WD My Passport 1TB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 Black

Having recently purchased the WD My Passport (2TB) I was immediately impressed with it's size, weight, speed, and usability. On my self-built Windows 7 PC, set up time was hardly (3) minutes. Shouldn't be much more for an beginner-to-intermediate PC user. I use this drive between three different computers (especially for travel) and it's been a superior device. As an artist who depends on the Adobe Creative Suite, an interesting fact is that in Adobe Bridge I can allocate the My Passport drive (or any of it's folders) to my Bridge's favorites - and the files load and operate at exactly the same speed as my internal drives. I've attempted everything from transfers to copy, paste, and deletion - both through other software and on the drive itself- and it's kept solid speed and functionality. I opted for the 2TB model, which lacks SSD in favor of a traditional drive. No complaints. I do hear it spinning (as I expected) but it's surprisingly quiet. Certainly not audible enough to be distracting. In fact It's quieter than most of the other ambient noise in my office. On the negative side: I don't care for is the included software. The software interface is a little clunky and offers functionality I really don't need. That said, some of you out there may want to use it. I do like using the WD Quick View that asserts itself into the Notification area of your Windows Taskbar. I find it easier to eject the drive using this than the natural "Windows USB" icon, simply because it's easier to see in every aspect. So while I don't use the actual software that aspect of it I use nearly daily. Last, can't help but to wish that the LED light was positioned in a place more easily seen. It's currently to the right of the USB port (which I refer to as the back)... leaving the only sure way to see if the drive is working/thinking is by watching the LED glow on whatever it's laying on. Considering the LED is a bit bright, it's better where it is; but a a more subtle light on the top or the side which faces me would have been a bit more convenient for monitoring. Even so, if I was going to recommend a portable HDD to anyone, I'd definitely recommend this one. It's convenient, light, small, and utterly amazing!

When you consider it's size and preformance, it really blows your mind! I've only had this drive about a week. I'll update later to speak on how it stands the test of time. For the price (currently holding around 130 bucks) per GB of storage (1.81TB after formating and included drivers, giving you about .07 dollars/GB) you can't beat this drive! First off, this is my first perchase of a portable external. I knew the market had finally developed low consumption mobile drives that could operate purely off the USB bus and nothing else. I'm tickeled! Next, this drive operates off of just ONE USB port. Others have spoken to the fact that some portable drives connect to two ports to supply supplimental power. Inside the sealed case of this unit is most likely (though I'm not positive) a 4 platter 2.5" SATA drive spinning at 5400rpm. It's possible that it's actually a 4500 but I have no evidence one way or another. Operation is nearly silent. It's about as loud as the iPod classics, with only the faintest noise from the motor. Operation (even after hours upon hours of transfers) is luke-warm to the touch. Included with the drive is an 18" pigtail USB 3.0 cable which gets a thumbs up from me! Let's talk performance. Now I must admit, I made this transfer on USB 2.0 ports on a laptop, so many of you looking for top level rates are going to be disappointed. However as of Q1 2013, USB 3.0 is just now starting to ship on most machines and USB 2.0 is a still a market staple. So for today at least I consider this to be a real world test. I transfered 614GB of mixed files (videos 468GB, photos 102GB, music 15.5GB, and some plugins for programs 28.5GB) totaling just over 221,000 files. The transfer was from an eSATA external seagate running at 7200RPM. It completed in just under 9hrs 30mins. Works out to about a write speed of 18MB/sec. I can live with that through USB 2. The second transfer was just shy of 67GB made from my laptop's interal SATA 7200RPM HDD and totaled just less than 52,000 files. Most of which were pictures with a little video thown in. This transfer completed in 90 mins, and averaged a write speed of about 12.5MB/sec. The third transfer consisted of a folder that was a little over 93GB and just over 53,000 files (66.5GB of music, 17.5GB of video, 3.5GB of photos, and some odds and ends) again from my interal HDD. This transfer was interfered with as I forgot to disable my network connection and the PC was downloading som updates which slowed the process. However that aside, the transfer took 2hrs 5mins. The math works out again to a write speed of just about 12.5MB/sec. All three transfers were writing data to the Passport drive. I don't have any read speeds to offer but undoubtedly they will be significantly faster. Also if this helps, my laptop is a 2nd Gen i7 quad core, 8GB ram, running that 2.5" 7200 SATA disc, and using Win 7. So far I'm very pleased with this performance. The portability far out weights any limitations for my needs. And frankly speeking, this drive out performs my expectations thus far. When I have access to USB 3, I'll update my review then, but as it stands, I think this pocket drive is a winner!!! UPDATE: I've been tranfering files back to my Laptop again connected via USB 2. The transfer rate is a sustained and reasonable 20-22MB/s. However I was able to test it on my friend's new Surface Pro tablet. Connected via USB 3.0 and writing to the tablet's interal 128GB SSD, this little mosnter sustained 80-85MB/s of read speed and peaked at just over 160MB/s while transfering about 10GBs of video files. Yes, you did read that correctly, it was not a typo! Awesome for a USB bus powered 2.5" external drive!!!

Have a problem connecting to main PC but no problem with laptop. Great for shareing video and pics. No brainer for that price

Does exactly what it's supposed to do and has given me more space when I travel. Easy to install, just follow the instructions, although you'll find with the inbuilt software that you'll need to do upgrades straight away. However, this is no problem, again just follow the instructions.

This is the second external Western Digital hard drive I've bought for myself, and I've also bought a couple for other people as gifts. Their hard drives are no nonsense, easy to use and reliable. I also love these little Passport drives for being so compact and not requiring a separate power cord. Great portability. I bought this one for use with my new MacBook Pro, and am very happy with the speed offered by USB 3.0. If you don't want to spend the money on Thunderbolt, go with USB 3.0 - just check to make sure your PC supports it. Of course, these are backwards compatible with USB 2.0, so if you just want to be a little future proof, you can't go wrong here. It's a product that'd work with PC, too. Highly recommended, whether you need a backup drive, or just something to ferry around larger files.

My previous 1.5 To portable hard drive was full (a very good Seagate USB 3) and I was looking for a bigger one. The choice was very limited but I found this WD 2 To in UK (I leave in France). Received it quickly and very easy to use : just plug and play. My comments : Pros - it's 1.8 To and not 2 To but it's the same for all hard drives and it's a pretty high storage capacity - there is a password protection : good when you're traveling a lot - the USB 3 works well and is a plus for transfering big files - the device is very compact, even smaller than my previous 1.5 To drive Cons - the drive is not protected by any soft/silicone part. Could be an issue for the hard travelers - the plug on the drive side is thin and looks fragile. No issue after one month of use but will see after extensive use. In summary, very happy with this drive : fast transfer and seems to be the biggest storage capacity at that time. Looking for a 3 To now :-)

I purchased this hard drive to store video from my GoPro camera. So far its worked well its nice and slim looks like its well made. I don't know to much about the technical side of it, but it was easy to use and I'm happy with it. I've made a few purchases from Amazon now and have never been disappointed, when I ordered this hard drive I got free delivery and it arrived less than 24 hours after placing the order.