WD 2TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBS4B0020BBK-WESN

This product is great! It comes with a lot of product support and has a great file transfer speed. PROS: Well packaged Comes with Software for PIN CODE Security Comes with Software for Automatic Backup Update Fast File Transfers Light Indicator (Sleep Mode, File transfer, OFF) CONS: The USB Cable is a bit Short Case is not drop resistant (but most external hard rives arent)

I have been using WD Passport as my backup since 2015. I own two previous versions of the product (purchased 2015 and 2016), and the old ones are still working with no problems. However, the warranty is expired. I purchased two new ones in September 2019. I am unhappy with the software provided with the new version. The main reason I purchased WD Passport in the past was for the built-in password protection software, but the new software is not working. Im not a software engineer so I dont know why its not working, but Ill tell you exactly what happened in case this helps. I had a previous version of the WD Passport software installed on my computer. When I plugged in the new Passport, it offered to upgrade my software. However, the upgrade didnt work. There was a component of the old software that refused to uninstall. I couldnt get the WD password protection software to work on my new Passport, so I reformatted the new Passport and used a different encryption software that I had to purchase separately. As far as I can tell, the hardware is working perfectly to back up my files, but the software that came with the Passport was a bust. If you dont mind doing manual backups, this would not be a problem. If you rely on the software to make your backups automatically, this would be a major issue. I am perfectly happy making manual backups, and I have had good experience with the WD brand in the past, so I decided to stick with it. The hardware seems to be sturdy, because it got shaken around in a very loose box, and still worked when it got here. I purchased a second WD Passport off the same product page, but in a different color. The new Passport has a slightly different design and a slightly different cord was provided with it. I managed to get the old WD Passport software completely uninstalled off my computer, after multiple attempts. I tried to install the new software. The installation appeared to be a success, but when I ejected the Passport and plugged it back in, and tried to use the new WD Passport software to set a password, the software said that I didnt have a USB disk plugged in. Im not sure if this is because Im still using USB 3.0, and the new Passport is built for USB-C. They supplied a converter that lets you plug into USB 3.0, but maybe the software doesnt recognize the plug-in. Another possibility is that the software might not work if you dont have an internet connection. I am somewhat paranoid about some of my data, and I always back up all my computers while in airplane mode, with the wireless connection turned off, because at the present time, Ive been using the same back-up device for my public and private files. I dont use cloud back-up for most of these files. Im not sure if the software would work if I turned off airplane mode, but that wouldnt work for my needs anyway. Therefore, I will be using a different encryption software to password protect the drive, because I cant get the WD software to work for my needs. As far as I can tell, the hardware is still working perfectly to back up your files. The main delivery girl actually THREW the envelope onto my porch, and the drive seems to be okay, so it must be pretty sturdy. BTW: This is my second attempt to review this product. The first critical review I submitted mysteriously disappeared, and when I went back to edit the review with the new information, my first review simply wasnt there. So Im submitting this again and I hope it will get posted this time, to give you the heads-up on the software issue.

Being previously familiar with WD ext hard drive products, this 2TB unit I purchased was easy to setup/use right out of the box. We backup hundreds of our family photos, along w/ company and personal business files. WD is highly reliable with a very quick speed for boot up, despite it not being an SSD. I would certainly purchase again from WD.

I find the design of the WD Passport to be well done. While its basically a rectangle, all of the models are the same width, This leads to ease of stacking. Im currently looking at approx. 20 in various storage sizes. They also come in a variety of colours, which makes organizing your data by types easy (I gave up on that idea because of buying the cheapest colours on sale). The downside is that the drive itself is integrated into the control card. In other words, if the USB connection fails, then you cant just pop the drive out of the enclosure and and put it in another box. While I have yet to face this issue, I can see it become a problem after repeated use as the USB connector develops wiggle room.

The physical size of this drive is very convenient. I like that its smaller than its higher capacity brethren. The data transfer speed on my passport drives is verifiable to be very fast, 100+ mb when transferring large amounts over USB3. The software that comes with it, although not required to use the drive, is helpful for those needing a backup application or those les familiar with using computers. The biggest issue by far with these drives is their fragility. Be careful with them! Ive had multiple my passport drives fail because of either bent needles or, much more common, broken SATA connections. This is very disappointing for a product marketed to be highly portable. Be sure to unplug the cord when not in use, keep the drive on a flat and stationary surface at all times while spinning, and purchase accident and data protection in case of failure. These would be great drives if they didnt break like china.

This drive went through a full cycle in the laundry. We let it dry out for 24 hours and tried it out, it is working and transferring data just fine. Excellent drive. We will retire it now just to be safe, but have read other reviews that it will continue to work fine.

I bought this forever ago but never reviewed! I use this drive for gaming and it works great. Stores all my games and runs about as well as expected for an HDD. Great buy! 5/5

I purchased this product around 5 weeks ago. Within 4 weeks it was making a beeping sound. I could hear the beep and I could hear the drive spinning but none of the files could be read by my computer. After not very much research I found thousands of people with the same issue. It appears this drive has issues with its heads whatever those are. They appear to be defective. I went though the Amazon website and requested a call to fix the issue. I was connected twice to people with very thick foreign accents that I could barely understand. The first call after wasting my time with troubleshooting I knew wouldnt work the man told me he would send me a ONE TIME COURTESY REPLACEMENT. As if it was my fault WD is selling a faulty and defective item. That person hung on up me without me getting anytime of confirmation of information about the replacement so I had to call back. The second person told me the exact same thing about the one time courtesy replacement which made me mad all over again. But he did confirm a replacement was coming and when to expect it. Since I know now this item has issues what happens if I get another defective item? I suggest not buying this particular WD product.

I would keep the WD Passport on your desk. Mine survived several falls, but considering it has moving parts, it could only take so many hits before breaking. This is my own fault, and I own up to my mistakes. Its a great drive for a great price. I recommend being careful with it for the sake of its longevity. After all, no hard drive is immune to falls.

I guess I should have listened to the majority of the other reviews. Unfortunately most of them are true. This drive stopped working amazingly quick. Now dont get me wrong, it still functions somewhat as a drive. But when I try backing up my drive that I bought this for, I get constant errors and it tells me to run chkdsks and all that jazz and that there are bad sectors all over the place. I run the chckdsks and use all of the tools they want me to, yet none of them return errors. Sometimes when you try to transfer large files as well, it just doesnt wanna cooperate. Very very disappointing. Ill be sure to avoid WD from here on out and see how badly Seagate and the likes fail me next.. Dont worry, Im sure they will perform roughly the same. But damn, I was real hopeful here. I have an old WD external that still functions pretty well, so I was hoping to get that same kind of luck. Oh well, cant win em all. And for this price, I cant expect too much I guess. Cheers.