Hardware27.03.2014

WD introduces first Thunderbolt-powered portable dual-drive

My Passport Pro, Featuring Bus-Powered, User-Selectable RAID Storage in Capacities

WD, a Western Digital company, and world-leader in storage solutions for the connected life, has introduced My Passport Pro, the first portable, Thunderbolt-powered dual-drive solution, providing creative professionals and enthusiasts high performance and capacity in a truly mobile solution. For Mac systems, My Passport Pro has user-selectable RAID functionality to deliver needed performance for the most demanding applications in the field, without the need for power adapters or extra cables. My Passport Pro is available in 2 TB and 4 TB capacities.

“The only Thunderbolt dual-drive solution that’s bus-powered, WD’s My Passport Pro enhances the workflow of mobile creative professionals by providing fast transfers and data protection for the large amounts of digital content they generate outside the studio,” says Jim Welsh, executive vice president of branded products and worldwide sales, WD. “From photographers, videographers and musicians to graphic designers and architects, people who depend on portable storage for their livelihood will find My Passport Pro defines a new level of performance, reliability and especially portability.”

Says Anamika Budree, WD Branded Sales Manager – South Africa, “We are seeing a similar trend in the South African market. As the move to a more mobile environment gains traction locally, users increasingly require portable devices that can store huge amounts of data. WD is taking mobile storage to a new level with the My Passport Pro with added functionally and optimal speed, allowing users to access and transfer data at high speeds, making it the perfect companion for the creative professional on the go.“

“Thunderbolt technology makes new approaches possible for high-performance workflows,” says Jason Ziller, Intel’s Director of Thunderbolt Marketing. “By combining dual storage drives on a portable, bus-powered device, the My Passport Pro from WD is a uniquely powerful storage solution with high capacity for today’s demanding users.”

Directly powered via the integrated Thunderbolt cable — a design unique to WD — performance of My Passport Pro clocks in at speeds up to 233 MB/s, providing super-fast transfer, edit and backup capabilities. Another key feature of the dual-drive My Passport Pro is its user-selectable RAID function, which lets users choose data striping (RAID 0) for high performance or mirroring (RAID 1) for data redundancy, depending on the user’s needs. Superior to both FireWire 800 and USB 3.0, the integrated Thunderbolt technology of My Passport Pro makes video manipulation quick and easy—with the ability to copy a 22 GB high-definition video file in half the time typically required by a USB 3.0 drive working in RAID 0 format.

Consisting of two 2.5-inch hard drives housed in a sleek aluminium enclosure, My Passport Pro is thoroughly shock-tested for extra durability to perform reliably when working on the go.

Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter