WD 1TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYNN0010BBK-WESN

The first I bought this I thought it was strange how it beeps when it’s plugged into my computer and plus it was broken but I was able to return it and get a brand new one. Changed it to exfat and everything and it works perfectly fine so far. The only thing I didn’t like is how easily the plastic on the top half is very easy to scratch. Other than that it works perfectly.

Just received my 1T Passport External Drive from Amazon today. Very slow on my Lenovo Windows 10 laptop. Still waiting for it to finish backing up 78 GB. Only 1.5 GB completed in over 90 minutes. Also, I setup folders for each of my 3 computers so that I could backup each one into its own folder. The software does not allow you to specify a folder on the drive or maybe I somehow missed it. Not very excited about this purchase. Next time Ill invest a bit more money for an SSD.

Let me start by saying that I was ready return this hd (or chuck it against the wall) after multiple unsuccessful amateur troubleshooting and reformatting attempts. Im running MacOS High Sierra 10.13, which is not included on the WD support page. Their instructions sound simple - open Disk Utility, erase, reformat in exFat. If your computer is like mine, it gives you an error message when you attempt to erase and reformat. Thats when I was ready to whip it against the wall and call it a day. Reluctantly, I decided to call WD tech support. I spoke to a very nice man from another country who was able to help. **To reformat for MacOS High Sierra 10.13** -Go to support.wdc.com, then scroll down to Software for Mac and click WD Drive Utilities for Mac to download. -Once all is downloaded, open WD Drive Utilities. -Make sure your hd is plugged in, then select it at the top of the page (mine shows an image of My Passport Ultra). -Click Drive Erase, make sure Format is HFS+J, select the check box, then Erase Drive. -Your hd should now show up on your desktop ready for files to drop. Now that its reformatted, its working as expected. (Photo note: slightest bit of oil on your hands will change the color of your hd...)

Ive had this external hard drive for about 2 and half months now and everything is fine so far. Its size makes it easy to store and very portable. I use it to backup files for school and to free up memory on my laptop. The only con Ive experience is the software needed to use the hard drive. Unfortunately Im unable to use it at school because it needs a special program in order to function and downloading programs on campus computer isnt permitted. Therefore Im limited to using it on my personal devices.

Using these with a unix file system, youll keep chuggin, not worry, and store away. ZFS, Btrfs, Ext4, APFS, etc. Avoid FAT based filesystems and NTFS as they fragment easily and wear down mechanical hard drives faster.

This is my first external USB portable drive and I do like it quite a bit. Its small, sleek, and very quiet. I dont even notice when the drive is active. The included USB cable is rather short so I purchased a 3 ft cable to give me more flexibility in terms of how I connect the drive and place it relative to my desktop. I reformatted the drive, effectively wiping out the included software, which I didnt really want or need. The drive activity light is on the same end as the USB connection, which seems backwards to me. It makes more sense to me to put the light on the opposite end. The only issue I had was upon initial installation of the drivers. The Western Digital SES Driver failed to install on Windows 7. Fortunately, a legacy driver is available for download from WDs web site. The driver is not required in order to use the drive, but if you dont install it youll always get a driver failure when you login. I did reinstall Windows 7 for various unrelated reasons and the SES Driver did install successfully after a clean Windows reinstall. So, I image if your Windows is clean and fully up to date you may not have any issues installing the SES Driver. Overall I think its a great drive. Im withholding one star though, because of the short cable and the issue installing the SES Driver.

I bought this back in 2018 didnt even use but maybe a couple of times - it sat around for years and then thought yeah Im going to move all my vids and pics to it. Well it doesnt work. It will not initialize, computer doesnt recognize it. Do a search on the web for My Passport has fatal error - there is no help other then to say try a different computer of coarse by a new cable did that and some other check disk stuff, no way around it. There is no way out of this error. Wasted Money.

Mac users running El Capitan and Sierra: The instructions in the online manual for preparing the drive for use on a Mac are incorrect. If you follow the manual instructions that tell you how to use the Mac Disk Utility already on your computer to erase and reformat the new drive, you will receive the FAIL info box. My new drive was set up for Windows when it arrived and I needed to erase and reformat it for Mac OS. Since I only wanted a simple external drive that was portable and could hold all the stuff I was working on, I had no need for partitioning. When you open the disk utility, you will see My Passport (volume) and My Passport XXXX Media....... in the left hand column. Click on the TOP (My Passport .....Media....) listing to select it. Dont click on the bottom (volume) listing as shown in the online manual. Then go up top and click on ERASE. You will see a box open up that shows a drop down box: My Passport .......Media....... The second line will show four possibilities and I selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled) The bottom line should be selected GUID ...... Hit erase and let your disk utility go to work. When it is done (mine took a couple of minutes) you are ready to drag files in and out of your My Passport on your Mac.

I had to give up my old computer for a new one and get all my data transferred over. I needed a little help since I hadnt restored from My Passport before. A Western Digital tech really helped me out. Now I believe I have the confidence to do it myself next time and feel comfortable about it, so I bought a new one to back up my new computer. I highly recommend My Passport as an external backup.

I purchased this WD 1TB Black My Passport HD to use a long with a digital tuner for the purpose of recording antenna TV. It`s a great Hard Drive. My wallet is bigger and thicker then this Hard Drive. You have to see it to believe it. It`s not just for TV use as it states. I have five episodes of Empire on it, to watch when ever I want. How can you beat that. So, for my use of recording TV, it`s fantastic. Size, price, and multi use, I`m happy.