My brother graduation was in December. My sister and I thought to give him something nice as a graduation gift. She suggested we get him a portable hard drive as he can store his music and movie files in it. Since he was going to be moving back to Malaysia, it woud come in handy to have all the files he needs with him without having to bring the huge computer.

I know and heard about Western Digital Passport Portable External Drive. I checked the prices online and at Sam’s Club for the 160GB version. The prices were much different but buyingi from Sam’s Club would also mean I could have the HD with me immediately and mail it out to Australia ASAP. I paid $88.64 plus sales tax for this Western Digital Passport External HD 160GB at Sam’s Club.

I uploaded some pictures to the HD to see if it was working and it did. Then I mailed it out using the Global Priority Mail. The HD arrived safely in Adelaide and my brother was very happy about his new electronic device. He uploaded all the files he needed to bring back to Malaysia.

However, upon arriving back in Malaysia, the Western Digital 160GB Passport no longer was in working condition. He tried to connect it to several different computers but either the computer crashed or the USB port stop working. All the times, the light did blink on the HD. But then the whole system just hanged. He didn’t know what to do so he contacted me regarding this defect.

I researched online and found quite a number of complaint about this HD. How it pulls more power than the USB port or not able to work with MAC’s OS. I also sent in an email with the questions to Western Digital last Thursday morning, but has yet to hear from them. They said they usually reply within 1 day but sometimes may take up to 3 business days. I guess I will have to wait till tomorrow morning to find out if they do reply to my email.

I hate to have my brother mail me the HD back for service. So I do hope that we would be able to solve the problem through the emails. There might be a service center at WD in Malaysia but I am worry if he sends in for service, his files may get deleted and worse, getting a new refurbished HD for the one we got him less than a month old.