Questions regarding WD My Passport... [ Edited ]

[Scorpion0x17]

Hi,

I have two desktop PCs (one XP 'server', one Vista 'client'), have recently purchased a Windows 7 netbook (Lenovo S12-ION), and am considering the purchase of an external USB HDD to primarily use with the netbook.

I like the look of the WD My Passport, but wish to know a little more about the device before making a decision.

• Is it possible to get MTBF or other reliability data for the My Passport?
• Are there any known issues with the My Passport and the Lenovo S12-ION, or Windows 7, or Vista, or XP?

I am also unsure whether I need to purchase the Elite model with the docking-station for my purposes - as I said earlier, the USB-HDD will be primarily used with my netbook (for backup and storage), but I want also to be able to use it to sync data with my client PC, and to do further backups (that's backups of the My Passport) via my server PC.

• What extra features does the docking station (as available with the Elite model) provide?
• Is the docking station available seperately?
• Is the docking station a 'necessary' component in portable+client/server setups or to do what I require?
• Can a My Passport within a docking station be shared over a LAN?

Also, I wish to use both Microsoft's Windows 7 Backup and Lenovo's OneKey Recovery alongside Western Digital's SmartWare.

• Can this be done?
• Will it require the repartitioning of the drive?
• Can the drive be repartitioned at all?

Now, as you may know, Windows 7 Backup is a bit picky about what you can and can't do with different media types.

• Will Windows see the My Passport as an HDD or Removable Media?
• Or, in other words, will I be able to 'continue' a Windows Backup set stored on the My Passport after a reinstall/recovery?

I'm sure I've other questions, but that will do for now - thanks, in advance, for any and all answers to any of my questions, or any other information you might want to chuck my way.

EDIT: Oh, actually, one last question.

• I have two user accounts on my netbook that I wish to backup, are the My Passort and SmartWare software compatible with multiple users using the same single My Passport?

[Scorpion0x17]

Hello?

Anyone?

Anything?

[Scorpion0x17]

Well, this is one customer that won't be buying WD then.

Thanks everyone.

Bye.