Will a MacBook laptop be able to power a WD My Passport Essential portable hard drive?

Question

I bought one, but I just found out that not many laptops will power it. I wanted to know if my MacBook would be able to before I bothered opening it.

Answer 1

All Western Digital Passbook portable hard drives run off of a USB connection, meaning they operate and send data over a USB connection.  All laptops will run a passport drive as all USB connections should supply enough power to operate any external peripheral so long as you aren't trying to connect 4 or 5 different USB devices.  Western Digital's website states that the Passport Essential series of external drives run on Mac OS X 10.4.11+ or better, so given your OS version is new enough to support it, go ahead and open it up and enjoy.  If your MacBook has an older version of the operating system, I'd suggest returning the drive as it'd be entirely unsupported. If in doubt, just call western digital directly 1 [phone] and ask.

Answer 2

from what i've seen it should be able to, but please do not quote me on this.

Just open it and try it out, as long as you have the receipt you'll be fine!

EDIT: apple are selling them on their website, so yes, they wouldnt sell something that is incompatible with their products.

Sam