Western Digital brings 2TB to Macs

storage backup

Western Digital this week announced a new storage device to add to its portfolio, bringing much larger capacities to Apple Mac users.

The portable drive also has built in hardware encryption to keep the data safe and a hard metal exterior, protecting it for travel whilst also fitting in with Macbook aesthetic.

My Passport Studio is a 2TB portable drive which Western Digital

claims to be the first of such capacity for Macs with a USB 2.0 connection and two FireWire 800 ports. The extra ports provide faster transfer speeds and also enable users to attach extra devices to the drive whilst plugged into their laptop, such as cameras.

Western Digital is aiming the drive at professionals wanting to back-up their MacBooks whilst on the move, which fits in with the growing mobile worker population adopting Apple products.

"The My Passport Studio is a perfect companion for the MacBook Pro and for creative professionals on the go," said Jody Bradshaw, senior director and general manager of Western Digital's consumer storage products group.

"For those who create large content files such as photographers and videographers, they will now be able to carry it with them wherever they go, as well as create a backup copy of everything they produce without fear of running out of additional storage while on location."

The portable drive also has built in hardware encryption to keep the data safe and a hard metal exterior, protecting it for travel whilst also fitting in with Macbook aesthetic.

Although 2TB will be a welcome capacity for Mac users, Western Digital-owned HGST launched a 4TB internal hard disk for PCs this week and Seagate already offers a 4TB drive for Windows users, so the size of storage is still lacking for Apple users.

However, if you want to get hold of the best capacity yet, My Passport Studio is available now for $299.99 (189.50).

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.