WD 1TB Black My Passport Ultra Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBGPU0010BBK-NESN

Pro: cheap, usb powered Con: ENCRYPTS EVERYTHING, NOT VIABLE FOR PORTABLE STORAGE. First, understand that an automatic backup function is critical to any backup storage device. It means that as you make changes to your computer, the program monitors them, and makes the appropriate updates to the backup hard drive. So if you have a folder of thousands of images, and you add 10 photos, the device will then backup those additional 10 photos. Not having auto backup means you would have to remember every change you made to your computer, and manually go to the hard drive and copy the files there as well. Auto backup is absolutely standard and expected on any device. Obviously with 1TB of data, you cant be expected to keep up with all the files and changes. The MAJOR problem is this.... If you are doing automatic back up on this device, it encrypts everything. That means the files are 100% useless on the harddrive unless you plug back in to your computer and go through a very very lengthy decryption process. You cannot just plug this drive in somewhere and view the files like you would on the computer. The files are broken down, split up, and are no longer usable files. The only way to make this a portable storage device, is by manually placing files on the drive. With 1TB of data, that is unreasonable. Hard to explain, but just know that this is NOT a good option for having a large portable storage device. You need an external drive that has an option to NOT encrypt everything.

Using this as a photo drive for my old MacBook Pro. The drive itself has worked reliably and it is exactly what I was looking for. I did have some issues using the WD software that came with the drive. When using the software the drive often wouldnt stay mounted. It would either disconnected after about a minute or refuse to be recognized. Removing the software seems to have solved the problem. I did not investigate further because I decided to just use the drive without the WD tools installed, which is what I normally do anyway.

This is by far the smallest external drive Ive ever owned. Its roughly 4 x 5 x 0.5 inches and easily slips into a carry on bag or laptop bag. The USB 3.0 cable looks very different from the USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 cables Ive used on other drives and needs to be stored with the drive -- which means it wont fit some of the cases advertised for it like the Lacdo case I bought for it. If you are going to get a special case, get one that is a full 6 inches long by 5 inches wide and 2 deep so you have space for the cable too. I love the magenta colour; definitely catches your eye so you are less likely to lose it or forget it when packing. I bought this for overseas travel and I expect great things from it. Do be aware that file transfer speed depends on the source you are downloading this to/from. Overall I am very happy and would consider getting more if the price and colours are right.

This is a very easy to use portable back up. Its one terabyte size stores your important cant loose data. I was able to copy large files off my Windows 8.1 laptop in a very short time. I didnt read the instructions (men dont do that) and was amazed at the ease that it worked. I also transferred data from my wifes Windows 10 with no issues. This appears well made and solid so taking it to work in a briefcase wouldnt be an issue. The files I set up are easy to access quickly from this device and very easy to add on a weekly basis. This is the best back up I have, and Western Digital is well know for quality.

Easy to set up, data transfer seems very fast. This external hard drive is used as a backup on three computers and goes readily from one to the other. I have had a WD external drive for several years and it has been completely dependable. It is just not large enough to keep the backups from three computers, especially since my wife loves to take LOTS of pictures and since she got an i-Phone, the necessary disk space has expanded greatly. I also like this color, as it really stands out from all the other black computer paraphernalia around my desks.

This backup drive does exactly what it says. No complaints, Perfectly satisfied, though it may not be as fast as advertised on some systems, including mine. On my computer, which is a 2014 era 1.86Ghz ASUS with 4Gb Ram, the process is a bit slow, even on a USB 3.0 slot. I used the included software to backup about 45 Gigs of documents, photos, and music for an initial trial. It took about 90 minutes for 45 Gigs. Thats about 1 Gig per two minutes, far from what some users report at 5 Gigs per second. This was on a USB 3.0 slot. So, just to warn you ahead of time, it may be pretty slow on low performance computers. Especially for large back ups. You can schedule backups hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly automatically, and the backup software that is included in this drive will update any information youve saved on your computers hard drive in that span of time. This is really convenient for me as a writer. I dont have to manually back up my files anymore. If Ive been working on a long file like a book for over a month, I can back up my whole document on the first backup, and then it will back up just the part Ive written since the last backup, in subsequent backups. For instance, I did my second backup today, and it was just 13 Megs of information that Ive added since my initial 45 Gig first backup. This second backup took about 40 minutes total. Backing up information can be done in the background if you want to work on other things while it is taking place, which makes the included software convenient. Just click one button for each subsequent backup, or if you have the Western Digital drive attached, it will backup at the specified hour, day, week, or month that you want to backup, automatically, with no click of a button.. You can initially choose which file paths and folders you want to backup. You dont have to back up your computers whole hard drive in automatic backups. In my case, I chose just Documents, Photos, and Music. As other users have hinted, the files are backed up on the Western Digital drive in a special file format with different file extensions than the source file on your hard drive. They appear in a bin folder on the Western Digital hard drive. Though not that obvious, they are still easy to find. Restoring backed up data is basically one click of a button as well, using the software included. I have not tried restoring data as yet. However, if you would rather back up your files manually and exactly as they are on your computers hard drive (same file names and extensions, etc.), you can do so just as easily as with any other USB drive. Simply copy the files directly to the Western Digital hard drive using your Windows File Explorer, like you would with any USB drive. Just out of curiosity, I copied my 45 Gigs of files manually a second time, not using the Western Digital backup software, but Windows file explorer instead. The process was painless and easy since Western Digital drive is formatted in NTFS, just like most computer hard drives. It only took 2 minutes for my computer to copy 45 Gigs of files directly to the Western Digital drive using Windows copy feature rather than Western Digitals software. This was on a USB 3.0 slot. So, it easy to use this drive with the included software, or just as a supplemental hard drive saving to it like you would any USB drive.

Pros: Works with USB 2.0 and 3.0, which is what you would expect. But its hard to find that info here. So there you have it. Come pre-partitioned for NTFS, with loads of government spyware for windows. I wiped it out and partitioned for Ext4 to use it for Linux. Works when directly connected to my Raspberry Pi 2 Model B without a hub (once I modified /boot/config.txt and added max_usb_current=1). Cons: The only thing I can think of to complain about is the activity LED seems like it should be on the opposite end of the drive as the cable, but it isnt. Its also illuminated when there is no activity, but blinks off and on when there is activity. Its also quite bright when you look right at it, though it doesnt seem to illuminate a dark room in an annoying way. The LED is white. WD My Passport 1 TB vs WD Elements 1TB I had a hard time choosing between this WD My Passport and the

Terrible product and terrible tech support from Western Digital. I continue to get an error message that all my files have failed to back up. I called Western Digital about this and she told me to close all programs. That did not solve the problem. I still get the error messages and I get very sarcastic help from Western Digital. When i try to remove the hard drive I get a message that the program is still running or an error message that I cant connect sometimes both. I would really like to return the product but it has files that have backed up and so I cant really return it unless I take it to my IT people at a cost to wipe it. I am very unhappy with this. I have used 2 other companies back up drives but told WD was the best, not for me. My other two hard drives were never a problem. Also I use a remote back up and that stopped backing up files when the WD is connected, I never had the problem before with other hard drive. I assume its the software not the actual drive.Yesterday I spoke with their tech dept yet again and they gave me directions for wiping the hard drive. It said it would take 139 hours which I think is a bit long to put 0s on a hard drive to wipe out data. During the night there was an error message that I discovered when I awoke this morning so I clicked on continue. It continues to run at a snails pace, I called again and was told the hard drive had many bad sectors. This is hardly Amazons fault. WD is supposed to have excellent external back ups so something needs to be fixed in their quality control dept. The Passport hard drive is on its way back to Amazon.

Great external hard drive. I bought it mostly to secure important documents in case anything ever happens to my laptop. So far it has done its job just fine. It is small and portable so it conveniently fits in any backpack, satchel, or travel bag. 1TB is more than enough space for basic documents, but Western Digital conveniently sells up to 4TB models for those who need the extra space. This is the older model, and Western Digital has just release the newer model for around the same price range. The newer model supposedly has faster reading/writing times, and it is more aesthetically pleasing with the new design having sharper corners. I would recommend Western Digital to anyone in the market for an External Hard Drive.

In August 2016 I replaced an older WD Passport that I had used for several years with this one. While my older Passport was still operating well, I was concerned about its age and decided a new one would provide more protection against possible storage failures. Unfortunately the new Passport began operating erratically one day in January 2017 and then failed completely - not allowing me access to my files. I have no idea why it failed. - and neither does the computer service specialist that I had look at it. I have enough faith in WD that I am purchasing a new Passport (my fourth) today. I just hope it lasts longer than my last one.