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

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.

i bought this around the end of 2014 and ive used it all these years to store photos, videos, and all kinds of files. it was a great investment.

The Good (+) Color options available to serve as a quick visual aid for content identification (+) Rubber feet on the underside to grip firmly on resting surface (+) USB 3.0 transfer speeds The Bland (-) Chunkier than comparable 2TB portable drives The downright puzzling (x) Soldered USB-SATA bridge connector to hard drive Overall: Its performs admirably and within expectations, but the puzzling decision to hard solder the USB bridge connector to the hard drive simply serves to diminish the value proposition Note: This review is based on the 2TB version Ive posted a lengthy review over at the 2TB Seagate Expansion portable drive page (

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.

I wanted an external drive for my Macbook Pro. I was looking for a good looking drive that was small, had USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt connectivity and one that didnt need an external power source. Of the drives that fit my criteria, I was drawn to the Western Digital drive because of the form factor, the price and the brand. This drive looks good. It is fairy small, about the size of an index card and a little large than .5 inch tall. The drive has a small white LED on the front that lets you know when the disk is being accessed. It comes in a variety of colors. I loved the both the red and blue versions because I was simply tired of the blacks and grays. I know it seems odd to be concerned with how the drive looks but I think you should get pleasure from the things you see and use all the time. When you see this drive you should not only see something that is technically competent but also something that is pleasing to the eye. I have experience with Western Digital drives in a number of internal applications over the year and have never been disappointed. This external drive has been in use since January and I am completely satisfied. It is very reasonably priced. It is quiet and stays cool to the touch. It has USB 3.0 connectivity so it is zippy. A thunderbolt 2 connection would have been great since my Macbook supported it, but those drives were hard to find at the time and I didnt think it was worth the extra money for just a thunderbolt connection. As far as throughput spend are concerned, USB 3.0 has max throughput is 5 Gbps, Thunderbolt is 10 Gbps and Thunderbolt 2 is 20 Gbps. USB 3.1 will be also 10 Gbps.

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.

Im not going to rate the software that comes with this drive. Ive not used it. I use Acronis backup software for sending my hard drive images to this device. The device in my hand was strangely not nearly as heavy as I anticipated. It has a satin feel (I guess I was expecting a gloss finish) which was unexpected, but not bad at all. The cord is very short that comes with it, but I store it in a hard case, and when it is plugged in, it sits right next to the port, so that matters not. This drive is very fast and lives up the advertisement of Western Digital. I love their products and have used them (almost) exclusively over the years. The only exception is my OS drive which is a Samsung EVO Pro, which I also cannot say enough about. The drive is silent in operation (at least I cant hear it over my computer) and stays cool, even after transferring video back and forth between it and my pc. I expect quality from WD, and they did not fail to deliver here. Im not sure why they have poorly rated software, but as I mentioned, Ive not used it, so Im keeping the rating to the device itself. For my needs, this IS the best external drive on the market.

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.