Western Digital is the first company to release a 2.5-inch solid-state hard drive holding 2.5 Terabytes

In light of a series of destructive floods in Thailand that damaged production facilities, Western Digital made the decision to reduce the strength of their warranties in January of 2012. During the fiscal quarter in which the flood occurred, the company suffered a 36% slash in net income, equating to about $200 million dollars.

The life of traditional, disk-based hard drives spans between three to five years. Digital storage devices such as My Passport, however, are in solid state, containing no moving parts. As a result, they last longer and can endure a significantly higher level of every-day abuse.

My Passport features software that works independently in order to perpetually back-up and protect important data at bare minimum demand on systems. The service also comes with data encryption software, providing users with another type of protection.

My Passport includes several valuable features, such as USB 3.0 connectivity, whereas the previous edition required more than eight minutes to transfer 2,000 songs. USB 3.0 reduces time of transfer by more than 50%.

The other advantage to 3.0 is that it does not require an external power source for operation.

The primary use for products like Western Digital's My Passport is backing up digital systems in case of emergencies. As digital media grows in size to keep pace with high-def playback systems, consumers need devices like these to store movies and music.

Also available is MyPassport's big brother: My Book ThunderBolt Duo. The Duo is available in both 4 and 6 TB versions. Prices start at $600.