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

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

I found the product to deficient. It comes with very inflexible backup software. Worst of all, it does not properly recover the backed up files! After purchasing a new laptop, I shrank and partitioned my laptop’s hard drive partition. I moved all of my data files from my old laptop, from my Maxtor backup, and from other sources onto folders on my new drive partition. I installed the WD software. I attempted a backup. I was amazed at how inflexible the supplied backup software is! One can backup the entire system, or some system folders on a drive’s partition, or a drive’s entire partition. First of all, I do not want a complete backup. I just wanted to backup my data partition. Secondly, I have no idea on how to specify a “system folder”. Thus, not all of my root folders, on my secondary data partition, were selectable. Thirdly, I did not want to back up an entire partition. I settled for backing up the entire newly created laptop’s data partition. The backup went well. I performed several automated backups. These incremental backups went well. I wanted a smaller primary partition and a larger secondary partition on my laptop. Thus, I, again, shank and partitioned new laptop’s primary partition again. In order to get a single larger secondary partition, I had to delete my current secondary partition, which contains all of my laptop data. I then joined the two new partitions into a single (and larger) partition and formatted this new partition. I felt that I was safe. New laptop, new backup drive, and tested software, why not? I had about 139gb of data on my WD drive. Using the WD software, I attempted a recovery three times. All three failed with a message, which suggested that I check the cable or the USB port. I panicked! I decided to use the Windows 10 software for recovery. I really panicked. By mistake, I selected CUT instead of COPY! After the files were moved, I looked at the dates on my files. They were clobbered. Some dates were correct. Most dates were the date of my original backup. The WD backup was empty! I had no options except to back up my files with clobbered dates onto the WD backup! This backup worked just fine. It is too bad that the WD recovery software failed three times. Note that the same cable and same port, which was used for the three failed WD recoveries, was used for the Windows 10 recovery and the WP backup. Does this smell like rotten software? Or, does it smell like possibly bad hardware? All I know is it smells. Now, the vast majority of my files on my laptop and my WD backup drive have clobbered date information. I would suggest using this product only if you are not going to do a recovery!

This is a great device to have especially if youre upgrading to a new Windows or new computer. This will store and back up all of your computer valuables that you may not want to loose. You can drag and drop things into this drive, and you can also set it up where it will automatically back your stuff up. One thing I ran into when installing the apps that came with it was when it offered to update it would end up never finishing. So what I did was tell it to update later and finish installing the apps. After the apps are installed and you attempt to open one it will it will ask again, and at this time the updates should work. Overall, great product, I havent had any issues with it yet.

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.

I bought this drive hoping to back up my entire computer to it, which worked absolutely perfectly. I own a Mac, and while the packaging stated Windows 10, It worked perfectly well after a simple reformatting (This is also stated in the Features and Details section of the product). In terms of aesthetics, the drive stays fairly slim, but is completely composed of plastic. The plastic is not horrible, its really nice actually, but I still would have preferred a different build material, one that would protect the internals more. I did purchase an add-on case, so I think that takes care of the problem. I do not have too much experience with backup drives as I usually dont take the way of caution and instead decide to trust my computers SSD, but with this drive I am happy to say the switch has been fast and easy. I think it was well worth the asking price compared to other options, especially for a name brand like WD. I would suggest this to anyone looking for a simple USB backup drive.

This is the first time I have ever bought an external hard drive. Did not really know what to expect from this thing but gave it a shot. Ive been using this thing for a while now and have not run into any problems with it at all. I was a little nervous because I used sd cards a lot and always get a notification that something is wrong with the card or that theres a card reading error or something like that. However I have not received anything like that with this thing. I am into media and music so I use it for storing extra project files, movies, videos, and pictures that I am working on. I use it between my surface pro tablet and laptop a lot but have not run into any errors or complications what so ever. I take very good care of it so it is always in my backpack or at home. I never dropped it so I dont know how sturdy it really is but seems like it was built with good quality in mind. It looks very nice, small, and is very light and easy to carry around. Overall a great buy.

Let me first say that I have no problem with the reliability or performance of this product. My issue is a software one that Western Digital has enacted to try to steer customers to their more expensive products. I bought this drive for a small business, with the intention of attaching it to the USB port of our Linksys Smartrouter to use as a file server and backup for several computers in our local network. When I did so, I found that the WD Backup app could not detect the drive, even after I mapped it in Windows10. Upon searching the internet to try and solve the problem, I found that there was a program called WD Anywhere and the screen shots of it appeared to be exactly what I needed. However, it was nowhere to be found on the WD support website, even after I went through their registration process to gain full access to the site. My next step was to email their support, expecting that theyd have a solution. Below is the reply I received. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you are experiencing. I am happy to assist you with your inquiry. Western Digital doesnt support using our USB external drives as network drives connected through a router, so for best use of this function you might want to consult with the router manufacturer. WD Smartware, or WD Backup will not detect a USB drive mapped as a network drive, the drive needs to be connected directly to a computer or use one of our WD NAS drives such as the WD My Cloud which do work with WD Smartware for backups. And here is my response to that email. Thank you for your polite and informative reply. I have to say that I am not pleased at all by it. Your Smartware is not very smart if it cannot detect your drive on a local network. I can only conclude that your company has chosen to exploit customers into purchasing your other product line when it is really not necessary. You used to offer WD Anywhere backup software which does exactly what I need and Windows backup works fine on your drive when it is connected to my router. I guess Ill use that, and Ill also be sure to post my opinions on Amazon. Consider my case closed. In closing, the WD Passport Ultra 1 TB drive is a solid product at a good price. The My Cloud product that WD recommended to me is significantly more expensive for no gain, under my intended use of the product. It is not impossible for WD to make their less expensive drives work over a local network, but they choose not to. UPDATE: Soon after this review posted, I received another email from WD. Here is what they said. I apologize for the disappointment experienced due to the performance of our software. WD Anywhere Backup is still available in our website but it is not compatible with Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 so it might not work as you need. Still let me provide for you the software installer. WD Anywhere Backup Software (Windows) [...] I appreciate their honest communication but I have no desire to try this on Win10 if they say it isnt compatible.

Im using this drive as a offsite backup, and it works fine. I am also using it with a Mac, which requires a re-format. That is very easy to do using the Disk Utility built into OSX--but it takes a while. Im not willing to pay more for the same drive in a Mac version. I now have three WD backup drives, and they all look the same except that this one is blue. The colors are more than a fashion statement; they let you identify drives used for different purposes at a glance. I AM willing to pay a little more for Western Digital over drives from other brands. They have proven more reliable for me over the years. Its much too soon to comment on the reliability of this one.

Dead simple to use, very compact to make it portable...its really a good drive. I dont even notice its in my bag, and the fact that it runs entirely off USB means no additional (and bulky) power supply. I have to confess to being surprised at how inexpensive mass storage has become...1 TB is really quite a bit of space at this price point. Installation is so easy as to be trivial - on a Windows 7 machine, I just plugged it in...the drive was recognized immediately and ready to go in about 2 minutes. Data transfer is speedy enough to support watching movies. My major nit is all the crap that is on the drive. Frankly, Im not going to use something like this for automatic backups...for me this is a portable drive, not really something thats going to be plugged in all the time. I didnt need nor want any of the applications on the drive, so I just deleted them all. Anyway, a good drive, especially for the money. I like it a lot.

I had the worst day when I bought this, I wasnt expecting Western Digital to neglect Apple computers this much. Heres what happen, upon the un-boxing and hook it up right away, I find out that it is not Mac enable at the start. I bought 3 Externals back in 2009, and Had no problem, just plug and go, on my Xbox 360, PS3, Mac, and PC. I decided to update once the TBs drop in price, and I saw this one in a good deal. I pour through the instructions for about 20 mins, until I decide to go there web site. The Web site gives me nothing on why my Mac 2011(Summer) would not read the device. Then I search google, I come across Mac World Magazine forums. Where they sent me on a round about click session to reformat the device. In addition, to not once but twice having to reformat it for Mac and PC, because it would not work on my PS4 the first time. After a 3 hour process, I can say, I may shop other external SSD/HDDs, What really makes me upset, is the Security system; by that, I mean, once a day when I turn my computer on in the morning it takes an extra minute to wake it self up because the security program locks up the whole process; asks for a password every time, even though I set it to remember my computer. What is more of an hassle is when my computer goes to sleep, I just eject it and leave it unplug most of the time until I really need it because it will say it can be open but I have to reconnect the whole device upon reawakening my computer. After that Minute wait to activate and use; it works like a great hard drive.