Western Digital announces the My Passport and My Book external HDD lines now have new "modern and innovative" designs, the result of a partnership with branding firm fuseproject.

Supposedly built with the customer in mind, the updated HDDs also feature password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption to further the protection of the data inside, as well as increased storage capacities.

“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,” WD says. “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.”

My Passport drives now come in 6 colours-- black, yellow, red, white, orange and blue-- while the My Passport for Mac comes just in black. My Passport drives offer up to 4TB capacity in a palm-size design, and include automatic backups via WD Backup software and, in the case of the Mac version, Time Machine-ready OS X formatting.

Meanwhile the My Book desktop HDDs come in up to 8TB capacity and are designed for high capacity PC and Mac backups through WD Backup software.

My Passport and My Book drives are available now.

Go WD Unveils New Design Language with Redesigned Lines of Iconic My Passport and My Book Hard Drives