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

I own a WD Passport SE 1TB and found myself after a few years needing and wanting a drive with more storage and I have never had a problem with WD drives be they for internal or external use so I bought this one. Set up is fast and though I do not use the drive password software I am sure it sets up easily as was my experience on a past WD drive. I highly recommend the AmazonBasics Hard Carrying Case for My Passport Essential for this drive. This is the case I was using for my Passport SE and it fits perfectly with plenty of room for cable and a few small items like a flash drive. I have found on USB 3 transfer speeds vary greatly depending how many, how big, or a combo of both the files are. Slowest I have seen is 45Mb and fastest (sustained) around 75Mb. These were write speeds. Average from drive to computer for me has been around 45 to 50Mb sustained. A great drive for archiving as well as always connected use. The drive will power into a standby mode after a time of not being accessed. The light will flash slowly when idled. The drive itself stops spinning until accessed then powers up automatically. Never having had any problem with any WD I ever bought I only by WD drives since the prices are usually the same or better than others but much fewer complaints with WD.

My recently purchased Western Digital Passport Ultra 1 TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Automatic Back Up is really very amazing. You know how products that are advertised will say theyre this or that, then when you get them home, turns out the product is not only not living up to its advertised standards, but the company doesnt support you when the product does not perform. And the product will put you threw so many configuration changes youll wish you could throw that product as far from you as you can. Well this Western Digital Passport Ultra 1TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Automatic Backup is really the Mercedes Benz of USB Back- Ups for my Lap-Top (and I love Mercedez Benz cars). The minute I plugged this product into my Lap-Top, it instantly backed my files up, no question, no configuration laborious instructions. It did it so fast, till I had to make sure that what was going on by simply checking just went on and configured on my digital USB backup. As some of you know, Ubuntu (Ubuntu problem child) will be making changes to their OS service on July 31, 2014, I was concerned about backing my files in preparation for Ubuntus changes (talk about Ubuntu changes- a real headache) – well! I can forget worrying now in my file back ups on my Lap-Top. I highly recommend Western Digital Passport Ultra 1 TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Automatic Back Up – no fuss, no muss, no hassles, just plug it in, and it does the configurations file backups spontaneously. Really great product by Western Digital.

First things first... I had a 2 TB WD external hard drive like 5 years ago. A bulky hard ware that sometimes hard to fit in bag because of its size and had to plug the AC adapter just to make it run. At first, I thought that this is normal because it is, after all, a 2 TB hard drive so it was a common sense to me. Although it did its job done as expected from the WD, I still wished for smaller compact but has the drive space comparable to a bulky one. Then 5 years later, this product came to Amazon. I was surprised because not only it had the same drive space as my old one, but it was small, compact, and the price was 3 times cheaper than my old one. My old one was $400 plus tax whereas this one is more or less $120. Damn it, I should have waited later, but I guess I was in need of one at that time... I bought two of this and I would say that this product is the best. As technology progresses so as the file size and this product is a great breakthrough to all who needed a big hard drive space and can be carried anywhere wherever you go. Furthermore, this product doesnt need an AC adapter. Just connect the USB drive and you will be ready. Plus, it comes with a handy pocket bag which you can use to carry it along with you. Finally, the WD brand which I assure you that will not disappoint you whenever you needed space to store your important files. To everyone who is reading this review, I strongly recommend this product.

Good product and it’s worth the price!!!!!

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.

I wanted an external drive I could plug into several computers, and back up each one independently. When first inserted into the USB, it installs a bevy of programs onto your computer. Then it asks if you want to back up on a schedule or continually. There is no provision for backing up when you attach it to your computer, immediately. Its designed to be left plugged into a computer and left there. If you dont want to leave it attached to a computer the whole time, this backup system is not for you. I believe my files are backed up, but not the newest files I created today. Also, you cant access the software to order the My Passport to start a backup. Right now the Smart Ware software wasnt even working, so when I clicked on the icon it just spun and spun, never opening the home page. Uninstalled everything. Very disappointing. Update: You are able to set backups for hourly, then connect the WD My Passport before the hour, it will often begin the backup shortly after the clock hits the top of the hour. Often. Or, you can tell it to start a manual backup, but that doesnt always start, either. Better than nothing but not intuitive or effortless.

When I worked for a former employer in Austin TX in the 1990s we had an expression - Backing up a computer is NOT an option! That axiom is as true today as it was in 1991. Additionally, a technical support representative from Buffalo Technologies made the recommendation to me five years ago that the more valuable or important that the data is, the more back ups that you should have. This relates to data redundancy. I am a tax preparer and have about eight separate back up devices in my office. WD continues to produce reliable storage devices. I purchased the 1 TB version of this product which coincides with the HDD capacity of my desktop computer. The WD software that comes with this product is very user-friendly and intuitive. Initial configuration is relatively simple. It connects to an available USB port on your PC and virtually no intervention is required by you after the initial set up. My configuration includes regular queries for software updates and when available, they have all been seamlessly installed. In a nutshell, this is an excellent and very wise investment for anyone.

I ordered 2 WD Passport Ultra 1TB Portable external USB 3.0 Hard Drives with Auto Backup. The first drive worked properly on a new Dell 15-3521 Laptop running Windows 7 Professional, but when I tried to use the second WD Passport external drive on another Dell-3521 Laptop running Windows 7 Professional it would not install if the USB 3.0 cable was plugged into any USB 3.0 port on the Dell Laptop. After swapping drives and computers and cables around, it became apparent that the USB 3.0 cable that came with the second WD Passport Ultra HD is defective. The drive will install and be recognized on either computer only if it is plugged into a USB 2.0 port which defeats the purpose of having a high speed USB drive if it cant work at USB 3.0 speeds. Either drive will work with either laptop at USB 3.0 speeds on USB 3.0 ports if the non-defective USB 3.0 cable is used! All I really need is a replacement cable that works, but since Amazon.com LLC filled the order, I have not figured out how to request a simple replacement for the defective cable without having to return the entire order. I could use some assistant! Or, I can order another USB 3.0 cable which should solve the problem! I hope I hear from someone at Amazon about this!

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