- #WESTERN DIGITAL MY PASSPORT 4TB REVIEW PORTABLE#
- #WESTERN DIGITAL MY PASSPORT 4TB REVIEW SOFTWARE#
- #WESTERN DIGITAL MY PASSPORT 4TB REVIEW PASSWORD#
With a sustained copy speed averaging around 110MB/s via USB 3.0 (the drive also works with a USB 2.0 port but at a significantly lower speed), it's fast enough for almost anything you'd want to do with a portable drive. I used the 4GB version for performance tests and got somewhat above-average performance. While it's fine to use, it's not as convenient as other built-in backup tools like Time Machine (Mac) or File History (Windows 10).
#WESTERN DIGITAL MY PASSPORT 4TB REVIEW SOFTWARE#
There's also a backup software application called WD Backup. To compensate for its lack of vision, the drive supports the most secure 256 EAS encryption - an optional feature you can turn on using included security software - to protect your data from prying eyes. This doesn't affect the drive's performance but does means it won't work with computers that only have USB-C, such as the 12-inch Macbook. To my disappointment, however, it doesn't use a USB-C port, instead opting for an old Micro-USB 3.0 port. Like most portable drives, the new My Passport supports USB 3.0. Note: Longer bars mean better performance The final reason for my low score for this product is the cable. Further testing with real data showed a quick. No matter what you are storing, it should. The My Passport Ultra reached a peak of 129 MB/s read and 123 MB/s write and with ATTO showed it can reach that level of performance from 32K to 64M.
Connectivity is pushed via USB-C with a background in USB 3.2 Gen 2 this gives the.
#WESTERN DIGITAL MY PASSPORT 4TB REVIEW PASSWORD#
It was showing nothing in the password field so I couldn't tell if I was typing into the field (maybe white text on a white background?), one dialogue box had a tick box that seemed to appear many rows below the setting it belonged to and something else I clicked on (sorry can't remember) did the old "no visible response whatsoever" trick so you got no feedback as to whether you'd actually selected anything. All in all, Im extremely happy with this hard drive and recommend to anyone who needs to store files. The latest My Passport SSD is offered in several capacities that include 500GB along with 1,2, and 4TB models.
I'd have to say that I don't miss the WD software anyway 'cos it's terrible. While the WD software was installed, I was variously getting Time Machine backup failures of "Time Machine failed to create the backup folder" or "Time Machine failed to read some files". Once I removed the WD password and uninstalled the WD software, I let Time Machine do the password protection and encryption and everything is now humming along nicely. After three failed attempts to run a backup and after trying a reformat, thinking this might fix the problem, I eventually read on-line that the WD software was the culprit. Bought this drive as a dedicated Time Machine backup drive for an M1 MacBook (OS 11.5.2). Specific model to avoid is WDBPKJ0050 and this appears in your USB device tree as "WD My Passport 2627". My assessment is that in any case, this drive is unsuitable for any long-running write, and is in particular, bad for backups. That's a reliability as well as a performance problem. It's possible that WD used a very low-quality platter and attempted to improve short-term performance with a buffer. When swapped in as a replacement to increase capacity, we were surprised how slowly a standard Time Machine backup progressed, and investigated with some large-file write benchmarking.Įven when connected to a dedicated USB3.1 bus, my basic tests to the unit I bought, of a linear large-file write, showed that it can barely take 40MB/sec for a few seconds at the start of continuous writes, and then quickly degrades to 9MB/sec or worse sometimes it stalls completely and write performance drops to nil.īy comparison, I have several comparable 5TB portable-backup drives from other manufacturers, and even other similar drives from WD, and these consistently sustain writes of 100MB/sec, using the same port and cable and test method. The 4TB Elements, for example, is more affordable but. The WD My Passport also ranks well against competitors. While the Seagate Expansion is 25 less expensive, WD My Passport Ultra 4TB instead offers a better warranty for three years and has a Type-C connector. This drive cannot sustain high speed writes. There are a few options out there when it comes to portable hard disk drives.