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

First of all, I had wanted to purchase the non-ultra version of the WD hdd, but it seems they have phased out that version and consumers are now left with no other alternatives.. Prior to this, I had 2 other 1TB non-ultra WD hdd and Im no computer geek, so Im not going to go into the extent of comparing the speeds of transfer between this new ultra hdd and other hdds. I bought this hdd cos i ran out of space in other hdds, and as a storage device, this 2TB ultra hdd works as it should. In fact, WD is the only brand of hdd that I have trusted thus far and I had bought 4 other external hdd from wd, starting from way back in 2008 and Ive never had any problem with their hdd. In terms of build and appearance though, while the non-ultra version I purchased previously had their silver and blue color coming directly from the material used to make the hdd, the red color from this ultra version looked to be just a sticker that could be defaced in the future. Im someone who takes physical appearance of my purchased products rather seriously and this new design feature will take some points off my review score. Another reason why this ultra hdd only receives 4 stars, is that based on previous reviews of this product, I was expecting my purchase to come with a free soft pouch. But that is no longer true for my case and now Ive had to go through the trouble of purchasing another pouch...

Let me start off by saying the drive itself is great. Backups up quickly and efficiently and there is a wide range of options...BUT there are some lacking features. Many other reviews tell you what it can do, I feel you need to know where its lacking. Lets begin with and issue that will affect novice computer users. This drive comes with a tiny one page pamphlet. The graphic shows you to connect the drive to your computer, then theres a little graphic of a book and a web address. You need to go to the document section of their website. From there, you locate the manual for your drive. Going by their pamphlet, you need to be connected to the internet at the time of your initial install. This is not always an option for everyone. But heres the thing, if youre a Windows user, click on MY COMPUTER, then click on the MY PASSPORT drive, you will find a directory of User Manuals. The instructions should state this. Once youre in the user manual, you discover that you only needed to run the WD APPS SETUP file, which you access in the same way as the manuals. Already youre doing more work than necessary. A simple sentence of connect drive to computer, open drive folder, double click WD APP SETUP file would have saved some aggravation. Once the software is installed on your system, you can access the help menu within the program, which is very user friendly. There are a few software items I dont like. You have many choices on when to schedule your backup, (daily, weekly, monthly, immediately) except on a certain DATE of the month. Say, I want to back one of my systems on the 1st of the month. Not an option. You can choose the first Monday (Tuesday, Wednesday, etc) of the month, but not a specific day. I also would have appreciated a confirmation screen or at the very least, a status bar notification that told me my drive actually performed the backup. Even a little notification that the drive is currently backing up would be nice. And as I discovered, a blinking light on the drive does not necessarily mean its backing up your computer. To ensure the drive is actually backing up or to confirm a backup has completed, you have to open the WB SmartWare software and click on the Backup Tab. If its currently backing up files, you will seeing a copying files message on the top of the screen. To confirm a backup, you need to click on the clock icon located near the bottom of the screen. This will tell you your Next Backup, Missed Backup and Last Backup. BUT, I had a daily backup set for 5PM and the drive wasnt connected at the time...the missed backup never appeared on the list. One might argue that it didnt log the missed backup because the drive wasnt connected. My argument is you should NEVER keep your backup drive continuously connected. If a virus hits your computer, it hits your Passport Ultra too. Ive already been there, done that with another external drive, hence the reason why I always disconnect. The hardware is great and I love the drive, BUT I have had to help a few older, less tech savvy people set this up and explain how to double check their backups. Theyve all asked the same thing...why doesnt it tell you when its done? Bottom line, it an awesome little drive, but the software leaves a bit to be desired. Would I recommend it? Only to people who have a modest amount of tech knowledge and who dont mind extra clicks to double check their backup.

All of the external hard drives I own are the Western Digital brand, and this one is by far my favorite. I love how small it is and how quickly I can move and save files. As a college student, time and backups are essential. I work with Pro Tools and in it comes, massive amounts of files and file backups within its own project folders, and my teachers always say if its not saved in three places, it doesnt exist -- that said, I love that I can trust this little thing not to crap out on me whenever I need to use it. Plus, I like that there are different colors, it helps not to lose it and also distinguish which is which if you use multiple, like I do. Lastly, because I had a difficult time getting a straight answer for this -- It does work for BOTH Mac and PC, but youll have to configure it for Mac, which isnt a terribly hard process at all. You can easily search for a tutorial or have someone show you, if you dont already know how to do this. As far as price and how broke college students roll, Im incredibly happy I made this investment. It was worth every penny to know that I can get my work done without worry.

This drive works very well with USB 2.0, but 3.0 is most ideal for read/write speeds. However, on an older Mac as I have been using for nearly 7 years, it is only USB 2.0. After you connect the drive, you see some folders and files. Copy them to your computer and backup to a CD-R or flash disk, for instance. This is if you need to reuse the programs on the drive. You go into the utility program and erase the contents, making sure you choose the proper format type. I prefer storage for manual backup, which I find a little more time involved, but to ensure that the backup you would otherwise use, say, Time Machine, actually copies all your files and folders. I typically do not trust any backup program, nor have I dared to try since Roxios GoBack 3 in 2001. If you want to use the Passport on Mac and Windows, the utility tells you basic information about the option. The process of erasure and readying the drive is fast. You can also check the drive for errors in case of improper removal. The files disappear from the drive and non-retrievable. (That is why I said, copy them to another storage source in case you need them again in the future, if they are not available for download from Western Digitals site.) A few issues making it four stars in my review... (Cons: 2.) Pros: Small but solidly heavy (nice paperweight?). Edges a little hard but does not cause discomfort. Printed design is catchy. Good performance, for a non-solid-state (moving parts/platters type). Well made, but smells like a musky bandage. Cons: After copying large quantity of data (files, folders, size, and so forth), icons may appear erratic, or the drive will not unmount. This causes your computer not to restart. If this happens, shut your Mac off improperly, wait, and cold boot again. Scan for errors if you think something is not right. System stability and very short USB cord are my two complaints about this drive. It may be targeted for laptop users, which makes sense. Very small size good for travel bag. It is even smaller than most cameras!

I had been using a Seagate FreeAgent Go 640GB portable drive for about three years now, and wanted something with some more space and higher transfer speeds. I purchased this drive for its beefy 2 TB of storage space and speedier USB 3.0 interface. Out of the box, you get the drive, a 15 USB 3.0 cable, soft pouch, quick install guide, and a 3-year limited warranty. The drive looks nice, and appears to be of good construction. Doesnt look or feel cheaply made. I like how compact it is. Its about an inch shorter in length than my FreeAgent Go, and maybe a millimeter or two thicker. The included soft pouch is a nice addition and helps keep dust and dirt off of it. Not an ideal case solution if youre prone to dropping things or somewhat rough with your belongings, so you might want to invest in a more rugged case. It works fine for me though as I keep mine in a messenger bag when on the go, and its a nice addition considering most other drives dont come with anything. The included USB cable is long enough to plug into the USB port on the front of my PC and reach my desks surface. So, thumbs up there. Functionally, the My Passport Ultra 2TB works as advertised. Transfer rates are roughly 3x faster than that of a USB 2.0 drive. I noticed the difference in speed right away when transferring large files (1-5GB+), taking only 2-3 minutes instead of 5-10 minutes or longer depending on file size. I work with large media files all day long, so the bump up in transfer speeds is really nice. The drive is very quiet while running. You wouldnt even know that its on except for a tiny little LED indicator light to the right of the USB connector port. So, why only four stars? Hardware-wise, The Passport Ultra is no different from WDs regular Passport series of portable drives. Theyre the same exact drives, only slightly different in appearance. What the regular Passports lack from the Ultra is the soft pouch, the Ultra label, and WDs misleading labeling on the box that touts, Auto & Cloud Backup Plus Security. The Auto backup is merely referring to WDs abysmal backup software included on the drive, WD SmartWare (more on that later). The Cloud backup is basically instructions on the box for setting up a DropBox account. No kidding! Theyre advertising cloud storage on the front of their packaging like its a feature theyre offering. Flip the box over and youll see that its nothing more than an advertising gimmick for DropBox with instructions on how to set up an account.

Man...about 5 years ago I bought a 1 TB WD storage unit for the same price, one that is about 5 times bigger! This thing is smaller than my receipt-filled wallet, lighter than my smartphone (in its protective otterbox), and much more portable than the clunker of the 1TB storage device I used before. I plugged this int the USB of my Windows 8 and Windows 7 laptops and it started working without a hitch. BUT: One warning. If you plug this into your first computer and set-up hardware encryption and then plug it into another computer that doesnt have the software/driver installed, it wont open up. At least it didnt for me! Im still trying to figure out how this is done. However, since this drive is reserved solely for my use on my computer, Im not too worried but some of you may have an issue. Another thing: the transfer speed arent that great. I averaged about 25 MB/S with a USB 3.0 drive. Not sure why

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.

Great Drive and Great Backup Software --- I couldnt be happier with this thing. Its small, light and durable. I bought red just because I wanted to see it better. I dont have great vision. I do a lot of video editing and I end up filling up my 500MB latptop drive fast. I wanted something that I could move all my finished media files to, and this does a great job of it. But what surprised me - and in a good way - is how nice the backup software is! Once you figure it out, its a piece of cake, and way better than the software my other backup drive uses. However, the instructions for the software stink. So do a YouTube search on how to backup with WD SmartWare. Theres an especially good video that walks you right through it. UPDATE: 9.28.15 I now have two of these drives for storing my video work. I have them hooked up to a Thinkpad W520 laptop/ workstation. I labeled the drives based on the colors (red and gray) to make it easy to know which is which. My whole system is backed up onto the red one, and Im using the gray one for storing my tons and tons of video files. Probably wont be long before I get another one. The key thing to know about these drives is they just work. Theyre like a Toyota truck (and thats as high a compliment as I can give anything!). I had problems with a couple Seagate drives in the past, so I dont trust them anymore (theyre like a Ford) :-) Anyway, if youre looking for a great drive that wont give you any problems, get these. And get different colors so you can tell them apart!

- R/W @ 100 MB/s [if @ USB 2 port, its port-limited to 35 MB/s] - WD reliability - Silent - This works: repartition/format as two volumes; 1 small boot-able system recovery/utilities; 1 big encrypted storage. Now for the complaints: - Unlike their legacy WD Elements SE 1T USB 2 drive, this one REQUIRES their WD SES driver install, lest you get an annoying driver-install-fail message from Windows each time you connect the drive. The drive will function [R/W] regardless, but their SCSI Enclosure Services [SES] driver is needed by their WD Disk Utilities app, which also requires installation, to set the drives sleep timer and run diagnostics. So much for portable. - Good luck their proprietary software requiring install/setup per machine, but the first thing I do w/ portable drives is clean and repartition disk into 2 volumes; boot-able system recovery and backup. Do people really put up w/ all these different backup/encryption methods for each drive/manufacturer? W[hy]TF does no disk maker go open source w/ their backup/encryption software? It may be counter intuitive, but this would instantly vault make them to industry leadership role AND bring an explosion of goodness from the OS community, at no cost to the manufacturer. Theyd steer the development and be the most compatible, so all other manufacturers would be forced by the market to yield. And current market leaders shouldnt rest on their laurels. As things are, none have yet to even match the ease and PORTABILITY of, say, that crappy little native windows app, ROBOCOPY, for backup, or open source for disk encryption; learn it once; use it for ANY and ALL storage; THAT is portability. [hint: we want to protect/backup/clone/port our DATA, not the physical disk].

I replaced my ailing computer with a cybertronics computer purchased through Amazon, it came with four 3.0 usb ports, and several other 2.0 usb ports. The purchase was to replace a motherboard that crashed. New peripherals were bought including 2 western digital Passport ultra 1 TB (both from Amazon), to back up the windows 8.1 machine. One was used by the Norton 360 program and the other using windows 8 back up (File History). I also purchased an external usb 3 dock (from Amazon), to house an internal hard drive that makes a continuous duplicate of my computers hard drive in real time. In addition, i had previously purchased an LG Super Multi Blue (from Amazon), that connects through a eSATA to 3.0 USB adapter (from Amazon). After adding an Epson 3640 printer (from Amazon), the keyboard, mouse, I had no remaining USB ports. I was tempted to purchase a Western Digital I cloud but worried about security in the cloud format. At this point, i wanted to be able to charge and connect with my smartphone and needed more ports. The Anker PCI-E box and instructions said it will instal to window 7, however i had a windows 8.1. the package was simple and the instructions was similarly so. Very to instal in less then a minute, after which i said that was it? when i turned on the computer, plugged in a peripheral, it worked even without installing the driver. Since the purchase, i moved my peripherals that where 3.0 usb to the Anker card, and it works perfectly without problems. Now all the peripherals, the multiple hard drives, printer, blu ray burner, cellphone, connects easily without plugging and unplugging. Transferring of data is dramatically faster then 2.0 usb. the pros regarding the ultra 1 tb external 3.0 is the small form factor, 3.0 usb fast connection, and the the warranty! This is important given that my previous drives failed within a year. I used the security software that came with the drive, works well enough on my computer, similar to other security software out there that require a passcode. It does what a drive is supposed to do. The color options are a plus too, since i have two of them, one for secure data other for media.