(Old Model) WD My Passport Ultra 1 TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Auto Backup, Black

Well Ive had this external drive for about six months and so far I love it! Ive backed up all of our music, pictures and documents from our computer and my cell phone & mp3 player, as well as my husbands music & videos from his iPod. Together we probably have over 10K songs. Having added all of that, we have only used about 8 GB of the 1 TB available! Lol Ive not had any issues with losing information. It was easy to set up. There were no issues with it being compatible with my computer, which is an older Dell Dimension 2300 running Windows XP. I like that you can set it to constantly back up your documents so that I dont have to remember to do it! Have not use any of the software that came on the passport. The only qualms I have with it is with the program, which is a bit sluggish when you try to open it and also the GUI of the program is not easy to understand. Also the USB cord is extremely short. Otherwise Im pleased with this device.

I loaded about 1TB of family pictures and church services, as well as a backup for my desktop computer. Two days later the product would not let me have access to any of the files. An email to the company gave me instructions to unlock the drive which did not work. Another email told me I could return it for another and they would send me an RMA. I said I had to retrieve the files first and they suggested I contact a 3rd party to retrieve as they could not help. After 12 days of trying, I was able to see the files, but retrieval was happening at only 2 to 4.7kb per minute when I could get anything. After a month, I figured it would take over 300 years to extract all the files. At this point I realized my files were gone and I decided to try to reformat the drive and wipe it clean, and send it back for a replacement. I was able to wipe it but Windows could not format it. The company emailed an RMA with a mailing address and said further instructions could be found online. I was not able to open these, but I had saved the packing material from their shipment to me and I sent it back packaged as they had sent this unit (and a second which works but is excedingly slow). Two weeks later it was returned, untouched with a note saying the warranty was being voided as It was not packaged according to the instructions (that I never got) ie; it wasnt in a static bag and in a box. Both units were shipped to me bubble-pack envelopes with no static bags. I feel the company has a lousy product and a warranty that is fraudulent.

A lot has already been said about this drive (over 4000 reviews) so I dont want to repeat everything from the beginning. This is a drive that performs well and is good for backing up your hard drive. I use it with a combination of a long USB 3.0 transfer cable and therefore I can keep the drive in a constant place (hard drives dont like to be moved around much.) and just connect the cable whenever I want it to backup. It is $10 more expensive than the comparable size Toshiba hard drive (I have that one too) and I think in terms of speed or other performance parameters there is not a significant difference. The reason why I paid that extra $10 to buy this one is the automatic backup software that is built in. If you have a windows operated computer and you want to use the drive for the purpose of backing up your actual computer, then go for it and pay the premium. That does the job and saves your valuable data and memories decently. It backs up as frequently as you wish and does not compromise the computer performance. (On a desktop computer I would leave it connected all the time, on a laptop I would connect from time to time because it is not easy to move around with a hard drive sleeking from one side.) Mac users do not need to buy this for the purpose of backing up. Time machine does a fantastic job and you dont need WD smart. Any hard drive would work for the purpose. Besides that, if your main goal is not having it as a backup drive then again I would for sure go for the cheaper toshiba drive and save $10. One criticism about the drive is that it gives a misleading information about the cloud backup service and the capabilities of WD smart (not very pro) software. To be able to use the software with full performance which allows you to backup to non WD drives etc, you need to buy another license. The so called pro software included is only good for this drive, which is okay but still needs to be mentioned at least as a fine print somewhere in the product description. Yet again for the dropbox stuff, you both need a high capacity paid dropbox subscription but also a paid version of the software. So the cool stuff they advertise in the product description is not actually that cool. In conclusion, if you like me only use it for physical backup and do not ask for fancy stuff, you dont miss much and I can recommend this device for that purpose.

I purchased the 2TB version of this External Drive to use as part of backup regiment for my android devices, laptops, desktops, and a small NAS. It is a nice sleek device with great read/write speeds of up to 50-54 MB/s read and 32.4 MB/s write (assumption being that you as well have the infrastructure required to produce said speeds.) What caught my attention and was ultimately most important decisional factor was the 3 year limited warranty. As great of product as it may be I did find two cons that could potentially have negative overview of the product. 1. You need to install WDs quickview and subsequently WD smartware as theyre tied together in the installation to safely eject the portable drive. 2. If a password is set on the drive you need administrative credentials on the local PC to unlock the drive when plugging it back in. These two issues can be a big issue when traveling as you might not necessarily have access to computer where youre the administrator thus not having the ability to install their software or as I would say bloatware. For my intents and purposes it works out great but if you plan on using it for travel I would read into these issues first.

If you are looking for a menu-driven backup system for your computer files that will run automatically in accordance with your pre-determined schedule, then this is the product that you are looking for. It will back up your entire system including Windows and all associated files on a regular basis, running in the background and not interfering with your programs currently running in memory. Once it backs up your entire computer system (this may take several hours, but you can continue working until it does so), then it will update your files on a regular basis. I chose to update my entire system twice a week, removing the external hard drive from the computer and storing it in a cabinet; thus, I am assured that if my system is assaulted in any way, I have an unaffected backup that can completely restore all of my work done during the past week. Purchasing the Amazon Basics Hard Carrying Case offers additional protection while your hard drive is in storage or during transport if you use this product in that manner. Be certain, however, not to cheat yourself on memory. Computer programs are becoming larger and larger, requiring more memory and storage space than ever before. Look to the future, and give yourself some extra wiggle room when it comes to your file storage needs.

Posted publicly as Tom in NOVA Just got it yesterday. Hardest part of setup was getting it out of the box. Plugged it into a USB 3.0 port and ran Acronis to back up 320 GB in about 90 minutes. Tested copying large file fro a WD Blue 2TB in my computer, Windows 8 showed transfer rate around 820Mbps or approximately 1GBs. Doesnt equal the up to 5GBs mfr claim but a pretty good clip anyhow. Did not load any of the SW on the drive. Drive will be used as a pretty much permanent attachment to my desktop, Dont need to encrypt, pwd protect or go to the cloud for backups. I bought this drive to replace a returned Seagate desktop expansion drive that kept dropping off line. After 24 hts the WD Passport is still connected, as it should be, Most importantly, it rules out my computer as the cause of the Seagate issue.. I realize not much time has elapsed since I received and installed the drive but wanted to report a good experience, so far its all pros and no cons. I will update this review if I encounter any issues Clear

My Passport Ultra arrived yesterday on time as promised by Amazon. The moment I opened the packaging, I was surprised to know that the photos dont do justice at all to how small and how really portable this drive actually is. For most of my life in the past 5-6 years, I have only used External Hard Drive which are 3.5” (these are not portable at all) and the reason was back then, they didnt have External Hard Drives for 1-1.5 TB, so I had to suffice with the bulky and Not So Portable Hard Drive to compensate for the additional space. But now that Western Digital and Seagate have started making Portable Drives with 2TB space as well, I couldnt be happier. It will easily fit in the palm of your hand and you can actually put it in your Jeans pocket as well. It’s very sleek, the exterior feels like really good quality (not flimsy or made of plastic) but it feels like heavy metal, which makes me really glad to know that the actual hard drive is safe inside the case. Now coming to the performance of this drive, I had never used USB 3.0 in the past. The External Drives I used were 2.0 and so was my laptop. But now since I have a new laptop which has 3 3.0 USB ports, I can really appreciate the speed of USB 3.0. I am aware that even USB 2.0 promises of speeds up to 450 MB/s. However because of System Hard Disk restrictions, it hardly crossed 30MB/s on my old system. After I used it with my new system, the performance was still as pathetic as with the old laptop (between 25-30 MB/s). But when I started transferring the data from my laptop to this Drive, whoaaa…. I got a speed of 123MB/s and I transferred almost 700GB worth of data within 100 minutes from my laptop to the My Passport, whereas with USB2.0, it would have taken me 10 hours or so. However, the only thing I found as a small con is the length of the USB cable that comes with it is really small (somewhere around 1.5 feet) but that’s easily solvable. Amazon has a really good quality Amazon Basics USB Cable - 3.0 A Male to Micro B with length of up to 3 meters (that’s actually perfect for me since it won’t clutter my desk). Apart from this, I cannot find a single flaw in the amazingly small, handy and awesome Portable Hard Drive. If you want something less expensive and abundant storage, definitely go for it!!!

I purchased this hard drive for myself for back up and file storage. The setup is very simple. You plug it in and start using it. It includes the software you need for a Windows machine to encrypt the data. This is an important feature for a portable drive. You can lock down the files if you need to. I am currently using the drive to run Virtual Machines via USB 2.0 and there is no noticeable latency. There is not too much more you can ask of a USB drive. If it will transfer information for a Virtual machine, it should transfer any file you need in a timely manner. I really like the looks of the drive. It is small enough to fit into my back pocket or into any pocket in my backpack. The red will stand out and is shiny crimson color. If you are a computer novice or an expert this drive you can not go wrong with this one. Western Digital has almost made the best hard drives on the market and come with the best support in the industry.

Works as advertised, easy to set up. My only concern was that it initially took over an hour to do the original backup, and the software doesnt have a progress indicator to show how its progressing. I was VERY tempted to call customer support, but I left it running for over an hour and when I came back to the computer it was done. Of course, subsequent backups only use recently modified files, so they are almost instantaneous. I have the software set to automatically back up my files daily, which is more than enough for what I am working on. The only other comment Ill make is that the software could be more user-friendly. Most buttons have self-explanatory words on them, but the most useful button has only a clockface icon on it, again making it confusing to use and leading a novice (like me) to be a bit frustrated. Once I understood how it worked I was quite happy with it. Noiseless, never fails and plugs into a USB port in the back of your computer. Also, files may be OPTIONALLY encrypted. Lastly, the software allows you to restore files to your existing computer OR to another one if your original one is down (this is important).

I was deciding on either a 2TB from WD or Toshiba. I read reviews from reputable websites for both externals, but the WD My Passport Ultra seems to be just a little bit faster and more recent. With this in mind, I went with the Ultra over the Toshiba over Black Friday even though it was about 15 bucks more expensive. I also considered the aesthetics, and I like the design of the top of the drive. Even through research before receiving the product in hand, you cannot predict some aspects. I am rating this product four stars instead of five for three reasons: It may be a bit faster in some instances, but I did not notice it compared to my old 1 TB My Passport from 2010 which also uses USB 3.0. Number two, the build quality could be a lot better. When assessing build quality now for electronics, I always run a finger along the edges of the product where one external shell casing meets the other to look for abrasive edge contact. In this case, the My Passport Ultra uses two plates, and the user can feel the abrasive edge contact when handling the drive. This is not exactly poor construction in that it will fall apart. In fact, it seems to be built quite solidly. I simply feel that it could have been made a lot better. For future drives now, I may look for one entire external shell. My final criticism concerns the thickness of the external drive. It is a lot thicker than my My Passport from 2010. I keep on perceiving this thing as a brick in external drive form. I dont know what went inside to make it more thick from my previous drive from Western Digital, but I hate how it is so much thicker. Perhaps this is a consideration by the manufacturer after consumers reported damage from their previous drives that were not built sturdily enough. In conclusion, this hard drive works like it should, and I bought it at a good value. My complaints may be minor to some, but I would reconsider my decision in retrospect.