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

This gets four stars instead of five because there is a major glitch with the included software that comes installed on the drive. Additionally, it is purported to be formatted for Mac but did not function properly out of the box (could have just been my computer, but I doubt it). RECOMMENDATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you ordered this for something like a Macbook Pro, as soon as you get it and plug it in, delete the software on the disc and reformat it to Mac OS X Journaled. IF YOU PLAN TO COPY OVER TO THIS NEW STORAGE THE CONTENTS OF AN OLD EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE, CHECK THE FORMAT OF THE OLD DRIVE: If the old drive is formatted as a case-sensitive device, format this new drive as case-sensitive as well. Otherwise, the transfer will not work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Otherwise, the drive is great and works as expected. Great deal for 2 TB. The read/write speeds are 8-9 times slower than my internal Samsung 850 EVO SDD, but that is 1) expected and 2) not a noticable factor in day-to-day use.

I have this WD 2TB Black hooked up to an XBox One, and have transferred all of my games to it from the Ones internal storage. I have noticed ZERO slowdown in the speed at which games load and play. If anything, it may be a bit faster... but that could be the placebo effect talking. The only complaint I have is that it has a blue light that blinks constantly, even when the One is in rest mode. I dont know if that means the One is accessing it every so often (maybe the One is a restless sleeper?) or if that is some characteristic of the drive itself. Either way, if it really annoyed me, I probably would have turned it sideways or put a piece of electrical tape over the light by now. Installed in December and have had no issues so far. Solid product.

I have used Western Digital products for several decades. Generally speaking, they are reliable (absolutely essential for this application) and fulfill my requirements perfectly. Most human beings, but especially Americans, are hoarders, whether they will admit it or not. In the case of storage devices for computers, software, movies, photographs, and files we seem to never have enough available storage capacity available. This product should provide a permanent solution for most of us, but only a temporary solution for others. In my situation I have a 16 TB Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that required a firmware upgrade that would delete all of the existing files. This product was purchased to provide a pre-upgrade storage location for my important files. After the upgrade was completed I planned to move all of my files back on to the NAS device. This strategy and plan worked perfectly for me. Now that the upgrade has been completed, I am continuing to use this product as a secondary or tertiary storage device for my tax practice. Almost all of my tax return documents and files cannot be replaced. I recommend that you read the User Manual for this product before you install it, and also use the WD Utility software that is included. I do not use all of the utility and functionality features and functions. I believe that the utility can be used to shut this product down before it is moved. This external storage drive is portable, but should not be moved while power is on and the device has not been properly shut down.

Works like a charm, (now)... The only problem i see is that these new hard drives come formatted as GPT (GUID) and not MBR and thats a problem when you perform a backup to this drive and then try and restore (you cant) at least when using Acronis backup software... These drives are pre-formatted to work with newer versions of Windows like Windows 10 NOT Windows 7 like Im using. I use Acronis backup software, when you try and create a backup you get a warning message that tells you that if you create this backup you will not be able to perform a restore because the destination disk was created using GPT (GUID) and not MBR. This is easily corrected by first moving the contents of the external drive (if you wish to keep them) to your internal hard drive then open Computer Management then select Disk Management and Right Click on this external drive and convert it to MBR then move the files back to the drive when your done and your ready to go.

Great backup drive and the small package makes for easy storage. I figure I can download new copies of our software, but not our document, photos and videos. I use two of these so I can always have one in a secure location (a safe deposit box at the bank.) I back up to the one on hand, then transfer it to the secure location. I then remove the one currently in storage and have it on hand for my next back up. I reformatted this drive on arrival because I didnt need the software that was pre-installed. To use to back up only our documents and photos, I simply create a new folder for each of us (labeled by date), then copy and send the files to that particular folder. I then am able to walk away while the transfer completes. Simple and it works! The USB 3.0 makes the entire process even faster. I dont know anyone who enjoys making back ups, but this helps it be finished quickly.

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!

I bought this 4 months ago as a back up drive because my iOmega drive is finally starting to fail after 5 years. This drive worked really well when I initially transferred about 150-200 gb of files to it the first day. After less than 10 uses, it can have trouble registering on any computer. When I plug it in, the drive whirrs and the light illuminates, but the computers simply dont see it. I end up unplugging and reinserting over and over until the computers are finally able to read it. Other days, it works fine and on the first try. And Im back on Amazon trying to find another drive that might be more reliable because its erratic functioning makes me worried that it will crash sooner than later. *UPDATE* After the first few weeks, it has been working much more consistently. Im still dont quite trust this drive after our rocky beginning, but its performance has been much improved over the last few months.

This is generally a good hard drive. Its fast and operates just like a hard drive should. Unfortunately, it failed after only 3 years of having it. The spindle motor had broken on the inside and it would not function. Which is pretty unfortunate, to say the least, because Ive had the hard drive in my laptop and my desktop for significantly longer and both of those drives still work. I had only bought the 2 year data recovery plan too, so I had to pay $1.2k to get all of my data off the hard drive. This is a good drive to get as long as you back up all your stuff on a different drive as well, or on cloud storage or something. Dont expect it to last more than 3 years. If it does, then thats great. I would invest the extra cash into a Solid State Drive, but if you need a cheap option for storage, this drive is just fine

This is the latest of several WD external hard drive I have owned. I would say their design has evolved to make this USB powered HDD a real gem - quiet and unobtrusive, and so far excellent performance (given that I am using the USB 3 drive on a USB 2 iMac). It was listed as an external drive for the Mac, but it came formatted for Windows. I understand this is typical, and it was relatively easy to reformat for the Mac, but it does strike me as a bit of misrepresentation. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this external HDD, with the proviso that youll have to reformat it to use it with a Mac.

For full disclosure, I was a fan of Western Digitals drives before I bought the unit... Ive lost several drives to malfunction and not one of them was a Western Digital (maybe one seagate which isnt a bad brand and several others). I had expectations of the device some were on spot, others were different. I ordered the black 1 TB unit and by the pictures I saw, I was expecting the unit to be made of a high gloss plastic... it wasnt, its actually a low sheen matte finish that I quite like and seems fairly scratch resistant (so thats a plus) needless to say fingerprints arent an issue. The unit is thinner than I thought it would be, its less than a centimeter thick, otherwise its a little wider and somewhat taller than a deck of playing cards. Mine has a white LED light on the front that lets you know when its in operation and this was something I hadnt noticed while browsing and its useful for me as there is no sound whatsoever (you will feel a little vibration if its beside you on the couch youre laying on of course. The drive copies pretty quick for my liking but I wont be making any appraisal of that feature since my laptop doesnt have USB 3.0 which the unit supports, so technically Im getting slower speeds than I should and its fine for me. The software bundled with the unit (which is actually saved on the drive itself ready for install is a pretty standard backup utility which gives you the option to back up whichever files you choose automatically, whether every day, every week, or every month, you will be asked when in the month (eg. first Monday) you want this backup to occur. For some reason this backup was alot slower for me than it would have been for me to copy a file of similar size and paste it directly, perhaps its archiving it in a way that allows future backups to just be of any added or modified files... I cant say as Ive yet to have my second backup. Bundled is also a drive status utility (?) That sits in your system tray beside the backup utility which displays how much of the drive is filled, lock status (mine is still unlocked, so I cant speak of encryption observations) and temperature status... mine says ok all the time and it feels as such. I havent noticed these running programs affecting my old laptops performance at all. I expected the unit to be made of a cheaper, thinner plastic with noticeable flex... I was pleasantly surprised. Theres no flex to it, it feels well built, Ive even walked around with the unit dangling by its USB cord (which I dont advise) it stays, it gives you confidence like that. Id buy another in a minute... for the price Id have been happy with alot less... for what I got, I might have paid more.