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

I always reformat these into Apple journaled format and I setup 2 partitions. One partition is just a little bigger than my system drive on my laptop.... on this laptop it was 256Gb SSD. That leaves another 1.7 Tb partition for external storage. These Passport Ultra Drives are super fast at USB 3 and work well with Apple laptops when completely erased and reformatted. Im sure they work fine as they come, which is HFS+. I dont like any of the software WD includes, its just my personal taste, and what I want the drive to do. I set up the Backup partition to be my TImeMachine drive, and then my laptop is always backing up to this drive. I like that, because if I disconnect the drive, the autobackup on Timemachine is set to only backup if the drive is connected. That way, if I dont want to lose CPU bandwidth because of hourly backups, and I dont want to have to remember to tell the backup drive to STOP backing up, I can just attach the drive when Im not active on any laptop, and leave the laptop plugged in. We have around 4 or 5 laptops setup like this at our house (Kids,Wife,Husband, etc ) - all work flawlessly.

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.

Its been a few years since I purchase my last external hard drive. I was due for a new one, and this one looked like it was up my alley. Here are some of my thoughts on it: Pros: - I love the portability. My last external hard drive was about 2 or 3 times the size of this, it required 2 cords to be plugged in (one to an outlet and one to the computer), and it came with all these little pieces to help it stand up. This one is much smaller, and it only has one cord (connecting to the computer - which also powers the hard drive). - I love the speed on this! I had to backup a failing hard drive and this did the trick much quicker than I expected. - Its a lot more quite than other external hard drives that Ive used. While I was doing my backups, there were several occasions where I had to feel it to make sure it was still working. Its nice that it just blends into the background and doesnt become an annoyance. - Ive used this on several computers (Windows), and I love how quickly it connected and was ready to go. Cons: - There wasnt really anything that I dont like about this. I did try to connect this to a computer that was running Windows XP (which this hard drive is not supposed to be compatible with). It took a little while, but I was able to look online and find a fix for that, and I was soon able to get it work on my Windows XP machine. So... yeah, no complaints so far. Im really happy with this hard drive. Ive had it for about a month, and its been very reliable. Id definitely recommend to anyone whos looking into getting a nice, affordable external hard drive.

I had purchased the 1TB unit and needed more for video and music production storage. These little drives are great. They are not as fast as an internal hard drive,( a couple of seconds slower) probably due to the fact that they are USB, but they do their job. I can also hook it up to a laptop for portability. At this point I really think this is a good buy and a convenient way to store my producing. I also have an internal backup drive on my PC and between all of these drives and the cloud I feel confident that all will be well.

I bought this some time in high school, probably sophomore year so around 8 years ago and this is still going strong. I took a lot of pictures and videos in high school and this was really good to store them on. I could keep it in my backpack or my jeans pockets size-wise. After 7 years with it, I had used it all I needed. My friends game with each other a lot and one needed more storage for his console so I gave him this and he said its made things so much quicker! He also says its never noticeable taking it with him because its so light and compact.

Back to the days of plug and pray I guess. Hooked this up to my PC running Windows Vista. Had trouble loading driver software (hung up). Left it plugged in and restarted my PC - Windows operating system hung up on black screen until I unplugged the drive. Apparently it Windows was trying to boot through the drive! If I attache it AFTER Windows has started, I can use it to store data, but must remove it after using and before shutting down - or else my PC hangs on the black screen again. Using their (WDs) website to correct this (apparently known) problem just caused more headaches. Would not recommend. Update 1/9/18 - Works just fine with my new Windows 10 PC. Upgraded to 4 stars.

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.

I am extremely disappointed in this purchase. I purchased this less than two months ago to replace another Western Digital external hard drive for Mac, and I am already having the same issue with no resolution. Initially the hard drive worked fine, but after 4-5 weeks it suddenly became very temperamental; claiming that the device was disconnected when I would shift position of the cord slightly. After a week or two of that, it was no longer recognizable, yet the light was on and it appeared to make noise as if it were on. My computer recognizes it is plugged in, but I am unable to access it. I have spent many hours trying to find a solution through the website and other sources with no solution. I work in two fields where we constantly need to be using external hard drives, and this is unacceptable. I am legally obligated to securely store data for three to five years for my job in academia. I have lost money in my photography job, as I am unable to access photos that I need to get to clients in a timely manner, not to mention the few dollars I spent to buy a third cord to make sure it wasnt a wiring issue. I have spent countless hours reprocessing photos that I had finished before because I keep my raw images on another disk. I gave this product two stars because it does have a three year warranty and I was able to spend an additional $10 for insurance in case I have to pay someone to retrieve the data from the disk. Unfortunately, I do not trust this brand any longer and I will not be using the warranty just so I can switch brands. Additionally, the company contacted me after I had complained about these issues via Twitter. Despite me sending them my personal information so they could resolve the issue, I have yet to receive a phone call or email from them.

Purchased this as an alternative to a very bulky 1TB backup drive for my Macbook Pro. As a photographer, photos and videos amass on my computer at an alarming speed. And because of the high quality nature of the files, I know its time to do a clean out when my whole system starts to slow down. The problem was, having to set up an external drive with an independent power source was just annoying. This little gem has twice the storage and is about a quarter of the size of my other drive. I keep it within reach of my bed, where I do 99% of my editing. Whenever I need to dump files, or pull files, my passport drive is so convenient and FAST. RAW files and high definition video files have no problems jumping ship from my mac to the passport in a very timely fashion. Ultra Portable really does mean ultra portable for this little black book. If I know Ill be shooting a lot of footage that Ill need to dump later, or I may need to retrieve old photos for editing, chucking my passport into my backpack or camera case is so convenient. Also, not having to find yet another plug to power it with while my phone, computer, and spare camera battery are charging is a relief. I dont have to worry about knocking it over, sucking up dust, or tripping over wires. Awesome little product. No cons! Buy it!

I bought this item for my sons xbox one. he was needing a hard drive to store all his games on. This hard drive comes with 2 Tg of memory which is way more than he will ever use. The price was really good on it and i love the size of it. it is small and stores well with his xbox one. here are the descriptions of the hard drive: Secure portable storage with up to 3TB capacity • Optional 256-bit AES hardware encryption • Automatic local and cloud backup • Stylish design with a range of exciting colors • USB 3.0 connectivity • Formatted for Windows, reformatting required for Mac • 3-year limited warranty I feel like this was a really great purchase for him and it does everything we expected!