This past week I took a trip over to my local Best Buy and decided to purchase a portable hard drive.  I noticed that one of my mentors was using a similar device for hosting Virtual PCs so I thought I would give it a try.  The following are my initial reasons for purchase:

1. Consolidate Virtual PC’s and Demos
2. Need to Synchronize documents on multiple computers
3. Good disk I/O for portable drive

Consolidate Virtual PC’s and Demos

From time to time I do quite a few demos at work, AITP, code camp etc.  I want to consolidate all my presentations, sample code, virtual drives etc. so I could repeat a presentation on the go as needed.  This device works great for this purpose.  A benefit of the WD My Passport is that the device is so small it fits in my pockets.  I now take the portable drive almost everywhere I go. 

Synchronize Documents

I have many files going all the way back to college on several computers.  I want to be able store and/or modify versions of these files on a single device without having to worry about manual synchronization.  Basically, If I make a modification to a document on the portable device I want to be able to synchronize these changes when I connect the portable hard drive back to the computer that hosts the original version of the file.

The WD Sync application that comes with the WD Passport accomplishes this task.  This application allows you to create profiles for computers and allows you to sync documents, photos, videos, email and more.  I was easily able to modify documents from different computers and sync them back with the original pc.  I am very impressed with WD Sync.  It takes a few minutes to understand the functionality but its a great free tool.

Test Disk I/O

Using SQLIO and perfmon I was able to create a quick test to put this portable hard drive to the test.  From the following screen shot below you can see an average disk transfers/sec is 102.093.  This result isn’t great but I believe its workable for a portable hard drive.

Conclusion

For only spending $90 I believe this is a good device.  Are you currently using portable hard drives? If so, which model are you are using? What are your favorite features?