Western Digital’s 500GB My Passport Essential will now come in limited edition designs thanks to students at California State University, Long Beach’s Industrial Design program. The drives will come in Boom Box, Black Hole, Cityscape, Fuchsia Leaf and Wave decorative patterns.

Obviously these are targeted at students who want some extra style. The new drives are compatible with Windows and feature WD SmartWare software that offers a visual method for performing backups of your data via a single-screen view of the contents. There’s also user-selected password protection combined with 256-bit hardware-based encryption.

In storage news WD has updated several of its external HDD storage devices for the media lover in you. The new My Book Essential comes in 1TB for $149, 2TB for $229.99 and 500GB capacities for $99.99. The My Book for Mac is available with 1TB for $149.99.

While the My Passport Essential comes in capacities of 500GB for $139 or 320GB for $99.99. My Passport for Mac is available in 500GB for $149.99 and 320GB for $119.99.