WD 1TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYNN0010BBK-WESN

I had to give up my old computer for a new one and get all my data transferred over. I needed a little help since I hadnt restored from My Passport before. A Western Digital tech really helped me out. Now I believe I have the confidence to do it myself next time and feel comfortable about it, so I bought a new one to back up my new computer. I highly recommend My Passport as an external backup.

It was no longer recognized on my device manager but the light was on the drive is lit, I could hear and feel the disk spinning as it was receiving power from the USB but there was no disk read output... The interesting thing is that it failed once I turned off the Start on Startup option on the WD Discovery software.. Being mildly involved/aware in the world of PC hacking and snooping, that made me suspicious. So I plugged the WD drive into another PC and shazam the auto play fires right up and suggests that I install the WD software... Okay so in my cynical thinking I decide that it could be a registry entry in the software that wont let it read to my PC unless its on line and activated once the software has been installed. So I go back to the PC that it doesnt read on and uninstall the WD software. Plug the drive into the USB and of course its still not reading because of the registry entry/entries, then I plug in another old WD drive that is so old that the system supposedly doesnt recognize and just as I suspected the new drive comes on line when the old drive is also plugged in... Im not going through how it works but if you dont want issues with this drive, dont install the WD software. As far as security on what is on your PC and what you feel important to back up, think about what I have written here. To me it seems more like spy ware... You decide... The drive works fine on auto-play now that all the WD software has been cleaned out...

This WD 1TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive is perfect if you have a slightly older computer and youd like to back up things from photos, files, videos whatever it maybe you can back it up! it also comes with 256-bit protection with a password for that extra layer of protection! Cheap, Solid Quality, Wonderful Price!

An external HDD is most valuable as a backup device. You can backup your data to a device that can be removed and stored in a safe location. I bought this drive for just that reason and because it came with the WD Backup software needed to schedule and create routine incremental backups. The problem I encountered with the drive was that no matter what I did, the WD Backup software refused to recognize the Passport drive as a backup target. I installed, uninstalled, reinstalled and repeated for the better part of a full day with no tangible results. I also spent more than two hours on the phone with two different Level 2 WD techs to no avail. My system is a very straight forward Windows 10 (64bit) HP, so there should have been no problem installing WD Backup. I could add, change or delete any or all the files on the Passport; My computer had no problem recognizing the presence of the WD Passport HDD; The drive passed every test thrown at it, but WD Backup absolutely refused to see it as a backup target. Your mileage may vary, but I spent a lot of time (most of a full day, all told) and accomplished nothing.

I purchased and received the WD 1TB Black My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYNN0010BBK-WESN directly from amazon, and Ive had no problems overall. My first impression was that this products size is great, seems well built and worked great out of the box with no issues whatsoever. I still have to test the transfer speeds, so I wont talk about that until then. Pros • Well packed • Pocket size • USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatible • Error testing, formatting and configuration with included WD Drive Utilities™ software • Password protection with hardware encryption with included WD Security™ software • Auto backup with included WD Backup™ software • Built by Western Digital, a well trusted and reliable company Cons • Warranty being 2 years • No Linux software Comes with • WD My Passport HDD • USB 3.0 Type A to Micro-B cable • WD Security™, WD Drive Utilities™ and WD Backup™ software for Windows and Mac • Quick installation guide

This portable HDD drive worked exactly as we needed it to. Great for backing up a computer or transferring files. I bought a new computer and needed to transfer all my photos and documents from the old to the new, and this served the purpose perfectly. It will also be used to keep another computer backed up. Happy with it stationary storage, but I will be getting an SSD for portable storage because it is more durable and can handle being dropped better than this HDD drive will be able to. An SSD is also three times the cost for the same size, so this old-school drive, though slower, was worth it. And it wasnt slow, per se. I didnt feel like I was waiting around forever for it to finish. Just slower than an SSD would be.

Let me start by saying that I was ready return this hd (or chuck it against the wall) after multiple unsuccessful amateur troubleshooting and reformatting attempts. Im running MacOS High Sierra 10.13, which is not included on the WD support page. Their instructions sound simple - open Disk Utility, erase, reformat in exFat. If your computer is like mine, it gives you an error message when you attempt to erase and reformat. Thats when I was ready to whip it against the wall and call it a day. Reluctantly, I decided to call WD tech support. I spoke to a very nice man from another country who was able to help. **To reformat for MacOS High Sierra 10.13** -Go to support.wdc.com, then scroll down to Software for Mac and click WD Drive Utilities for Mac to download. -Once all is downloaded, open WD Drive Utilities. -Make sure your hd is plugged in, then select it at the top of the page (mine shows an image of My Passport Ultra). -Click Drive Erase, make sure Format is HFS+J, select the check box, then Erase Drive. -Your hd should now show up on your desktop ready for files to drop. Now that its reformatted, its working as expected. (Photo note: slightest bit of oil on your hands will change the color of your hd...)

Arrived just in time since my nine year old Seagate Free Agent suddenly died. Definitely an improvement with usb 3.0. Made an image backup using AEMOI software of a Windows 10, 320gb hdd in less than 20 minutes with another 10 minutes to verify. Really great stuff to own. However, caution is advised not to misplace your usb power/data cord since the device end appears to be proprietary. My older Seagate usb 2 power/data cord would not fit. Otherwise, exceptional product and I will probably buy another within the next several months. You can never ever have enough backups. Western Digital is the best.

My old, big and clunky hard drive was crashing, so I bought this little thing, and it was great out of the box. Plug n play, and I easily transferred everything off my old drive to this one, and there hasnt been a problem. Its small and inconspicuous, which I like. Some people complain about the small cable, but I think its perfect. My computer guy suggested this, and Im very pleased with it.