WD My Passport 1TB Portable External Hard Drive (Black and Grey)

Overpriced for the performance I am getting from this external HD.While the metal on the chassis gives it a premium feel, the added weight really doesn't help with portability and is prone to scratches.Definitely not worth the price.

Who doesn’t need an external hard drive now with all the pictures and videos we take? I use my computer and iPad for recording music, and WAV files take up a ton of space, which can ultimately slow your system down. Have 1T of extra space available to move songs that I don’t necessarily want right away, or that I would like to have on the side to travel with, is easily accomplished with this rather small hard drive. I give it 4 stars out of 5 simply because storage capacity has increased and size of products has decreased more and more recently. So, it is - in comparison - much larger than, say, an sd card. But it is rather sturdy and I believe would likely hold up better. It is nice to have the extra space though, I will say that. My computer and my iPad instantly recognize the drive, so it is super simple to use, no learning curve there.

WD 1TB My Passport DriveThe My Passport series lives up to the name as this little drive is very much travel friendly.The small 3.25” x 4.25” x 1/2” size makes is easy to pack. It will fit into one of those smaller pockets that rarely gets used in your laptop bag.It comes with an 18” USB 3.0 cable which is not very long for desktop use but for laptop and travel I think the length is actually generous and certainly plenty long. It also folds up and packs easier too.The drive is lightweight at only 5 oz but feels solid and hefty for its size.I like the 4 small rubber pads on the bottom of the case that reduce vibrations and keep it in place. It doesn’t tend to slide around or be moved by the USB cable.There is one white LED indicator light on the back side next to the USB jack. It lights up when on and blinks when transferring data. Perfect for letting you know it is powered up.I reformatted mine for Mac. It took the Disk Utility app about 1.5 minutes to complete. There is 999.16 GB available afterwards. The drive like a lot of other external drives doesn’t have Apple’s SMART status compatibility.The USB 3.0 is fast connected to an iMac. I ran TechTool 9 drive tests on the My Passport and it passed all tests. There were no bad blocks detected. It seems to be in good working order.This drive would make an excellent Time Machine backup drive on a Mac. It is quiet, small and capable. It doesn’t have as fast a read write time as compared to a faster drive with a dedicated power supply, but for most tasks besides moving large files often, it is perfect.The case design is pleasing to me. I like the black and gray look. I goes well with most computers I would say.This drives comes in at a good price point. The difference in the 1TB to 4TB is minimal compared to capacity. I tested the 1TB but would very much consider the 4TB.WD has a great lineup with the My Passport Drives. If you need good reliable backup in a portable format I would recommend them. 5 stars.

External hard drives keep on shrinking in both physical size and price. I don't personally use the included WD software with my Macs, but it is nice to have it as an option. The My Passport is pretty much plug and play, and the fast USB 3 interface swiftly transfers data. Reliability will be determined over time, but initially things look good. If you are non-techy user on the market for good-looking, easy to use external compact storage, this may be just what you need.~ Kort