $180, they're quite affordable.

Extreme portability; No external power supplies or power cables required; You can set up password protection and hardware encryption

Fast enough for everyday use, but not the fastest; Not the cheapest, either

The Western Digital My Passport is a small, portable hard drive with a huge capacity - 2TB to be precise (that's 2000GB). No larger than a standard Passport drive with dimensions of 111x82x21mm, the unit is connected via a USB 3.0 cable that's also backwards-compatible with the more common USB 2.0.

The Western Digital My Passport Pro is a portable RAID array with a Thunderbolt port. Sadly, the My Passport Pro only has a Thunderbolt Port; there's no USB port, so you'll need a computer with a Thunderbolt port if you want to use it.

Hand it to Western Digital for trying new things. It's cool that there's a portable software RAID solution available, and bus-powered storage options with 4TB capacities are few and far between. Western Digital also offers a 2TB version of the My Passport Pro, which is lighter and not as tall.

Large capacity; Tethered Thunderbolt cable with adequate length; Bus powered RAID solution

Fan is infrequent but noisy; Big and bulky

Passport is the rather apt name chosen by Western Digital for its range of portable hard drives. Not much bigger than the 2.5in notebook drives they contain, these pocket-sized storage devices are now more pocketable than ever, thanks to their extra-rounded corners – not to mention attractive...

Large capacity; Personalised e-label display; Three connection options: FireWire 400/800 and USB 2.0; Straightforward software for labelling; locking and backup; 256-bit hardware encryption

Only one FireWire port – no daisy-chaining; No carry case in the box

Western Digital and the My Passport portable hard drives need no introduction here on Legit Reviews. For the past five years, Western Digital has made backing up your data as easy as possible thanks to these small and easily portable life savers.

It's the almost the same size as a passport and hence the name. Very good for the consumer who needs a lot of portable memory on the go and is willing to pay the somewhat demanding price. It's built very well and the rubber feet will stop any vibrations on any surface.

Knowing that the USB 3.0 interface has a real-world bandwidth ceiling of around 400MB/s under ideal conditions, the limiting factor, in terms of raw speed, is going to be the 2TB mechanical drive.