(Old Model) WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Auto Backup, Black

I recently started going through all old home videos and pictures, and aggregating them onto my home (RAID mirrored) server. I bought this little (physical size) hard drive for one reason: to backup that data on the server. While the data is mirrored on the servers hard drives, those two hard drives are in close proximity and are susceptible to failure from external sources (electrical/thunder, water, fire, etc). The reason why I paid more and went with a small hard drive (2.5") as opposed to a full-sized hard drive (3.5") was for the ability to store the hard drive into a safety deposit box. Now if you do some research, hard drives aren't great for long term storage that is disconnected. If you attempt this method I add the caveat that you should connect the hard drive to a machine once in a while. I personally plan on updating the files every 4-6 months. "But C.Rogers, why would you do this when there is cloud storage!?". Simple, privacy and speed. Cloud storage is over the internet and subsequently is limited by the fastest upload speed your internet provider gives you. It is further limited by any bottle-necks the data hits along the way to it's destination. When you're talking about backing up terabytes of data, this is already a turn off as it would take a huge amount of time (a week or more?) to upload initially. Granted after that it can do incremental back up's that won't take nearly as long, that leads me to my next problem, privacy. There are two aspects I worry about, non-encrypted transmission and legality/security of the service (who really owns the data on their servers, and how secure is it really?). Does the service provide the ability to encrypt the uploads and downloads so no one in between can look at my data? Does the data stay encrypted on their servers? When push comes to shove, who owns the data once it's on their servers? Finally how secure is the service from being hacked? While all these questions have answers that would probably sway me toward cloud storage, the fact that they exist at all means there are far more variables than I'm comfortable with. More variables mean higher percentage of problems arising from unforeseen scenarios. You know whose going to hack this hard drive when its not in my possession? A bank robber. Done. "You said it's fast? How fast?". To that I can't comment fully as I don't have a machine with USB 3.0. Best I can offer is USB 2.0. To that end I can mention that I'm getting an average of 20 megabytes (not megabits*) per second writing and about 27 megabytes per second reading. Compatibility: Confirmed working on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2007 without issue. Construction: Feels solid, nice little rubber pads on the bottom. Still a hard drive though, I wouldn't go dropping it. Noise: Church Mouse status Bloatware: Minimal. It comes with Western Digital's management and back up software installed (totaling 254 MB on the hard drive). I imagine I could delete it, but I see no need. In fact I might need some of it in the future. Additionally, it's not "in your face" as soon as you plug it in. There if you want it, but silent if you don't. Other notes: The wire it comes with is about 12 inches long. If this is your first USB 3.0 device, be aware that it is a different wire than USB 2.0 1.1 and 1.0. While I believe USB 2.0 and previous micro wires will work, you will not get USB 3.0 speeds. Thus if you need a longer cable and want USB 3.0 speeds, you will need to order one separately. tl;dr: +Great hard drive for a reasonable price. +Small enough to store in a safety deposit box. +Speeds of 27 MB/s read and 20 MB/s write on USB 2.0. +No real bloatware, just additional utilities included on the hard drive totaling 254 MB's.* +Pretty quiet. -USB 3.0 cable provided is only 12" long. *did not use the auto or cloud backup options, can not comment.

I own a few external hard drives that require electrical outlets for power. Cuts down on the mobility. My biggest concern in purchasing this particular drive was that there seemed to be a lot of ambiguity regarding whether or not it would work with Macs. In fact, I even asked the question..."Will this work with my Macbook?" and someone posted a simple "No." That was helpful. Didn't give any personal anecdotes to back up that answer...just simply, no. After reading many more reviews and doing more research of my own, I decided that customer may have accidentally answered my question when they were actually thinking they were answering another customers question regarding whether or not Matrix Revolutions was a good movie. So I took a risk and purchased this little gem and strangely enough...it worked on my Macbook Pro right out of the box. I did format the drive so that I can export large files and use with Macs and PCs (if anyone would want to do that sort of thing.) And if you want to learn more about that, you can check this out:[...] But besides that...it was ready to use right away without any issues at all. I love it. Simple, easy to take anywhere...lightning fast...able to export ginormous files at once. The price is great. Oh...and did I mention that it WORKS GREAT with Macs?

Let me start my review by saying that I am your average reviewer with a solid understanding of technology but I am by no means an expert. The best review of this product has already been written by "gravemind" At the time that I am typing this review, Gravemind's review was second from the top when sorted by "most helpful" Read that review.... it will answer many questions that I didn't even think to ask when I bought this. Okay, that said, here's my review.... I am giving this 5 stars based SOLELY on the fact that these store my photo files and have done so without incident for a few years now. I am a photographer with an insane number for photo files. I own about ten of these drives in both 1tb and 1tb sizes. I also own drives from other companies. I import my photos using lightroom and have them go to two of these drives. If I was smart I would have a third drive hooked up just to be safe, but alas, the USB ports on my current computer died a couple of years ago so I am somewhat limited. I know, I know, I could plug in a 3.0 hub. I just haven't done it yet. So these drives store my photo files and they read and write very fast. I am almost afraid to type that I haven't so far gotten any read or write errors because now probably my whole system will go to hell. Still, for now, they're great. I have never managed to get their backup system to work for me and I suppose I should deduct a star for that but frankly I never really planned on using their backup system. It would be nice, but I can't at all figure it out. BOTTOM LINE: if you need solid feeling and performing backup drives and you don't much care about the bundled software, these drives are a five star experience. If you are looking for the software as well, look elsewhere.

I received the WD My Passport Ultra 2TB external HD this evening. I connected it to my 3-month old Dell XPS 850 / Windows 8.1 computer, which immediately recognized the device and displayed a directory for all the files on the HD. Unfortunately, the directory began to flash on and off at random intervals. Undeterred, I installed the WD software provided on the drive, and I waited patiently after being told that more up-to-date software was available on line, and waited longer as replacement software was installed. It was only with great difficulty that I managed to register the new product with WD, because the constant disconnecting and connecting of the drive made it difficult for the registration program to accept my typed name, address, email, etc. I then followed the instructions provided after the installation and product registration was complete and re-booted my PC. Alas, installation of the newest WD software and rebooting made no absolutely no difference. The WD HD continued to connect and disconnect rapidly but randomly, preventing me from backing up any data onto my new WD external HD. I searched WD support pages to find a diagnosis for this problem (which has been reported by at least 7 other WD My Passport Ultra 2TB external HD users. I implemented a couple of the proposed fixes, but none worked. After 45 minutes of experimentation, I gave up, physically disconnected the failing WD external HD and replaced it with my older (but full) WD external HD, which worked flawlessly. I removed the newly installed software, re-installed and then updated the software provided with my older WD external HD, and requested that Amazon accept my return of a defective HD, a request that was promptly granted by Amazon. It is conceivable that the apparently defective device works, but is somehow incompatible with my new Dell PC or the Windows 8.1 OS or some obscure default setting in my PC or Windows 8.1 OS. But I am not an engineer; WD does not provide anywhere on its website a straightforward explanation or fix for the problem, and I do not feel it is the responsibility of the user community to engineer a fix for this or any other problem in connecting an external HD to a standard, plain vanilla PC. I hope I can find another 2TB external HD that will serve as effectively as my older 1TB WD external HD as my main backup device. (By the way, the WD-supplied backup software, even on the older, perfectly functioning WD HD was crap. I used the Windows Vista OS backup software for backup on my old PC, and it was much more intuitive, straightforward, and dependable.) UPDATE: 12-23-2013 - After returning this item, I went to a specialized store and obtained recommendations for an external HD. After discussing the alternatives with a knowledgeable expert, I purchased (at his recommendation) the very same WD My Passport HD model that earlier failed. His comment was: "All hard drives will fail someday, and a small percentage will fail immediately. Yours happened to fail immediately." He thought the WD Ultra HD offered the best combination of speed and simplicity; he uses it for his own personal laptop PC. I brought the new HD home, hooked it up speedily and without incident, and it has worked fine for a week. In fact, I restored a defective file onto my home PC with very little effort. We'll see how long it lasts. So far so good. UPDATE: 04-03-2015 - The replacement WD external HD still functions well and without serious errors. One small problem is that my PC occasionally "loses" the external HD. That is, even though the HD remains connected to the PC, the PC no longer recognizes that it is connected. The problem is easily dealt with, however. I physically unplug the connection and then plug the external HD in again, and the device functions without incident.

If you want a portable hard drive that can carry a serious load od data, or simply have an Xbox 1 and want to increase your storage drive, this is a wicked cool drive to do it with. If you type Western Digital My Passport Ultra in YOU TUBE, you will get BOMBED with "thumbs up comments", along with how to set it up to be either Ones Xbox SECONDARY drive, OR ones PRIMARY (by the process of simply moving your actually game related information to the secondary, and keeping your APPS on your original Xbox drive. Here's a funny guy that can walk you right through the entire process ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ktwLI_uokk ). NOTE: I have HEARD that: 1.> This drive is all OVER the place. 2.> You can buy a additional protector case for travel 3.> If you FORMAT this buster for a XBOX, you CANNOT go BACK to say for PC use. 4.> This IS A SMALL drive, for XBOX people, you DONT INSTALL it physically. You let it sit in top of the Xbox1 or behind it. You hook up USB 2 USB 3. Your Xbox it waiting for it now with an opened XBOX. 5.> Install process determines on your current data load. 6.> Comes silver as well. 7> NOT intended for this drive to run while INSIDE the optional travel case, due to venting. 8.> You CAN move this drive to a FRIENDS Xbox 1, and use it, but your DONT forget YOUR GAME DISKS. You WILL need them. 9.> This drive MODEL is limited to 2 TB, Western Digital makes BITTLE (3 TB, etc) as portables. 10 This drive has a little white status light, so if you have any reflective that can the REAR of this drive, it can be seen from across the room, Example: I have a glass and black gloss painted TV stand. My Xbox is on the top shelf just below the tv. This light Im talking about is reflecting by my TV stand right at me. I fixed the problem by simple some wrapping the TV reflecting area with some electrical tape. No more reflecting. Later ;-)

perfect operation

Over the past few years, I've assimilated a virtual army of these little guys. They are solidly built, compact and portable, excellent performance (for their size). Most importantly, they have never failed me over the years; they are exceptionally reliable. I use them for system backups that are stored offsite in a safe deposit box. Combined with the very convenient WD My Passport neoprene carrying case, this is an unbeatable value. While the My Passport drives probably aren't your best choice for high-volume data applications (i.e. Final Cut Studio, Logic Pro, et al), they are an absolutely superb solution for when you need to backup and carry data with you -- just in case... Also, don't bother paying more for the Mac version of these drives. These standard (or Ultra) drives are physically identical to the Mac versions; the only difference is that the Mac versions are pre-formatted to the OS X journaled file system structure. I always buy the standard My Passport and simply use OS X's Disk Utility to format the drive (and/or partition the drive) to use the native OS X file system. This takes all of about 60 seconds, and saves you about $15 in the process.

Bought two of these in Nov. 2013 (a black one for my laptop, a red one for my wife), both seemed to work fine since - until today. Still well within the 3 year limited warranty, mine died today. WD's own Utility software couldn't read the drive to give a diagnosis, but Crystal Disk Info showed 767 Reallocated Sectors (100 is very high), the drive began to randomly 'click' today, and Windows 10 file manager recognized it only as "Local Drive" but couldn't access it at all. Thankfully it was used for backups only and I didn't have anything 'one of a kind' on it. The irreplaceable stuff is on my wife's WD Passport - so now to get that off in case it fails too. In my book, a product review also includes service (including warranty) after the sale. In order to get an RMA, I had to call their customer service operators last night as the WD website got stuck and repeatedly asked for my address - although I had entered it several times previously. When i called I ended up w/Jose who, though efficient, was a bit terse and bordered on curt w/me a couple of times. Don't know where WD's CSR's are located, but heard a young woman laughing and talking loudly quite a bit in the background. I'm sure that she was probably just in the cubicle next door and laughing with a customer but, when you've just had a catastrophic hard drive failure, you want calm and compassionate reassurance - not laughter. While waiting for Jose to do his thing and listening to the laughter, it conjured up the image of the old Discover Card "This is Peggy" commercial with the man in a little hut inside the Arctic Circle taking calls for "USA Credit". So a little unnerved I was as I gave them my address and credit card info for what WD calls an "Advanced RMA" - wherein they ship a new HD immediately, put a hold on my credit card for $127 (a new model on Amazon is $89), and give me 30 days to ship the dead HD back, or have my credit card docked for the overpriced, new (supposedly) HD. I'll update the review when we see if I get a new model or the older (possibly refurbished?) model from 3 years ago... I was nice to "Peggy", so hopefully the rest of the story will turn out well. In the meantime, the WD SmartWare isn't very smart. It doesn't automatically update (though the box is checked to allow updates...), and never were really sure if it was backing up. Turns out that the software hadn't updated on my pc since July 2015 (two versions ago), and my wife's situation was even worse... the WD software on her pc wasn't backing up at all, and hadn't updated since November 2014. So we ran several manual backups just to be on the safe side. Strangely, we discovered these software issues over last weekend and, concerned that we may have more WD software problems, had begun backups with Windows 10 Backup utility, which is much less intrusive and draining on the computer than the SmartWare Continuous backups. Then today my HD failed. Coincidence? Bottom line... not sure if I'm too enthused about getting another Western Digital 2TB Passport Ultra for free or not... UPDATE March 2, 2016. Received a replacement hard drive for the one that died within 3 days. WD did a good job responding and shipping quickly. I would have been surprised to see a new HD to replace my dead one, and sure enough, the HD that they sent was EXACTLY like the one that I bought more than two years ago, and is clearly refurbished (says "Recertified in Vietnam" on the bottom). While the recertified part isn't a big deal to me as I've bought numerous refurbed products over the years with excellent results (typing this review on a wonderful little refurbed Lenovo T430s ThinkPad...), the part that has irked me since getting the HD is that when I registered the new/recertified HD with Western Digital on their online portal and checked the warranty, I see that it expires at the end of May 2016 - whopping four months after it was sent to me - and six months short of the November 2016 warranty expiration of my old dead one! The least that WD could have done was to extend the warranty of the recertified HD until then...or I could extend it myself until 2018 for an additional $25. Bad business practices, WD. To their credit however, my fears of "Peggy" in the Arctic Circle stealing my credit card info or at least not crediting the $127 for a "new" HD were, so far, unfounded. The hold that they had placed on my card for the full, inflated price of the replacement HD has since been removed (because I sent the dead one back to them post-haste, and at my expense!). Overall, the first HD lasted only two out of the three years of the warranty. But WD did "replace" it with a recertified model. However, I had to pay to ship the dead one back to them, then got shorted six months on the warranty as compared to the original. I'm not impressed with WD and won't be buying anything else from them. Hopefully I won't also be updating this review later this year because the recertified HD dies out of warranty. The barely three stars that I've generously given will then fall like rocks.