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

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

As a disclaimer, I am only reviewing this hard drive after having it and using it for less than a week. This is more of a first impressions/ease of use review right now. I will make sure to update in the future with its long term reliability. This unit comes with a USB cord, instructions, and a small black pouch to keep the drive in for storage. The pouch is really thin and cheap feeling and wont protect against anything other than dust. So I basically ignored that and havent used it as all. To backup your files could not be any easier. You just plug in a USB port (it works in either 3.0 or 2.0 ports), a little blue light starts flashing indicating the drive is powered on. The faintest spinning noise is present in the drive, but it is so low you have to put your right next to it to hear it. Then you just begin the normal backup operation for your computer and everything is done automatically. It was literally one of the easiest things Ive done on a computer. After completion, just unplug and store in a safe place. The unit seems to be well built, with an all metal construction and seemingly quality construction, so my hopes for reliability are high. It comes with a 3 year warranty, so if something does go wrong, at least you can get your money back. I will provide an update at the 6 month and 1 year marks and let you how the unit is doing. But until then, there is nothing to lead me to believe that this isnt a great external drive.

4.5/5 PROS: - Great Price - No plugs! - Small (Can fit in your pocket) - USB 3.0 support - 1.81TB of storage CONS: - Not really plug-and-play as the quick set-up guide suggests (Used on Windows 7) - Not easy to eject in Windows I really love how portable this device is, its very small and easy to carry around. I have a WD 1TB mybook, and its a lot less convenient in comparison. My Passport Ultra is just much more enjoyable to use as I dont have to plug it into another wall socket. The 1.81TB of storage is excellent and provides enough space for most people, however, many may question where the other 200GBs of storage went. In case you were wondering, the difference lies within how hard drive manufacturers calculate bytes vs how companies such as Windows calculate bytes. This isnt unique to this hard drive as every storage device is calculated this way. I really enjoy using this device, my only real gripe was that it wasnt really as easy to set up as the instruction manual suggested. According to the quick-set-up guide, the device is supposed to open with a setup window as soon as you plug it in, unfortunately this didnt happen for me (using Windows 7). Instead, the device requires you to assign it a letter before you can format it, luckily theres Google to help figure out this process, but I think you shouldnt have to search (beyond an instruction manual) to figure out how to properly set up a device. One other annoying thing is that this hard drive isnt read as an external storage device on Windows 7, so it cant be ejected simply. Im sure there is a way to eject it, Its just not as simple as right-clicking it and selecting eject. Those are minor issues that youll only have to figure out once, so after that the hard drive is excellent! Im constantly using this device to transfer storage from several computers and also as a second backup. Its very convenient, I dont regret this purchase at all~

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.

NEWEST UPDATE (11/15/14): Started experiencing the SAME issue! Sent back the HDD; replaced with the WD Elements version. Was going to RMA with Western Digital until I discovered the culprit. One of my front panel ports on my Corsair Carbide 500R case was defective- a common issue it seems (http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=107328). The faulty port was able to register the HDD as connected, USB 2.0 drives worked without issue, but its like the port wasnt delivering the necessary power for the USB 3.0 transfer. Got a free front I/O panel replacement from Corsair; all seems well! UPDATE: When I received my replacement, I did a quick format to get rid of the factory software that I had no need for. Then I began the transfer process between my current 1 TB external to the new one. The same issue occurred. On my current drive, there is a folder labeled AUTORUN with an icon file (that displays the Western Digital logo). As it turns out, this seems to be the cause of the issue. Once I deleted that, everything copied over fine and works great as far. Original Review: Unfortunately, this product arrived DOA. My computer recognized the drive but would just stop copying files over once a certain sector of the drive was reached. I used Western Digitals diagnostic utility and it said it passed, but when I tried to write zeros to the drive (full format), the drive froze up at around 509,000 sectors. I have been using Western Digital drives for a long time and this is the first of which I have had a bad experience. Hopefully my replacement, which is coming rather quickly, will be functional.

My Passport Ultra arrived yesterday on time as promised by Amazon. The moment I opened the packaging, I was surprised to know that the photos dont do justice at all to how small and how really portable this drive actually is. For most of my life in the past 5-6 years, I have only used External Hard Drive which are 3.5” (these are not portable at all) and the reason was back then, they didnt have External Hard Drives for 1-1.5 TB, so I had to suffice with the bulky and Not So Portable Hard Drive to compensate for the additional space. But now that Western Digital and Seagate have started making Portable Drives with 2TB space as well, I couldnt be happier. It will easily fit in the palm of your hand and you can actually put it in your Jeans pocket as well. It’s very sleek, the exterior feels like really good quality (not flimsy or made of plastic) but it feels like heavy metal, which makes me really glad to know that the actual hard drive is safe inside the case. Now coming to the performance of this drive, I had never used USB 3.0 in the past. The External Drives I used were 2.0 and so was my laptop. But now since I have a new laptop which has 3 3.0 USB ports, I can really appreciate the speed of USB 3.0. I am aware that even USB 2.0 promises of speeds up to 450 MB/s. However because of System Hard Disk restrictions, it hardly crossed 30MB/s on my old system. After I used it with my new system, the performance was still as pathetic as with the old laptop (between 25-30 MB/s). But when I started transferring the data from my laptop to this Drive, whoaaa…. I got a speed of 123MB/s and I transferred almost 700GB worth of data within 100 minutes from my laptop to the My Passport, whereas with USB2.0, it would have taken me 10 hours or so. However, the only thing I found as a small con is the length of the USB cable that comes with it is really small (somewhere around 1.5 feet) but that’s easily solvable. Amazon has a really good quality Amazon Basics USB Cable - 3.0 A Male to Micro B with length of up to 3 meters (that’s actually perfect for me since it won’t clutter my desk). Apart from this, I cannot find a single flaw in the amazingly small, handy and awesome Portable Hard Drive. If you want something less expensive and abundant storage, definitely go for it!!!

What a great value for $70..wow. You cant beat that price. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside knowing that my Macbooks time machine will auto backup to this. I am a tech guy and Ive always told everyone to backup, backup, backup, but I never did myself. Does that make me a hypocrite? Lol. At any rate, for people that are less-tech savvy using a mac, when you first plug it in, just tell your Mac to use it as a time machine disk, then go to system preferences , and look for time machine and make sure its turned to the on position on the left and theres a little checkbox at the bottom of the screen that says show time machine icon in menu bar. I compel you to do that so you can simply click on it and press backup now, when you want, but keep in mind, Mac does it for you once you set it up. If you have anymore questions about time machine, just go to Google and type in time machine Mac with no quotes or just go to Apple.com and type HT201250 into the search area on the top right of the site, you can also type that into Google and it will also pull it up. *I was no compelled by any entity to write a review on this hard drive, the information provided was strictly my own, unless otherwise stated.*

And it comes in four different colors! First, most people can use extra storage these days. Secondly, everyone should have a backup drive any way. My Passport Ultra by Western Digital does both very well. This drive works well on both PCs and Macs, and as a Mac user, I was concerned whether this product would be fully compatible with OSX 10.9.1. Yes, you can buy this in a Mac-only version (also made by WD), which costs about $5-$10 more; or you can save the money by getting this one. I got this one. It wont work on a Mac right out of the box, but following the simple reformatting instructions made this drive fully compatible with my operating system. Apples Time Machine backup program works well with this drive, I have it backing-up my data twice a day. It has worked flawlessly during the three months that Ive had it, and anyone who needs 1TB of storage in a small, portable package should give this product a serious look. It comes with the USB cable and is compatible with both USB 3.0 and 2.0. It works quietly, with little or no noticeable vibration. The finish is solid and attractive. Other 1TB portable drives I looked at were priced about $10-$20 more than this one, so the net savings after FREE SHIPPING from Amazon was at least $20. When my storage need increases (hopefully not, but most likely it will), I will be looking at WDs 2TB My Passport Ultra at $108 and free shipping on Amazon. Until then, this one will do the job!

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.

Posted publicly as Tom in NOVA Just got it yesterday. Hardest part of setup was getting it out of the box. Plugged it into a USB 3.0 port and ran Acronis to back up 320 GB in about 90 minutes. Tested copying large file fro a WD Blue 2TB in my computer, Windows 8 showed transfer rate around 820Mbps or approximately 1GBs. Doesnt equal the up to 5GBs mfr claim but a pretty good clip anyhow. Did not load any of the SW on the drive. Drive will be used as a pretty much permanent attachment to my desktop, Dont need to encrypt, pwd protect or go to the cloud for backups. I bought this drive to replace a returned Seagate desktop expansion drive that kept dropping off line. After 24 hts the WD Passport is still connected, as it should be, Most importantly, it rules out my computer as the cause of the Seagate issue.. I realize not much time has elapsed since I received and installed the drive but wanted to report a good experience, so far its all pros and no cons. I will update this review if I encounter any issues Clear