Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB Portable Hard Drive (Black)

Pros: Setup was easy. Does what I need it to do for extra storage.

Cons: The USB 3 doesn't seem fast at all. Not anywhere close to the speed of my external eSata drive.

Pros: High transfer speed, large space, reasonable price

Cons: Click of death onset after (almost exactly) 1 year use

Other Thoughts: luckily got the extended warranty. Will be returning soon - it mounted on the fourth try and I'm dumping all of my files off it. Fantastic drive while it lasted.

Pros: This seemed to be a reasonably price and compact external drive.

Cons: The high cost of data recovery definitely overshadows any $ that I may have saved. The research I did shows this error is common and is a "catch all" for a drive failure. The only remedy WD recommends is to send the drive to a data recovery specialist. This drive sat undisturbed, behind my desktop PC - safe and sound. It failed by no assignable cause. It is unlikely I will purchase WD products again.

Pros: The drive has worked well so far. I've written 9+GB backups to it and drive temperature didn't seem to be an issue.

Cons: The USB cable could have been longer.

Other Thoughts: I needed a USB powered drive for a DVR I plan to purchase. The DVR isn't shipping yet so I've been using the drive for system backups in the meantime.

Pros: I have bought two of these so far to hold all of my media and they have done that beautifully. They are lightweight, easy to use, USB 3.0, Standalone(no need to plug in). Excellent buy.

Cons: I had a little trouble plugging 2 into seperate USB 3.0 ports at the same time. That was fixed with a quick internet search and about 5 minutes of time. Not Western Digitals fault and nothing I would need to take an Egg off

Other Thoughts: I have them rubber banded together :)

Pros: Very portable. USB 3.0 access is super fast. This is my 4th Western Digital external and my 3rd Passport. Have always been happy with Western Digital products and this external hard drive is no different.

Cons: Proprietary USB cable. No longer sold with a soft case.

Pros: Small size, quiet, runs cool, has available hard case that is very durable.

Cons: In a word: software. The software installed on the drive includes features like password protection, and back-up software that sufficiently dumbs-down the process for novices, but the first couple times the drive was plugged in, the software completely locked my system until updates finally applied. The drive runs perpetually, as does the back-up software. Again, this is to idiot-proof the backup process, but it's not optional, and I'd like a higher degree of control over how/when it runs.

Other Thoughts: Overall I'd recommend it to anyone, but users with specific purposes for it in mind may not want to even bother with the software.

Pros: USB 3.0, 1TB of storage, Great portable drive, Had some pretty decent speeds via 3.0 on 2.0 it was just about average. Cable is of decent length and a rather thick gauge. Works great for me but may be a preference issue.

Cons: Died after 6 months of use. I've tried different cables and plugging it in multiple computers and other devices and it just simply won't read anymore. Will just power up and do diddly squat.

I used this as a backup drive and as for files as well. Having this fail on me was a real drag for I don't have any secondary backups.

Shows fingerprints really easily. Usb cable is a bit short but I use it on my laptop mostly so it works great for me. When on my desktop I have a hub on my desk so it's fine for me there as well.

Other Thoughts: Not sure about manufacturer's warranty but I will look around into details. Hopefully there's something that'll be able to be done about this issue.

Pros: portable

Cons: failed after a month lost a lot of valuable data

Pros: Cheap compared to other drives.
Small.
Does not require an additional power adapter.
True USB 3.0= Fast speeds!

Cons: The cable that comes with it is a little short.

Other Thoughts: I have been a happy owner of many WD's in the past an am not unhappy with this.