WD 1TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive USB 3.0 Model WDBYNN0010BBK-WESN Black

The My Passport portable drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. Available in an array of vibrant, fun colors, the sleek style fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you can easily take your treasured content everywhere you go.

Pros: As other reviewers have noted, it’s plenty fast for a (presumably) 5400 RPM drive. Runs cool. Aesthetics are subjectively either a pro or con — if you like Legos, you’ll probably like the blue or yellow drive. Three-year warranty is certainly a plus.

Cons: Of dozens of hard drives, I’ve never received a DOA before, so must have been due for one. From reading reviews I understand that Dead on Arrival rates throughout the industry are 5 to 10%, which to me suggests that most hard drives aren’t even tested before leaving the factory (though I don’t know that for a fact). Whatever the cause, it’s certainly annoying. Jump through all the hoops to get your RMA, drive to the UPS drop-off, and a week later receive a *Recertified* drive. That’s right, you bought a new drive, but end up getting a used one.

Overall Review: While I love the drive encryption feature, it would be nice if you didn’t have to install a program on your computer to activate it. After activating the encryption, I just uninstall the Drive Utilities program.

Pros: Support USB 3.0. Comes with a back-up software.
There is really nothing special about this hard drive and that goes same for pretty much any hard drives out there.

CrystalDiskMark test results are as following.
———————————————————————–
Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 115.004 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 114.545 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 0.623 MB/s [ 152.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.460 MB/s [ 356.4 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 115.138 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 114.716 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.506 MB/s [ 123.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.362 MB/s [ 332.5 IOPS]
———————————————————————–

Just a typical for current model hard drives.

There are 8 different color/finish you can choose from. Which makes this hard drive stand out more than others.
3 year warranty is great as many competitors have only 1 year warranty and hard drives, especially external ones tends to be more fragile.

The hard drive comes with built in hardware encryption. Which is big plus if you store sensitive data on your hard drive. It does require WD software installation though.

Cons: 1TB not a large hard drive in today’s standard, but it is slimmer than 2TB or larger models.
If 1TB is more than enough for your purpose, it will be a great choice. For video storage, I’d recommend larger models for just a little more.

Pros: Latest mainstream laptop HDD technology using NCQ SATA 6G within USB 3.1 enclosure and bridging adapter. You will most likely not be able to use this HDD internally for a laptop/desktop.
Higher Sequential Read compared to 1TB My Passport Ultra
Higher 4k Random Read invariant of que depth
USB 3.1 speed limit is around 300 MB/s, so speed is not limited by USB 3.1.
Random speeds are acceptable for USB 3.1 for a mechanical hard drive.
Basic utilities are already included in the drive.
WD support website is easy to use and is linked by Newegg
Good aesthetics with LED indicator
The drive is formatted with AF GPT Basic Disk with a single primary partition
Price is within the acceptable range
Utility software included is the same as before: Password security, backup and driver updater.
While AES-256 password encryption is included, it is very easy to implement with a single micro-controller chip, although proprietary. It is not very useful for the average consumer with limited amount of security sensitive files and compromises the usability in hardware setup or failure scenarios. It is possible that all encoded digital media/storage medium have some level of base encryption.
Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 147.227 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 106.097 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2.673 MB/s [ 652.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 0.362 MB/s [ 88.4 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 228.826 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 105.270 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 2.265 MB/s [ 553.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.462 MB/s [ 112.8 IOPS]
Test : 100 MiB [O: 0.0% (0.4/3726.0 GiB)] (x1) [Interval=5 sec]
OS : Windows 10 [10.0 Build 15063] (x64)

Cons: Lower Random write compared to 1TB My Passport Ultra
Did not come with latest firmware, had to use the WD driver utility
USB 3.1 is not too much different from USB 3.0
2.5” HDD’s are still very similar to few years ago, not much progress was achieved

Overall Review: WDC WD40NMZW-11GX6S1
Enclosure : WD My Passport 25E2 USB Device (V=1058, P=25E2, sa1) – wd
Model : WDC WD40NMZW-11GX6S1
Firmware : 01.01A01
Serial Number : WD-WX21D7647N9H
Disk Size : 4000.7 GB (8.4/137.4/4000.7/4000.7)
Buffer Size : Unknown
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 7813971625
Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
Interface : USB (Serial ATA)
Major Version : ACS-3
Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
Temperature : 29 C (84 F)
Health Status : Good
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ, TRIM
APM Level : 0080h [ON]

Pros: This drive gives you the following:
– Auto backup with included WD Backup software
– Password protection with hardware encryption
– Ease of use
– Built with WD reliability
– USB 3.0 port; USB 2.0 compatible
– 3-year limited warranty

I think it is also important to download the My Passport Portable Hard Drive User Manual. This manual will guide you through all the information concerning your new Passport. The manual will give you information that includes the drive’s features, what is contained in the kit, accessories, Operation System Compatibility, formatting the disk drive, a physical description, how to register you drive and handling precautions. It will give you step by step procedures on using your drive. The manual will give you instruction on how to get the ultimate use of the drive and the Western Digital software that is on and can be loaded to the drive.

The drive is compatible to Windows 7 – 10 along with MacOS Maverick Yosemite El Capitan, and Sierra (See reformatting the drive and troubleshooting on page 29 – 30 of manual), while the backup software is compatible to Windows 7 – 10.

This is overall a good drive and is good for backup and storage. I would recommend purchasing the 4TB drive for an additional $53.00.

Cons: Pricing is a big Con for this drive. While the 4TB drive is $27.00 per TB, the 3 TB is $33.00 per TB, the 2TB is $38.00 per TB, and the 1TB is $57.00 per TB. This pricing makes it a wise decision to buy anything but the 1TB drive.

Overall Review: I cannot recommend this drive unless all you wanted to buy was a 1 TB Drive, I would recommend the 4TB drive for purchase. If it was possible I would change the per TB pricing to reflect a closer price to the 4TB drive.

I also noticed that some reviewers said that this drive uses a Micro B USB cable that is hard to find, but this type of USB 3 cable can be purchased online in case you lose or want a longer cable..

Pros: + Fairly quick portable hard drive that takes advantage of USB 3.0 speeds

+ With it being a platter based hard drive, the speeds are as follows at different points:

0GB – 115MB/s
250GB – 110MB/s
500GB – 90MB/s
750GB – 75MB/s
1000GB – 60MB/s

+ Very quiet when in use

Cons: – USB 3.0 connector vs. the newer USB-C such as can be seen on Western Digital MyPassport SSD drives.

– Plastic enclosure which limits heat dissipation

– The hard drive uses a proprietary circuit board with a USB 3.0 connector. When comparing to older designs with a SATA based drive connecting to a USB-to-SATA adapter, this drive’s troubleshooting options will be limited, and possible repairs and data recovery more complicated.

Overall Review: Western Digital MyPassport drives are some of the highest rated portable hard drives and this particular drive is a welcome update to the MyPassport line. The ultra line may offer a bit more performance, but this particular drive will be adequate for most scenarios.

Pros: Very affordable and portable USB hard drive. But for about 2x the price, you can get 4x the storage by getting the 4TB version. I’ve been collecting music and movies for over a decade and I almost filled the drive entirely.

Available in several vibrant colors

Nothing rattling around in the case- seems strong and durable

USB 3.0 connectivity

3 year warranty- sign up when you get the drive!

Western Digital is a well-known hard drive manufacturer that makes and supports good products

Cons: Uses that weird USB cable (micro B)… it’s not as common and might not be able to use a random cable lying around to replace it

Overall Review: Comes pre-formatted and ready to use for Windows PC computers

Cord is a little over a foot long. Longer cords can be helpful to plug into things like a desktop’s USB ports but can also be a nuisance when traveling

The glossy black finish on half of the drive does show finger prints. I suspect it will get visible scratches if stored with anything metallic

Copied 744GB of files, music, and movies through a USB 3.0 hub at an average of about 27 MB/s. Took over 6 hours to fully copy the files that I wanted to backup.

Comes with Western Digital software on the drive. It allows for automatic backups and encryption but Pro versions of Windows offer similar features and are built into the operating system. I guess this would be helpful for people without Pro versions of Windows.

Pros: – Small and sleek form factor
– Included software for password protecting or backing up
– Plug and play simplicity

Cons: – Cable is USB A to USB 3.0 micro B connector that may be hard to find kicking around (unless ordered) if you lost or damaged the included one.

Overall Review: This external HD performed quite well for what I was expecting. On USB 3 I was getting 116-120MB/Sec writes and reads with large files and 2-6MB/Sec on random sizes of writes and reads to the drive.
The included software works as expected and even includes Mac versions of the software on the drive, although if you wish to use this drive on a Mac you would have to re-format the drive to exFAT as this particular model comes formatted with NTFS.
Still it is nice they include both versions of the software when they didn’t have to.
If you are in need of a small, portable drive with massive storage to haul around with you then be sure to check out the offerings from Western Digital

Pros: I only used this as a portable drive. I loaded this 1TB drive with 360GB of music files from my Itunes library. It took about 90 plus minutes. easy setup, I only used the utilities and not the backup. I did not want to confuse my existing backup. Works great, now I can bring my library with me to work.

Cons: The cord is kind of short

Overall Review: I recommend this as an easy to use portable drive