LAKE FOREST, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new one terabyte (TB) and 750 gigabyte (GB) capacity My Passport™ Essential™ SE Portable USB Drives. Available now at WD's online store (www.shopwd.com), the new drives feature a titanium silver finish and put massive storage capacity in the palm of your hand.

Perfect for saving, storing and backing up all of the digital memories captured this summer, the new 1 TB and 750 GB capacity My Passport Essential SE drives are light and compact to carry and, because they are USB-powered, they do not need an external power adapter (1). Equipped with sync and encryption software (Windows®-compatible only), this small drive, with mega-capacity, makes it easy to securely carry thousands of songs or videos or photos.

WD Sync software allows consumers to easily take desktop content with them by simplifying the synchronization of essential personal files and Microsoft® Outlook® data on a PC. Should owners misplace the drive, they know their data is protected with 128-bit encryption.

"The enormous capacity of these new My Passport Essential SE drives makes them the perfect travel-friendly storage device to hold all the rich media content generated by higher resolution photos and HD videos and music," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "Carrying digital files close at hand continues to be a growing consumer interest and this new drive offers a sleek and stylish solution with plenty of storage capacity for people on the move."

A product specification sheet and photos of My Passport Essential SE drives are available on the company's Web site at http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=691.

Price and Availability
WD's My Passport Essential SE portable drives are available now in the U.S. at select retail stores and from WD's online store (www.shopwd.com). MSRP for the My Passport Essential SE 1 TB portable drive is $299.99 USD and for the 750 GB model is $199.99 USD.

Western Digital's My Passport Essential SE portable drive. Photo provided by Western Digital Corp.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products. WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital, WD, and the WD logo are registered trademarks; My Passport Essential and WD Sync are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. One gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

(1) An optional cable is available for the few computers that limit bus power.