Pros: Tested with Arch Linux dm-crypt encryption. Works perfectly. Didn't do any speed or bandwidth testing. I bought this as an external backup drive. I backed up everything that was on it to a main drive, and wiped/encrypted it using dm-crypt. No problems.

Cons: None whatsoever. The silver case looks like it might be very easy to scratch. But still very nice looking.

Other Thoughts: Not a con, but this would be perfect if it had a nice felt sleeve to come with it to protect the case from scratches.

Pros: Great price for size and speed.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: These are dangerously convenient. Meaning tons of space and super fast yes, but don't let them loose in your bag, they are sensitive w/ moving parts. This is my second because I dinged another but don't know when it would have gotten dinged, i.e. sensitive. But man, super killer when they're working. And my second one is nails so far. Raging r/w speeds. Whew.

Pros: Fast transfer speeds. HDD has a good feel to it. True, it has a black-plastic backing to it, but the top and sides are reflective metal/aluminum as you see in the pictures. You have the Western Digital, which is always high-quality and performance, so you shouldn't mind paying a couple bucks more here and there for premium names such as theirs.

Cons: My friend has an older version of this 2TB portable drive, except his came with a really handy and nice folding leather pouch where you can protect both the HDD, AND the necessary USB 3.0 cable, so I was really hoping there would be something like that with this HDD, especially with the reflective metal coating it has. Still, not enough to take an egg off, as the HDD itself is what I'm reviewing, not add-ins.

Other Thoughts: You're getting a Western Digital-made quality portable HDD for the money. If you need 2TB, grab this and don't be disappointed.

Pros: -Very solid case made of a single piece of aluminum, with a sturdy plastic bottom.
-Good sequential read/write speeds comparable to other 7200rpm USB3.0 HDDs.
-Good software suite. Nothing I didn't find useful - Diagnostics, Sleep Timer, Drive Erase, and Registration. The WD Smartware software is pretty intuitive and makes it easy to get scheduled backups setup. A free upgrade to WD Smartware Pro is included with 3 concurent licenses, which allows you the ability to use the software for backups to non-WD devices. A Dropbox backup tool is built into the software, which is convenient for those who use that service.
-Includes apps for Mac already on the drive ready to go.
-WD Security utility allows for password protecting the device and encryption. Allows for auto-unlock based on local machine Windows credentials. When the drive is then accessed by a different user or on a different computer, it automatically launches an executable WD Unlocker application where you are prompted to enter the password to access the drive.
-Discreet, but noticeable enough white LED activity light on the edge near the USB port.
-Three year limited warranty.

Cons: Although the housing is made of aluminum, it is not scratch resistant. I've already got a couple nicks and scratches on mine.
The provided USB cable is rather short. If your PC is located somewhere other than on top of your desk, you will need an extension, or purchase a longer cable separately.
Those are really my only complaints, other than I wish it was offered in black!

Other Thoughts: I did not run into the same cons with installing the software suite as a couple of the other reviewers below. The application and utilities installed pretty quickly - setup was a breeze.

Here are my benchmark results for the My Passport, as well as a couple other drives I own for comparison purposes:

-WD My Passport 2TB USB3.0-
Max Transfer = 117.5 MB/s
Min Transfer = 41.1 MB/s
Avg Transfer = 84.1 MB/s

-Seagate Momentus HDD 250GB 7200rpm USB3.0-
Max Transfer = 118.8MB/s
Min Transfer = 53.6 MB/s
Avg Transfer = 91.7MB/s

-Seagate Momentus HDD 320GB 5400rpm USB3.0-
Max Transfer = 75.3 MB/s
Min Transfer = 35.8 MB/s
Avg Transfer = 59.7 MB/s

-PNY XLR8 SSD 120GB USB3.0-
Max Transfer = 184.0 MB/s
Min Transfer = 138.2 MB/s
Avg Transfer = 156.3 MB/s

Benchmarks created using HD Tune v2.55 running on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Thanks to Newegg.com and Western Digital for providing the review sample!

If you found my product review helpful in your search, please check Yes below. Thanks!

Pros: This portable drive is fast. I constantly am getting 112 MB/sec transfer speeds when transferring videos. As with other series of My Passport, these fit in normal-sized pockets. I filled it up with no problems. Included is useful software to back up and secure your drive. Both Mac and Windows versions are included so you don't have to have internet access and download them wherever you are. The included software did not seem to cause any impact on startup or normal use of my computer, which pleases me.

Cons: There are no major cons for this drive from my experiences, as everything went smoothly as expected. A minor inconvenience for me was that the included cable is not long enough to have a floor-standing PC connected to the portable drive sitting on my desk. Its range was restricted to sitting on top of my computer.

Other Thoughts: The Metal Edition is very sleek looking. It is metal-encased on the top and sides (cap-style), with the bottom being black plastic. Do not expect increased durability; the appearance is merely for aesthetic purposes. And a very cool appearance at that.

As for the short cable inconvenience for desktop users, you can alleviate that problem with either a USB hub that can reach your desk or by buying a longer USB3 cable.

Pros: This is a very SOLID Drive. The metal reinforcement makes it seem like it would be durable, but it will still break due to the moving platters if dropped so be aware. The lights on the HDD are very dim in my opinion so they are non intrusive but still tell you when the disk is active so that is very nice. The HDD is a thick but small form factor so it will fit in a large pocket or easily into a backpack. The USB 3.0 Interface is fast but not as fast as it could be. There is 2TB of space that I have yet to fill. The included cord is small but due to the microusb standard you can find much longer cords that will work with this HDD. The HDD formats well to the GNU/Linux system and rsync so this makes it great as a backup system for linux servers.

Cons: The WD Applications/Programs are very bloated. They took my computer awhile to install. Some of the programs are in fact useful but some features are absolutely useless and intruding to the use of the program. The software likes to crash a lot. This is in fact a massive problem considering that it is used as backup software. I have a set of movies on a FTP Server. I setup the program to take the movies and port them to the External HDD when I add a movie to the FTP Server. Sometimes this would work and sometimes it wouldn't. Software is the biggest negative.

Other Thoughts: For some reason shipping took almost 2 weeks. The packaging info according to Newegg said it showed up to my Box but it was actually, after calling around, on the other side of the state.

Pros: Fast and easy software setup and drive comes already formatted. With its super speed USB 3.0 interface and its sleek and sexy design and it’s a whopping 2 TB of storage space. No power supply needed, runs right off the USB connection. The drive comes with a complete software suite, for backups, protection, and drive diagnostics. The backup pro version (INCLUDED AT INSTALL) also offers you cloud backup if you desire. I give this portable external drive a definite 2 thumbs up.

Cons: Connecting cable is a little short, but it works OK about 17 inches in length.

Other Thoughts: Well got to say it, the unit is definitely sleek and has good looks with its aluminum finish, small footprint and feels good to the hand. On top of that 2 TB’s of storage, well more than enough room to back up everything in my system. It’s USB 3.0 for super speed transfers and it comes with its own software suite (WD Smart ware for backup – WD security for protection – WD Drive Utilities to maintain your drives health). At install the Smart ware is upgraded to the PRO version – I have used all the software and it all works perfectly and it does not give me any problems – I have backed up my whole system consisting of 3 drives. I backed up my largest external drive of 46.23GB of multimedia files (Pictures Music and PDF files) with the WD Smart ware Pro software and it took 49 minutes and 31 seconds to complete – Not bad if I say so myself. So for the price it’s a nice buy and it looks and feels good.
Running Windows 8.1 pro 64bit, Asus motherboard with Intel I7 and SSD for my main drive.

Pros: This little drive has a super small foot print and is fast. Good on weight as well as feel of the outer hard case. It has a micro texture of the metal case that is very nice, it kind of has this cross grain feel, it definitely gives you a bit more control while holding on to the surface, nowhere near slippery . Soft rounded corners are very nice and it is very shiny so if you're like me and buy into the shiny factor then this drive has that appeal locked down. It has a pin hole blue light next to the cable connection that does show the HDD status and it's not that harsh piercing blue; it's a soft light blue which is a big bonus for me when transferring files late at night in low light to not have a blinding blue light coming off the drive. It is plug'n'play and you don't have to install the WD Smartware to make it work. That is what I had to do as you will read in my cons section - I had a lot of issues with the WD Smartware but once I blew that out and used this just as an external drive, it was great and fast, I just wished I would have gotten the software to work for me. I am using VirtualBox as my virtualization software so if anyone knows if this was part of my issue, please leave a review saying so, I do check back from time to time. I think that overall it's a good drive, I can't give it 5 eggs because of the software issues but if you're very comfortable with WD Smartware then this is the upgrade for you.

Cons: Where to start??? I really really dislike the WD SmartWare, it is way too bulky and took almost 5 minutes to install and while it was installing it updated my .net. I really hate when third party software updates my windows software to do menial things like external storage. I also disliked that the SmartWare was aggressive about what it thought I should update rather than what I wanted to update. You do have two options when installing the software. I ran both options and the more advanced option of the software was still more or less aggressive about scanning my installed hard drives and telling me what I should back up. The biggest disappointment was when the software kept crashing when I left it open and unattended for a more than three minutes. I had to uninstall the SmartWare to really use this drive as a backup source. I am using a windows 7 virtual machine that is running on virtualbox 4.2. I also came across some very interesting information about SmartWare and MAC not working properly, I will leave a link to the forum where I found this information on and will allow you to read the conversations that have taken place. The metal case only covers the top and the sides of the device and not the bottom. The bottom does not even have a non-slip coating or feet so please be careful that it does not fall off your desktop with its short 19 inch cable. The cable is even a bit shot for laptop use in my humble opinion. I was not really able to test this drive the way I wanted to, there are many feature of the software that did not work for me seeing as how I had to blow the software out to make the drive work. I would bet that many of you out there reading this review would not have the issues that I have had and would be much happier than me, but that is just a guess. I am running three virtual machines on my one tower and not sure if that has something to do with the software glitches or not so please read as many reviews as you can before taking just my word on things

Other Thoughts: I can't really give you a speed test here as I can't get the Smartware to work properly but it does move files quickly once I created my own file on the root of the hard drive.
Link to chat about Time Machine and MAC issues
http://community.wd.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Issues-with-Time-Machine-new-backup-must-be-created/td-p/251252/page/11
"I know that this link is for MY Book and this item is a My Passport but they chat about the Smartware"
Over all for an external its nice, it's small and it's fast what more do you really want, it's not meant to be a NAS system, it's just a back up. I am Happy.

Pros: UBS 3.0. It Backed up my PC quickly.

Cons: The "Metal Edition" is a bit of a overstatement. The only metal is the side with the WD My Passport Ultra on it

Other Thoughts: The pictures on the top of the Newegg page are accurate. The WD highlights under the "overview" tab are not this drive. This 2TB drive is much thicker then noted in the tab.