Western Digital redesigns 'My Passport' and 'My Book' USB hard drives for Windows and Mac

USB hard drives can be an important part of your backup plans. Whether for home or business, they allow you to easily backup your files and then take them with you. You can even lock the drive in a safe for extra security. While you can also use the cloud for backing up data, redundancy with a USB HDD is very smart -- just in case.

Western Digital's USB hard disk drives are wildly popular, and today, the company announces a refresh of two such models for Windows and Mac -- the 'My Passport' and 'My Book'. The concept is the same -- a mechanical hard drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure -- but they are now more stylish. The My Passport comes in six fun colors -- the Type-A cable even matches!

"As part of the reimagined design, the My Passport drives will come in six vivid colors -- Black, Yellow, Red, White, Orange and Blue -- while still providing reliable portable storage that perfectly complements an on-the-go lifestyle. The My Passport for Mac drive is available in a stylish Black color. The trusted desktop storage device, My Book, combines personal style with a massive amount of storage space, up to 8 TB, so users can keep their photos, videos, music, and documents. Each storage device comes with an automatic backup solution for a seamless, user-friendly process, as well as password protection to keep your precious data safe", says Western Digital.

Jim Welsh, SVP Content Solutions Business Unit, Western Digital explains "as the storage landscape continues to rapidly evolve, and the bars for design and user-experience have increased, the team focused on the design and user experience to catapult My Passport and My Book to the next level. Through the reimagined design language, we want to engage consumers in a conversation about how storage is core to their lives and how they feel more empowered by the real benefits of capturing, protecting and enjoying life’s precious memories".

Western Digital shares the following features.

• My Passport
  • New attractive design with textured bottom
  • Password protection with 256-bit AES hardware encryption
  • Automatic backup with included WD Backup software
  • Up to 4TB capacity
• My Passport for Mac
  • New attractive design with textured bottom
  • Password protection with 256-bit AES hardware encryption
  • Formatted for Mac OS X and Time Machine ready for easy backup
  • Up to 4TB capacity
• My Book desktop hard drive (Windows and Mac)
  • Password protection with hardware encryption
  • Automatic backup with included WD Backup software
  • Up to 8TB capacity

The "My Passport" (starting at $79.99) features a 2.5 inch laptop drive, and is bus-powered. The Mac version is identical, except formatted for Apple's operating system and only available in black. If you are a Mac owner and prefer one of the other colors (I love yellow), don't worry -- you can always reformat them for Mac. The "My Book" (starting at $129.99) features a 3.5 inch desktop drive and requires external power -- it is for those that need larger capacities.

While Western Digital does not list Linux support, there is no reason why all the drives can't be formatted in a file system such as ext4. The only thing that won't work is the included backup software, but there are plenty of free open source options available for Ubuntu, Fedora, and others.

Which drive will you buy? Which color? Tell me in the comments.