WD My Passport 1TB USB 3.0 Portable HDs
$59.99
$99.99
40% off
Reference Price
Condition: Factory Reconditioned
Color: Silver
Top positive review
3 people found this helpful
The hardware works fine!
By D. DEGEORGE on Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2013
This external hard drive does what it is supposed to: write, store, and read back large quantities of data at high speed. It must also do so reliably for a period of years, but at this early stage I cannot vouch for that. Ease of installation is also essential; a mass storage device should be completely plug-and-play; and it is helpful for it to be preformatted--this one is formatted NTFS for Windows XP and above. These are all the qualities that I want in such a device, but this drive also provides a couple of bonuses: portability and backup software. Although I use the drive with a desktop, portability, i.e. small size and ability to be powered from a USB port, are nice to have anywhere; not having to have an extra cable with a transformer plug that takes up a lot of space on a power strip is a convenience to cheer. As to reliability over a period of years, I have only had my new drive for a week, so I cannot speak to that; however, I will try to make it a point to update this review should the drive fail prematurely (I expect about a five-year lifespan--knock on wood). Thus far, I have written 340 GB of data to it; and from it I have played back HD video (full-frame-rate, full-HD mpeg-type, not just Flash) without a hitch or a glitch Among these reviews I noticed a lot of complaints about the backup software. They may very well true; and this is not to excuse WD; but I have to say that I have never met a backup program that I liked. Most, including some top-rated, have vital functions that simply don't work. I currently use Windows 7's own backup program; it isn't great--not much flexibility and control; but it's free, and it works (so far). My main motivation for writing this review is to try to provide a little help with installation, which should reassure prospective buyers disturbed by the experiences reported by some other customers. I said above that installing mass storage should be a simple matter of plugging it in, and under the right conditions that is all that this drive requires. But "under the right conditions" can be a big "if"; and a variety of issues can plague the installation of this drive as a USB 3.0 device. In my case, I had never attached a USB 3.0 device to my system before; and I found that Windows would not recognize the device when plugged into a USB 3.0 port. As a search on "WD Passport USB 3.0 Installation Problems" reveals, there are several problems that can occur; and dealing with all those is not the purpose of this review; however, I simply want to do two things: (1) reassure you that this device does in fact come with a good USB 3.0 cable, and that it transfers data at a considerably higher speed over USB 3 as compared with USB 2; and (2) to warn the buyer that (s)he may require a driver update for his/her PC. Regarding the first point, I am getting better than 2.5 times the data transfer rate with USB 3.0 versus USB 2. Regarding the second, the updated driver required will most likely be the one associated with the USB hardware on the motherboard of your PC; if you have problems using your WD passport on a USB 3 port, but not on a USB 2 port, visit either your PC vendor's website, or that of the maker of the motherboard, and do a search on USB 3 drivers. WD also provides firmware updates for its drives; but in my case at least, the Passport's firmware was already up to date as received. While I am in the business of giving tips related to the purchase of an external HD, be aware that if you want a hassle-free installation you might want to avoid drives with over 2TB of capacity. I, and others, have had issues, especially with Windows Backup, with 3TB drives. It turns out that the solution is fairly simple: use the WD Quick Formatter tool (available on WD's website) *before* attempting to use the drive (reformatting will wipe out any data you've already put there). As long as you're willing to take that extra step, it's fine to get a 3TB drive; and I have had no further problems with a 3TB drive. To be clear, the drive I am reviewing here is a 2TB drive; but I just thought I'd throw in this extra tip for people who are reading these reviews and are still undecided about what size to get.
Top critical review
38 people found this helpful
UPDATE: RETURNED IT AND BOUGHT THE BEST DRIVE EVER "Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex"!
By NY Andrew on Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2012
Alright, first off I purchased this product because Western Digital is supposedly one of the biggest manufacturers when it comes to hard drives so I figured I couldn't go wrong and I steered clear of the Chinese Seagate drives. Shipping took a while to get here but there was no rush. OK, so here we go. Well I'm coming from an old ClickFree C2N External Backup drive and that thing was by far one of my favorites and will always be what I compare all future external hard drives I buy to. It was the simplest backup I have ever used and never had one problem with it so that might be why I'm a bit rough on this review towards Western Digital. Now once I got the My Passport, first thing I did was backup my computer and then update the WD SmartWare software (BAD DECISION) DO NOT UPDATE TO VERSION 1.6 OR YOU WILL HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!! I'm being serious. So here's the problems I had once I updated: -It took forever to find files and just said "copying files" but it's really not. -Makes my computer fan run NON STOP! Like it got so bad the second fan in my computer would kick on! -The PDF user manual said you could change the backup speed to backup while not idle, but the problem was this feature is only available in the previous version of SmartWare. -The WD SmartWare software didn't update a file it just created a .tmp file. So those are just some of the major problems I noticed. Now once I called technical support (Once you do this it activates 30 day support and after that I think you have to pay to call or something), the guy basically just told me to download an older SmartWare driver and uninstall the old and re-install the new, but once I did that it wasn't installing. Smart me backed up the original files that came with it so I could re-install what came with my drive, but most people wouldn't have done this and I don't know where you could have gone from there.. But so I re-installed that SmartWare and now everything runs smooth. I am currently on 1.5.4.5 and this SmartWare version works GREAT! Fan barely ever goes anymore, no .tmp backup problems yet, and it just works. I did notice though that if you have long file names, this will create problems later o for you if you want to delete files or folders from the My Passport, but I fixed that as of right now. Honestly, all in all, I would probably not buy another Western Digital drive, because they take a lot of time getting used to and learning how to use them and when you create a file it backs that file onto the WD My Passport drive but then if you rename the file on your computer it would backup that newly named file up and then if you would edit the contents it would backup up the new contented file and so you'd end up with like 3 backups of the same exact file. Also seems like it sometimes doesn't back up an updated file or picture file which isn't good and I'm looking into.. OH! And if you use the Category Backup, it does not backup .exe files... So take that into consideration, BUT you can use a file Backup option where you select which folders you want to backup which I prefer anyway. It is pretty cool though the way you can add files and folders straight onto it, as if it's a USB; like you can go right into My Computer and just drag and drop onto it which is pretty neat and helpful--doing that I was able to free up three 8GB memory sticks I had laying around. Like I said though, it takes some getting used to and I'm a Computer Wiz. This thing REALLY does take getting used to even for people who are good with computers! Overall, the backup is quick, it's nice knowing it backs up while you work in the background so it doesn't interfere with you and one reminder if you purchase this: DO NOT UPDATE TO SMARTWARE VERSION 1.6!!! YOU WILL REGRET IT AND KICK YOURSELF IN THE ASS FOR BUYING THIS DRIVE!!! I contemplated over and over that I would return it, but since it is working now, I think I might keep it--we'll see... Didn't know it was gonna be that long of a review, but this is from personal experience and if you read this you WILL be well informed and won't make certain mistakes! :) **********UPDATE: RETURNED IT AND BOUGHT THE BEST DRIVE EVER "Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex"!********** Eventually I got so fed up with this, that I returned it and bought a MUCH better backup drive and I'm SOOOO happy I did!!! If you want to know about it then check out my review on it! :) Sorry Western Digital, but until you get your act together, YOU SUCK.
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