WD My Passport Ultra 3TB: 2 months in

[flibberdipper]

Overview by Travis McClelland, on Flickr

 

INTRO

I got this drive about two months ago because I needed more storage, and this was a great way to get it. Being 3TB, it will probably take me a good long time to go through all of that space, and so far that seems to be pretty true. But, is something like this worth the roughly $130 USD asking price which I got it at?

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

My first impressions were (as follows): Man this thing has some weight to it. Hey, it’s kinda thick. I wonder what model hard drive it uses… Looks pretty nice.

 

OMFG WHY IS THE CABLE SHORT. Wait, that doesn’t matter. SINCE IT’S PORTABLE.

 

So yeah. It is a pretty “big” little guy, but honestly that doesn’t matter. You can just put it in your pocket and then forget about it. It’s not overly heavy either, which is pretty nice.

 

LOOKS

10/10 Batman. I personally really like the design they went with on this, with there just being the one little spot of glossy plastic and then all the rest being nice matte black plastic. Other than that, I guess there really isn’t all that much to talk about in the looks department. My only real complaint is the LED. It’ really bright in dark environments, and it would be nice if it pulsed in and out when the drive was in standby other than just a harsh blink. No real complaints other than that.

 

QUALITY

It seems pretty damn solid. It has some weight, which is kinda nice, and the plastic feels nice in a way as well. The cable doesn’t feel like it will die after being in your pocket for a week, unlike some drives that I got to hold in Best Buy where it just felt like they would break after a little while.

 

And the actual drive… Damn son. That thing seems like it will last a good long while. Especially given that it runs fairly cool, given the enclosure, and it will park the heads if you move it around, even when it’s spinning down (and I assume up). I’ll more or less explain why it seems like a solid piece in the next two sections.

 

SPEED

Alright, so the drive is a 3TB (duh) 2.5” (duh x2) drive that spins at 5,400 RPM, as well as a measly 8MB of cache. And it actually isn’t all that slow. Copying a Windows 7 ISO to it from my SSD would get me about 150MB/s transfer speeds. Gotta love that USB 3 speed, amirite? Now, like any drive, it tends to slow down a deal when you’re transferring a bunch of tiny files, which is to be completely expected. So really nothing to say there.

 

P.S. Normally I would put some actual benchmarks in here, but I forgot to put them in. Whoops.

 

NOISE

Of course, being that they stuffed a laptop drive into this, it is pretty quiet. Transferring a bunch of small files results in an ever so quiet “hard drive banging its brains out” sound. The sound from the motor is fine, and with the rubber feet really doesn’t resonate very much unless you put it under very certain conditions. I would love to have one of these for my desktop or even my laptop, just because it’s huge and quiet.

 

SOFTWARE

Ah, the software suite. It’s actually not terrible and it’s useful, which is the important part. The WD Quick View app is kinda nice, because it will only allow you to eject WD portable drives (in my experience), which is great since I’ve accidentally ejected the wrong flash drive while it was having an ISO written to it.

 

The Drive Utilities application has a Diagnose section, which lets you run a status check, as well as run a quick or a complete drive test. There’s a sleep timer section that allows you to tell the drive to spin down after a certain period of time (and it works independently from the power options that Windows uses, as well as seeming to work on other devices after you set it). Then there’s a drive erase option (name says it all).

 

You also get a WD Security application, which allows you to set a password for the drive to keep your “special files” safe. You can also set it to auto unlock on a computer with the app installed (like a trusted devices list).

 

Finally, you get a WD Backup app, which I love to see, especially with a drive of this capacity. You can set up a backup plan, which lets you choose a location (the drive or Dropbox), as well as what locations and how often you want it to back them up. There is also a restore backup option (name explains the use).

 

CONCLUSION

Overall, I am very happy with this purchase. It allowed me to take two drives out of my main system because I can store all of my crap on it as well as all the videos for my YouTube channel. And given the price and the amount of space, I think it is worth the price premium over things like desktop 3TB drives which are probably faster, just because this one is a lot more portable and it has incredibly handy software which will allow you to do things such as back all of the crap on your computer up.

 

IS IT WORTH IT?

I honestly think that it depends on the price. If you can grab it for $110-130, then I think it is worth it. Anything more and I don’t think that you should get it, just because someplace else probably has it for less. And if it’s lower… Go for it and don’t look back.

[mikat]

@Captain_WD

[79wjd]

tmw I paid $200 for a 2tb passport a couple years ago. (My 2-3 year old 2tb Passport is still going strong albeit it needing to be RMA'd a couple months ago)

[mikat]

tmw I paid $200 for a 2tb passport a couple years ago. (My 2-3 year old 2tb Passport is still going strong albeit it needing to be RMA'd a couple months ago)

really? 200$ for 2 TB?

[79wjd]

really? 200$ for 2 TB?

Better than my 256GB Crucial M4 that was $250. 

 

I just checked, I paid $160 back in 2013, which was pretty standard for portable external drives back then. 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there tmcclelland455,

 

That's a nice photo. Thank you for the detailed review.

One note from me (as this question is raised quite often): 

The drive features hardware encryption which is ON by default and it cannot be turned off by the software or any other way. Your data passes through the encrypting chip and then it goes on the drive itself and it is always encrypted. The application simply allows you to set a password to the drive. Also have in mind that the HDD inside the enclosure cannot be read at all outside of it so it is highly recommended to never remove the drive from the enclosure (it voids the warranty too). 

Other than that everything looks great Thank you for the good words and for the great photos! I also loved the "Batman" look when I first saw the drive.

 

Cheers! Feel free to ask if you have any questions! 

 

Captain_WD.

[flibberdipper]

 

Hey there tmcclelland455,

 

That's a nice photo. Thank you for the detailed review.

One note from me (as this question is raised quite often): 

The drive features hardware encryption which is ON by default and it cannot be turned off by the software or any other way. Your data passes through the encrypting chip and then it goes on the drive itself and it is always encrypted. The application simply allows you to set a password to the drive. Also have in mind that the HDD inside the enclosure cannot be read at all outside of it so it is highly recommended to never remove the drive from the enclosure (it voids the warranty too). 

Other than that everything looks great Thank you for the good words and for the great photos! I also loved the "Batman" look when I first saw the drive.

 

Cheers! Feel free to ask if you have any questions! 

 

Captain_WD.

 

Really? That encryption thing is friggin cool! I honestly never would have known.

 

And thanks for the feedback. It makes me happy and tingly inside.

[kameshss]

Looking to buy the 2TB version of this one! Thanks @tmcclelland455 for the review.

[flibberdipper]

Looking to buy the 2TB version of this one! Thanks @tmcclelland455 for the review.

No problemo.

[kameshss]

No problemo.

I also have the 2 of the WD Essentials Portable.

 

I like it very much. Still going super good. But should not detach the cable at the drive side frequently. That might damage the port and it will become loose.

 

Also the internal drive is not a normal 2.5" SATA which cannot be used in any laptops or desktops. I prefer this so much.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

It is quite useful for security indeed and has no impact on the drive's performance I would just keep backups on other drives of the things that you don't want to lose in case the drive fails due to problems with the USB port or something else as the drive won't be able to be read outside of the case and you would need to contact a data recovery company to get your data back.

 

Captain_WD.

[iamdarkyoshi]

"hard drive banging its brains out” sound

Gah, the 80GB ScamScum drive on my testbench (which has had over 50,000 hours of runtime) is literally the loudest drive I have every heard. The SMART data on it is completely fine, no bad sectors or anything, its just old, slow, and loud AF

[flibberdipper]

Gah, the 80GB ScamScum drive on my testbench (which has had over 50,000 hours of runtime) is literally the loudest drive I have every heard. The SMART data on it is completely fine, no bad sectors or anything, its just old, slow, and loud AF

You have not heard a Bigfoot TS. Literally my favorite drive ever.

[kirashi]

 

Hey there tmcclelland455,

 

That's a nice photo. Thank you for the detailed review.

One note from me (as this question is raised quite often): 

The drive features hardware encryption which is ON by default and it cannot be turned off by the software or any other way. Your data passes through the encrypting chip and then it goes on the drive itself and it is always encrypted. The application simply allows you to set a password to the drive. Also have in mind that the HDD inside the enclosure cannot be read at all outside of it so it is highly recommended to never remove the drive from the enclosure (it voids the warranty too). 

Other than that everything looks great Thank you for the good words and for the great photos! I also loved the "Batman" look when I first saw the drive.

 

Cheers! Feel free to ask if you have any questions! 

 

Captain_WD.

Really? That encryption thing is friggin cool! I honestly never would have known.

 

And thanks for the feedback. It makes me happy and tingly inside.

 

It is quite useful for security indeed and has no impact on the drive's performance I would just keep backups on other drives of the things that you don't want to lose in case the drive fails due to problems with the USB port or something else as the drive won't be able to be read outside of the case and you would need to contact a data recovery company to get your data back.

 

Captain_WD.

 

I can't disagree with WD Drives implementation of encryption through a hardware chip; it makes sense in our ever-changing world of privacy.

However, as @Captain_WD has said, if the drive gets damaged or begins to fail, good luck recovering any data yourself from the drive, especially if the enclosure is the problem.

 

I love WD's internal desktop drives, especially them sexy 24/7 RED drives, but refrain from purchasing any of their portable drives for data recovery reasons.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Not all portable drives have the hardware encryption feature. If you prefer not to have it you could take a look at the WD Elements Portable. It is a simple portable drive that differs from WD My Passport series by not featuring hardware encryption and should not have these potential issues in case of failure. Here's a link to it: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=HqtosZ

 

Post back if you need more info

 

Captain_WD.

[kirashi]

 

Not all portable drives have the hardware encryption feature. If you prefer not to have it you could take a look at the WD Elements Portable. It is a simple portable drive that differs from WD My Passport series by not featuring hardware encryption and should not have these potential issues in case of failure. Here's a link to it: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=HqtosZ

 

Post back if you need more info

 

Captain_WD.

 

 

Thank you @Captain_WD! That makes my life much easier when recommending drives to my clients.

 

Do these Elements Portable drives still have the circuit board soldered directly to the drive or is it removable so other drive enclosures can read it?

[SuicideAnomaly]

I recently purchased the 2TB version, as I was in the process of building a new machine and needed a drive to help migrate data. It's a stellar little drive, and I'm quite happy with the purchase. The only thing I'm not fond of is the itty-bitty USB cable, but that's an easy fix, and certainly not a reason not to purchase one.

[flibberdipper]

I recently purchased the 2TB version, as I was in the process of building a new machine and needed a drive to help migrate data. It's a stellar little drive, and I'm quite happy with the purchase. The only thing I'm not fond of is the itty-bitty USB cable, but that's an easy fix, and certainly not a reason not to purchase one.

Yeah, the cable can be short, but honestly, the way I have mine plugged in pretty much 24/7, it ends up being perfect. It just sits on top of my case as far back as possible with the cable plugged into my front left-most USB 3 port (if you were looking at it with it sitting at my desk). It's perfect.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

There were no changes made to the WD Elements Portable The board is soldered to save space so the drive can be more compact. Thanks for the good words! 

 

Captain_WD.

[Ominous]

I was wondering whether or not to nab one of these guys.  They seem pretty beefy and up to a challenge.  I take it this would be good for storing large video files on (Not surveillance)?