WD 2TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive USB 3.0/USB 2.0 Model WDBY8L0020BBK-NESN Black

Pros: – With USB 3.0 HDD speed is no longer bottlenecked by bus speed – USB powered – Can be reformatted for use in OSX – Took only 18 seconds to copy a 1.5GB folder containing MP3s – Comes in a variety of colors to choose from – Small white activity LED is not overly bright or distracting – 2 year warranty (which is better than 1 year warranty found on some competitors)

Cons: – Being a portable drive there is no rubber bumper to protect the drive from accidental drops – SES driver, if not installed, your system tray/notification area will always have a annoying pop-up saying "Device driver was not successfully installed"

Overall Review: While some say the 15” cable and 5400rpm being a con should a portable drive be anywhere else other than next to your laptop? 5400rpm was chosen because of the tradeoff between speed and heat, the speed bonus of 7200rpm drives do not justify the additional heat generated. With modern perpendicular recording technology and increasing densities today’s 5400rpm drives are faster than 7200rpm drives of yesteryear. HD Tune Pro 5.00 Read: Minimum – 52.3 MB/s Maximum – 114.2 MB/s Average – 87.1 MB/s Access time – 16.1ms Burst rate – 169.7 MB/s Write: Minimum – 50.2 MB/s Maximum – 109.4 MB/s Average – 83.3 MB/s Access time –15.8ms Burst rate – 153.3 MB/s

Pros: The drive is small and lightweight but feels pretty solid. The casing feels sturdy and well-built. The plastics also have a very nice look and feel to them. Having a single cable for power and data is very nice (especially for a large capacity drive like this one). I have another HDD of the same capacity/style from another company and this one feels much nicer. I like the fact that these can be easily stowed in a bag or pocket without issues. Currently, this drive is being used as a backup device for a NAS at my home. Speeds are quite decent and right on par for what is expected from this type of drive. Speeds are listed down in the "Other Thoughts" section. The LED light on the front is a nice touch for showing activity/power/connection. Came with some drive replication software and some other things on the drive out of the box. I formatted over all of it as it isn’t much use to me. Although, this is a nice touch for a user that just needs to migrate a drive without hassle. In the box is also a small quick start guide. Although, I’m not sure how many people are unaware of how to connect a cable to the drive and connect the drive to the computer.

Cons: Remember that LED light in the Pros? Well here are the issues with it. When the drive is inactive, the light just sits there and blinks at a regular interval constantly. This wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for the fact that the light illuminates an entire room by itself. A tiny piece of electrical tape seems to have remedied this issue pretty quickly. Speed is slightly slower than my other drive of the same capacity (also a single cable USB3.0 design). The response time is very slow (spin up takes a long time from off; longer than any other mechanical drive I have in use) so it takes a long time to wake the thing up and start moving things. While it seems to suffer of absolutely no problems through USB2.0, it seems to be sort of choosy about what USB3.0 chipsets it likes. I have a few devices here that all have USB3.0 capabilities. Some of them transfer files back and forth beautifully. I really put this drive through a lot of file moves and deletes on each device to really test it out. I will preface this by saying that one of the USB3.0 chipsets on a PC I have here has a lot of problems with device compatibility. This drive did not work with it. You start a file transfer and the connection will drop somewhere around a minute in. Other USB3.0 drives have done this on this PC but some seem to suffer absolutely no problems. Using USB2.0 on this computer yields typical results. I can only assume that some USB3.0 devices and chipsets in the early stages of this technology aren't that compatible (the motherboard on the PC is about a year old so it is pretty close to the first of motherboards introduced with USB3.0 built in). When the USB3.0 side of this device works, it performs well but not as fast as some of the other drives with the same specs (1TB capacity, small form factor, and single cable design) which is mostly why I had to knock an egg off. If you are having connectivity issues on USB3.0 with this device I would probably venture to guess that you are facing the same issue as I have observed with certain USB3.0 chipsets interfacing with one another.

Overall Review: Speeds over all were pretty decent. Moving 20GB of ~4.5MB (each) mp3 files to the drive using USB2.0 averaged around 25MB/s over about 10 transfer sessions. Moving 950 GB of 4-32GB .mkv files yielded a slightly lower 23MB/s over 10 times on USB2.0. This drive slows down pretty significantly while writing toward the very edge of its capacity (but that is (pretty common). loading 500GB of random files (documents, music, movies etc. ranging from 1K to 20GB) averaged around 23GB/s for USB2.0 USB3.0 (as expected) yields much faster speeds. transferring the same amount of music as mentioned above ran at 45MB/s for the duration of the transfer tests. transferring the same amount of movies as mentioned above came in at 44.5MB/s for the average. transferring the same batch of random files from above averaged 42MB/s. I will say that the drive became very warm (almost concerning) during testing on USB3.0 with a very large batch of files. Obviously, the typical use for this drive will most likely not involve transferring almost 1TB of data every time it is used but this is something to think about if that is your intention with the drive. The drive did suffer from disconnecting/reconnecting during testing on the aforementioned computer with USB3.0. However, another computer I have on hand did not suffer from the disconnects during transfers. I did have to take another egg off for this as I can see how it would be very frustrating for a user to deal with this long term (especially if this user is using this drive on multiple computers).

Pros: It is not much bigger than a wallet or smartphone and weighs only 7.3 oz so it easily fits in a pocket. The drive shipped safely in retail packaging along with tech support and warranty information, inside a newegg box filled with packaging peanuts. It came with a usb 3.0 cable which is 19" long and backwards compatible with usb 2.0. The drive is made out of a hard plastic and feels durable. it has a white LED light that indicates when the drive has power or is in use. it flashes when it is in use, and it stays on when the drive has power. the LED is a bit bright, and will shine on a wall in a dark room. i did not need to install any drivers or software to use the drive, my windows7 found it immediately. I opened the drive and found that i have 1.81TB of storage space available on the drive. the drive did not come completely empty, it has 185mb of files on it. of these files are PDF user manuals in different languages, a "my passport" application for macintosh computers. and a few different applications, (WD drive utilities, WD security and WD smartware) these program installers are both 32 and 64 bit. I installed the WD Drive Utilities program and got the updated version. the program opens and detects the WD My Passport 2tb drive, and then gives choices on what you would like to do, the program has several things it can help you with, it can check the S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive, you can do a quick drive self test, and a complete scan of the drive for bad sectors. you also have the option to choose how many minutes of inactivity before the drive stops spinning and goes into sleep mode. the options are 10, 15, 30, 45, 90, and never. by default this value is set at 30 minutes. it gives you a option to delete all the data on the drive, and it makes it easy to register your drive with Western Digital, all they ask is for a first, and last name.. and a email address. after submitting my information it stated i should receive a email confirmation. and i did immediately. I installed the WD Smartware and got the updated version. I ran this program and it opens a window and quickly finds out the contents of your hard disk drives.. it tells you how much space you have in different categories, such as pictures, music, movies, documents, system files, and other. this program makes it very simple to backup and catigorise your files onto the My Passport Drive. The Security program allows you to create a password to prevent people from being able to access your data in the event that they get ahold of your drive.

Cons: The is only 3 things about this drive that i think could be improved upon. The drive performs a bit slower than other USB3.0 external drives i have used. The price seems a bit steep for only 2TB of data storage. And the Led light is brighter than it needs to be.

Overall Review: I decided to benchmark the drive with HD Tune Pro to see how quickly it can perform. USB3.0 Maximum read speed 88.1MB/s USB3.0 Minimum read speed 29.3MB/s USB2.0 Maximum read speed 31.1MB/s USB2.0 Minimum read speed 29.5MB/s I did a file copy test to see how the drive would perform in a real word situation, I started copying 374GB of data from one of my internal drives onto this drive. after about 30 minutes the copy speed averaged out at about 43MB/s Which is about 148GB per hour, or 2.5GB per minute. My data backup took more than 3 hours and the drives temperature did not exceed 41c.. Overall i would say this is a good drive.

Pros: Easy to open package just remove the plastic clamshell from the box and open the clamshell, easy enough. Rounded edges no sharp corners, bright data transfer/power on light. Has backup utility in firmware instead of taking up space on the drive itself and several other utility programs again none of them are using precious space on the drive itself. Built in security software to password protect the drive easy to use. 2 year warranty compared to most other drives that only have 1 year. Very quiet with the drive up to my ear hear nothing with it running but feel the vibration not excessive but definitely more noticeable that my other drives that I have. The USB plug fits snugly into the drive and doesn't reset the drive from wiggling it as one of my other drives does. Did initial setup from the drive and it installed 3 programs on computer including security smartware and drive utilities and offered to put icons on desktop

Cons: it is not freindly with Linux computers USB Cable about 18" but that is normal for external HDD or you may not have enough power transfer to power up the drive it is black like my other drive so it hard to instantly know which one I am grabbing

Overall Review: . Formatted NTSF 931GB or 1,000,169,533,440 for mine. When first plugged into USB3.0 port computer immediately installed drivers and available for use in a matter of seconds. It has several utilities installed on the drive for MAC and WINDOWS and of course it includes the user manual in 23 languages all of which can be removed easily, after formatting to remove the software it recovered most of the space used and gave slightly over 1TB of usable space 118MB space is still in use for overhead. The first thing I did was to use the backup utility it searched my C drive and found my pictures music videos and such no problem 76.29GB worth of data 18,341 files total then started backing up to drive it took approximately 38 minutes. Afterwards I deleted the files and partitioned the drive into 3 logical drives windows had no problems partitioning and formatting the drives Next I tested the speed of drive with transfer of files using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo Sequential Read : 82.977 MB/s Sequential Write : 82.016 MB/s Next I tried the security software, put a password in and drive protected and needs password to access files you can set it to auto recognize the main computer that you set the password from so you don't have to enter it all the time but when go to another computer it should ask for it I don't see any major problems there and it can be removed at anytime you wish as long as you still have the software on the computer cons: not as fast as the 500GB seagate drive I recently tested.

Pros: In my own testing, this drive approaches 120 MB/s sequential read over USB 3.0 according to HDTach. Not bad for a 5200 rpm notebook size hard drive. Using USB 2.0, it maxed out at around 39 MB/s, so you definitely should use USB 3.0 if you have it available. I love how small this drive is. Compared to my old external drive, it’s quite petite. The drive also comes with a 2-year warranty; while I've notice other brands only go with 1-year. It comes with both backup and security software for both Windows and OSX. A nice touch I've never seen before with a portable hard drive was an automatic check for new firmware. After installing the software and plugging in the drive, a prompt appeared that notified me that a firmware update was available. Updating the firmware was a simple matter.

Cons: The bundled My Passport software is not the greatest. On my setup the software would run a scan of my backed up folders every time I started my computer. I have several TB of data in the hard drive I have the software monitoring and the scan would noticeable slow down my system for about 15 minutes as it scanned. Additionally, you cannot select specific folders to monitor, only an entire drive. You can however limit what files are backed up by selecting categories (i.e. Pictures, Documents, Videos, etc.). The USB cable is short. This is fine for notebooks or desktops with front panel USB 3.0, but for desktop users with only rear USB 3.0 ports you will most likely want a longer cable. The cable is a standard USB 3.0 Micro B male connector on one end and the standard USB A-Type on the other if you want to purchase a longer cable.

Overall Review: Windows reports 1.81 TB free space and it comes out of the box formatted NTFS with 1MB alignment. If you are brave enough to open the enclosure, you will find that the hard drive does not have a standard SATA or power connector. The USB 3.0 port is attached to the hard drive PCB. Also, the drive is a nonstandard height for a 2.5” drive. What this means is that you can’t take the drive out and use it in a notebook or console.

Pros: This drive stands out from the rest because it holds more data in less space than most all others. It is a great drive for portable or desktop use. It isn’t quite as fast as some of the larger, 3.5" more power hungry drives, but in practice, you may not even notice the difference. So go ahead, use it to backup several desktops without fumbling with power plugs, then put it in your pocket or bag. It works as well as any portable drive on USB 2.0. But on USB 3.0 it flies at about two to three times faster, depending on what you are doing. This is only about 80% of the speed of a faster 3.5" USB 3.0 portable drive, making it hard to tell which you are using, and enticing you to buy this one for its convenience. It is the coolest portable drive I have ever used, getting only barely warm after many hours of use. It is quiet and elegant, without any seriously bad features I can identify. On USB 3.0 the difference in performance between this and its heavier, wall-wart using larger cousins is less than you might assume. If size, convenience, and power consumption are important to you, this drive is well worth the extra cost above larger portable drives.

Cons: The included backup software, like many other "free" bundled programs is not anything wonderful. You could use it to replace the odd lost file, but if your main system does not boot, you can’t recover from your backup without having a working operating system to run the backup program. So you will probably want third party backup software that has a bootable recovery environment. The USB connector on the rear of this drive has little strain relief. Looking inside the unit reveals that the drive’s circuit board visually bends every time you connect and disconnect the cable. You can easily bend the board as well by flexing the cable in normal use. This may or may not affect long term dependability, but it made me think that the unit was defective out of the box because it felt all wrong. It did, however, not fail after many uses in my testing. If you stepped on the plug or cable, or applied too much torque to it, you could destroy the drive. So this is possibly a weak point, unless you are careful. The case for this unit is thicker than ordinary 2.5" portable drives, but this was necessary to give the 2 TB capacity. It still feels small for its capacity.

Overall Review: I would not hesitate to pay more for a USB 3.0 based portable hard drive because hopefully most computers, including laptops and smaller devices, will eventually have USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 can double or triple the performance of an external drive. Even on old USB 2.0 this is still a huge capacity but very portable drive, on which you could backup most laptops and also store a quite sizable library of media. On USB 3.0 it would be basically like having another drive inside your laptop with no speed penalty. But this is not really a laptop drive. It is a WD20NMVW which is a thicker size found in Blade servers, and other commercial machines. However, it is a 5400 RPM unit so it performs about the same as a laptop drive, but has double the capacity of the largest of these. It is a specialty drive made for this unit to do just what it does: be large capacity and consume little power. As convenient and fast as this port-powered unit is on USB 3.0, unless you actually need the greater capacity and performance of bulkier portable drives, you might still want this unit. Even for desktop use, its ease in transport may be just what you need. For laptop use, you can’t beat it!

Pros: High speed file transfers with USB 3.0 A lot of storage in a small package USB Powered (One Cable needed for use) Reasonably lightweight Runs cool, never got hotter than 91.4 °F The drive’s activity light is fairly dull and not too bothersome. Very small and functional rubber feet keep the drive still and your desk surface safe. Performance (Crystal Disk Mark - 100 MB file) USB 3.0 Reads: 108 MB/sec Writes: 103 MB/sec USB 2.0 Reads: 34 Mb/sec Writes: 29 MB/sec USB 3.0 Real world Tests Small Files – 3360 files Read: 38-44 MB/sec Write: 32-35 MB/sec Big File – 4.7 GB file Read: 110 MB/sec Write: 112 Mb/sec USB 2.0 Real world Tests Small Files – 3360 files Read: 24 MB/sec Write: 17 MB/sec Big File – 4.7 GB file Read: 32 MB/sec Write: 25 MB/sec

Cons: Not really a fan of the two tone color scheme, either make it all black or all blue. Cable length is kind of short, approximately 18 inches long. If you are using this with a laptop or a desktop with USB 3.0 in the front, the length is fine but if your desktop has USB 3.0 in the back the cable is way too short. The black plastic on the sides of the drive feel very cheap, this is mainly due to the drive having a somewhat sharp and unfinished line going all the way around the drive just under where it bevels down.

Overall Review: Kind of a con, but this drive should really have a 16 MB cache and run a 7200 RPM in order to give USB 3.0 a challenge. Drive Specs: 5400 RPM 8 MB Cache SATA II 3Gb

Pros: As I previously stated in an earlier review, this is a terrific drive, and I still find this to be true. After three plus months, I have had no problems with this drive. It works perfectly, it is fast, I use it everyday, multiple times a day. It is a mission-critical drive in that I use it to transport confidential files, so I use it all the time. Often, I simply plug it into what computer I am using and work on files directly on the drive itself as it is so fast and reliable. Also, I have found the software to work great, easy, no compatibility problems, stays in the background until you need it. The password protection on the entire drive is very efficient, and it bypassed on any computer you so designate. It's a great idea and works perfectly. Also, the drive stays pretty cool at all times. The plastic case seems to work well that way.

Cons: None so far after three+ months. Some people might not like the fact that the case for the drive is plastic, but it's light and that is not an issue for me at all.

Overall Review: Not much more to say. If you want a fast reliable portable cool-running 1Tb drive with easy-to-use software that will keep all your files password-protected, this is it. I have simply found no downsides to this drive at all. None.