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Western Digital announces new wireless hard drive for on-the-go backups

Western Digital announces new wireless hard drive for on-the-go backups

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Western Digital

Photographers are always happy to have another backup, so Western Digital is introducing a new hard drive meant to make it easier to store photos while on the go. The new drive is called the My Passport Wireless Pro — it's an updated model of the My Passport Wireless that was introduced in 2014. Like its predecessor, the drive has an SD card slot and Wi-Fi for importing photos; once images are on the drive, a laptop or tablet can wirelessly connect to view and manage everything that's been backed up.

More storage and better ways to manage it

The Pro model has an updated design, but the key change is around file management, which is much more natural this time around. With the original model, the hard drive would automatically pull in all new photos from an SD card; on this new model, you can wirelessly browse the contents of the SD card and choose which file you want to sync. Though that adds a step, it gives photographers more options about how to manage their images, which is ultimately a good thing. Western Digital also makes iOS and Android apps that can be used to manage the drive from a phone or tablet. The drive is also supposed to be easy to hook up to Plex.

The drive only comes in HDD options, but they all include a large amount of storage. Western Digital will sell a 2TB model for $229 and a 3TB model for $249, beginning today. Alongside the My Passport Wireless Pro, Western Digital is also introducing a Pro version of its My Cloud series of network-attached storage units. Pricing will range from $399.99 up to $1,649.99, with the highest model holding up to 32TB of storage.