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

I bought four of these for my kids and I so that I could save all their pictures in their respective hard drives. I use different venues for saving my photos from our family trips and I try to save it in two or more locations so that I won’t lose any of it. When I received the package, I was excited to use it because I’ll have a peace of mind that I may be able to save our family excursion pictures in a much safer place (unlike saving it in the desktop which might get deleted overtime). The product worked out fine at first but then it stopped working all throughout. I was using our Windows computer but the hard drive won’t open. I was so scared that I might lose the files inside! Good thing my husband tried something which let me back up the pictures. I thought it’s our Windows desktop to blame for that but when my Mac came, I tried using the hard drive to retrieve my files but to my surprise it still didn’t work. I called their customer service for help and they told me that I have to reformat the hard drive so that it will be compatible. I felt horrible because it took me a long time to organize all the pictures and the folders inside that hard drive and knowing that all my hard work will be put to waste. I paid not just for one device but for four devices made of crap. This hard drive doesn’t come cheap and it makes me angry that I can’t use it properly. There are malfunctions in the hard drive that I find annoying, when I plug it in, my files don’t open, both for our Mac and for our Windows. I have to repeat it several times up to the extent that I’ll just give up. It gave me more problems than good. I tried calling their hotline several times reporting the difficulty that it’s causing me but all they can say is to offer me for an exchange of product. I tried asking them if they could just refund my money but they told me that it can’t be done because it’s already past the warranty. The only thing that I can do is to warn the future customers that this product is no good and that you should just buy something else. The four devices that I bought are useless and are now just collecting dust in our home. If you want to throw your $56.99 away, be my guess, buy this product.

If you are looking for a menu-driven backup system for your computer files that will run automatically in accordance with your pre-determined schedule, then this is the product that you are looking for. It will back up your entire system including Windows and all associated files on a regular basis, running in the background and not interfering with your programs currently running in memory. Once it backs up your entire computer system (this may take several hours, but you can continue working until it does so), then it will update your files on a regular basis. I chose to update my entire system twice a week, removing the external hard drive from the computer and storing it in a cabinet; thus, I am assured that if my system is assaulted in any way, I have an unaffected backup that can completely restore all of my work done during the past week. Purchasing the Amazon Basics Hard Carrying Case offers additional protection while your hard drive is in storage or during transport if you use this product in that manner. Be certain, however, not to cheat yourself on memory. Computer programs are becoming larger and larger, requiring more memory and storage space than ever before. Look to the future, and give yourself some extra wiggle room when it comes to your file storage needs.

Let me start my review by saying that I am your average reviewer with a solid understanding of technology but I am by no means an expert. The best review of this product has already been written by gravemind At the time that I am typing this review, Graveminds review was second from the top when sorted by most helpful Read that review.... it will answer many questions that I didnt even think to ask when I bought this. Okay, that said, heres my review.... I am giving this 5 stars based SOLELY on the fact that these store my photo files and have done so without incident for a few years now. I am a photographer with an insane number for photo files. I own about ten of these drives in both 1tb and 1tb sizes. I also own drives from other companies. I import my photos using lightroom and have them go to two of these drives. If I was smart I would have a third drive hooked up just to be safe, but alas, the USB ports on my current computer died a couple of years ago so I am somewhat limited. I know, I know, I could plug in a 3.0 hub. I just havent done it yet. So these drives store my photo files and they read and write very fast. I am almost afraid to type that I havent so far gotten any read or write errors because now probably my whole system will go to hell. Still, for now, theyre great. I have never managed to get their backup system to work for me and I suppose I should deduct a star for that but frankly I never really planned on using their backup system. It would be nice, but I cant at all figure it out. BOTTOM LINE: if you need solid feeling and performing backup drives and you dont much care about the bundled software, these drives are a five star experience. If you are looking for the software as well, look elsewhere.

This drive had all the selling points good price, good capacity, looked good, nice transfer speeds all in one 2.5 inch package. Sounds to good to be true... and it is. The story begins when I ordered it from amazon and opted for the UPSsmartPost. This is shipped by UPS, but the most important part was handled by the USPS! It said it was delivered right on time to my house, but it was never there. So I called Amazon told me USPS sometimes does this gave me a $20 promo code for my next purchase. Cool! So I get the drive transfer about 100gbs of data over (important data may I say). The drive was very fast (USB 3.0 is amazing) worked like a dream. I put it away and didnt use it until the next day. Next day it wasnt regonized by Windows. Finally windows regonized it then it wanted me to format. I waited a little while and I finally could see my folders I made on the drive. I thought I could get my data off and be on my marry way. Nope wouldnt let me access the data. I tried every data recovery software I could find and it would do the same thing cause it to not respond because it took forever to detect that the drive was there. I lost 100 gbs of data I needed off a faulty drive. I called amazon anf they said they couldnt replace the drive but could refund it. So I took that money and ordered another one ( I keep reading great reviews on this and I want that experiance) this one costed more money than the last one. The lady at Amazon gave me free expedited shipping which I was very grateful for. I truly did enjoy the drive when I could use it, it just crapped out on me the next day. Hope whoever reads this has a better overall experiance than I had.

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

This hard drive is a hardy little workhorse! Bought it almost a year ago, and hasnt failed me yet. I formatted it in Ex-FAT, allowing cross-compatibility reading and writing across Mac and Windows, without the restriction of the 4GB maximum file size. This conveniently allowed me to store my legally obtained HD and Blu-Ray copies of my favorite movies on the hard drive! Many people dont know about thiThis hard drive is a hardy little workhorse! Bought it almost a year ago, and hasnt failed me yet. I formatted it in Ex-FAT, allowing cross-compatibility reading and writing across Mac and Windows, without the restriction of the 4GB maximum file size. This conveniently allowed me to store my legally obtained HD and Blu-Ray copies of my favorite movies on the hard drive! Many people dont know about this new file formatting option. I went home for the week and somehow both the Weimaraner and the Golden Retriever, both puppies one year old (so old enough to do some damage) tore through the entire case, and chewed up the corner where the USB 3.0 plugs into the hard drive. After thinking that the entire endeavor would be hopeless, I still decided to give salvaging a try. The part where the USB 3.0 plugs into the hard drive was dented and squished, and there were random white parts of what looks like paper stuck inside hole. I poked around a bit with a pen and cleared out the hole, and plugged in the cable. To my complete surprise, the little blue light came on and started blinking, and the hard drive started spinning. The thing works. I mean what the hell? Fantastic, I just ordered a replacement.

Loaded mine up with a bunch of movies and use it to tote around and plug in to watch on the go.

Due to the nature of my work, I use a 10-year-old Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook military-style up-armored laptop with just 36 GB of internal hard drive space. In a rare moment of clarity I ordered the My Passport Ultra 500 GB drive. It arrived two days later. I guess I was conditioned to expect something with the size and heft of construction equipment, not an electronic toaster pastry. And there were no instructions. I quickly discovered why. They arent needed. You plug it in and it works. Thats not supposed to happen, right? Further, its faster than my internal drive. Which, now that it has a little elbow room because its been reduced to app-handling duty, is also a bit faster. Everything transferred in under four minutes. And when I clicked on the stuff Id just parked next door, it instantly found the related app back there on the internal drive without having to ask a bunch of annoying questions or forcing me to go off and look for it. Yeah, the case is plastic. But so is my knee. So is just about everything these days. The case is fine. The drive is fine. My laptop is fine. And all this fine-ness is mine for under $60. So Im fine. This was a good buy.

This is my 3rd WD Passport style external drive over the years and all still perform great. This one is the 2TB unit BTW. As many have indicated the software continues to suck but I never use it anyway except for the security utility. I prefer to drag and drop to create my own back ups as that is much easier to move to another PC anyway. I am running Windows 7 and all appeared to transfer at what I consider to be acceptable transfer speeds (measured in hours not days). I set up about 500GB to transfer overnight and it was done before I got up in the AM. This unit is actually more compact than my older 500GB unit but does not come with a case. If I need a case I will use one from my older 500GB drive. Having the 2TB gives me way more flexibility as my Laptop is only 600GB and about 5 years old but still performing well (HP Pavilion). I take tons of HD Video which is a major space hog as many of you know. Hope this helps give you the basics that I am always looking for in these reviews.

I,m a semi elderly computer user of average tech savvy, so if I can setup and use an external hard drive anybody should be able to. The WD Passport ultra with one TB memory is probably much more memory than Ill ever need, but for the difference in price I went with the 1TB. Setup instructions I found by Goggling variations of “ installing passport external hard drive” was much more useful to me than the included user guide. I studied both before starting. Once I started I had it ready to go in just a few minutes. When I first got this new Windows 8 computer a few months ago, during setup and initialization it guided me thru creating an “operating system recovery partition” and copying it to a USB drive. With a little exploring I found I could also copy a O.S. Backup to the passport. I think I read in the user guide where passport would not do that but by all indications it did. Guess Ill know if I”m ever unfortunate enough to try and use it. Cant ever have too many backup plans. I got all my documents and photos copied to the pass port, then to verify success I took it to a friends computer and viewed what was on it. Every thing was there. I didnt set up the automatic back up software because my plan is to keep the passport disconnected and stored in a safe place and bring it out and update whenever I feel the need. My reasoning for this is if I ever get a virus or malware and the backup hard drive is connected it will be compromised also. I had been watching several venders for a device like this for a of couple months and was about ready to use USB drives for data backup which for no more data than I have would have been sufficient, but when I found this passport at Amazon for around $70 with free shipping I went this route. I also needed an Ethernet cable hub to hook up a VOIP phone but Amazon had a wireless router with four LAN connections on sale so I went with it. Now if I ever need a wireless connection Ill be ready. If you are reading this then you must be thinking about data backup. So remember, when dealing with technology sooner or later Murphy s law is going to bite you. So however you decide to do it – BACKUP-BACKUP-BACKUP.