Automatic backup with included WD Backup software Up to 8TB capacity The 'My Passport' (starting at $79.99) features a 2.5 inch laptop drive, and is bus-powered. Plug the WD Passport into the computer's USB port. Open the WD Passport's folder. Click 'View Folder of All Files' inside the Autoplay box that appears when the Passport is plugged into the computer. Open the folder containing files that you want to back up. Hold down the 'Control' key on the keyboard.
. Pros Compact. Large storage capacity. Automatic backup software included.
Supports 256-bit AES hardware encryption. High price per gigabyte value. Cons Flashy design might not appeal to everyone. Lacks cloud storage options. Bottom Line The 4TB Western Digital My Passport is a solid portable hard drive that combines capacity and value with funky design and good performance. Are the modern equivalent of the stacks of cardboard boxes full of photos, documents, and videos that once crowded your garage—but way more space efficient. Options like the Western Digital My Passport pack enough storage and are small enough that you'd be able to comfortably carry your entire life in your pocket or purse.
The 4TB version ($159.99) of the new 2016 design doesn't quite beat out the, our Editors' Choice for portable drives, in terms of cost, cloud storage, or performance, but it does its job well and its design adds a bright pop of color and personality. Design and Features This time around, Western Digital has opted for sort of a Dr. Hyde design for the My Passport.
The upper half of the drive's front is smooth and glossy, with sharp edges and the company logo, while the lower half is matte and textured with raised lines. The lower half also houses the USB connector port and a disk activity light, and there are four rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from slipping. The drive comes in six color options—black, orange, red, white, yellow, and an extremely bold blue (like our review unit)—and other capacities of ($79.99), 2TB ($109.99), and 3TB ($149.99) are available.
Measuring 0.85 by 3.21 by 4.33 inches (HWD), it's a smidge thicker than both the 2TB (0.8 by 3.25 by 4.5) and Seagate Backup Plus (0.8 by 3.1 by 4.5), but not so much that it makes a significant difference. And while the 4TB My Passport is perfectly fine for everyday portability, you'd probably want to consider a hardier option like the (1.3 by 3.75 by 6) if you need to bring your data to harsher terrains and climates. It's bulkier and a lot more expensive, but it's also built to withstand drops, dust, and water. The 4TB My Passport weighs 8.6 ounces, the same as the Seagate Backup Plus, but a tad heavier than the My Passport Ultra (8 ounces). Out of the box, the My Passport is formatted for NTFS, and is compatible on any PC running Windows 10, 8, or 7.
Western Digital also offers a version for Mac users, though you could reformat this drive if you wanted to use it on an Apple machine. The drive comes with a USB 3.0 cable, and WD Backup, WD Security, and WD Drive Utilities software.
You can use the WD Backup software to customize how often the drive automatically backs up files from your computer, while the security software enables 256-bit AES password encryption. You can also add a 'return if found' message in the password prompt in the event you ever lose the drive. That's about the extent of the features, however. These days, some portable drives sometimes come with cloud storage, which is an added bonus in that you don't actually have to carry around your hard drive to access your files. The Seagate Backup Plus, for instance, comes with 200GB of free storage for two years. Lastly, Western Digital offers a two-year warranty. Performance and Cost The 4TB My Passport performed admirably on our benchmark tests, scoring 1,737 points on the PCMark 7 hard drive test that measures performance across a range of general-usage categories.
That's slightly behind the Seagate Backup Plus (1,985), but ahead of the My Passport Ultra (1,432). It also outperformed the 1TB version of the same drive, which received a score of 1,467. The drive took 12 seconds over USB 3.0 to complete our file transfer test, where we time how long it takes to drag and drop a 1.22GB folder onto the drive. That's a good result for a USB 3.0 drive. It's on par with the Seagate Backup Plus, and slightly faster than the My Passport Ultra, which took 13 seconds. At $159.99, the drive rates an excellent 3.9 cents per gigabyte of storage, making it a better value than the 2TB of storage on the My Passport Ultra (6.5 cents per gigabyte), but slightly behind the Seagate Backup Plus (3.8 cents per gigabyte).
While the 1TB version of the same drive will only set you back $79.99, the lower capacity also drives up the price per gigabyte to 7.9 cents. Typically speaking, you'll get a greater value per gigabyte with higher capacity drives, and unless you have a massive volume of data, they'll last you longer, too. Conclusion The 4TB Western Digital My Passport offers oodles of storage, good performance, password encryption, and a splash of color for an overall good value. But aside from a flashier design, it doesn't exactly outdo the Seagate Backup Plus, which for slightly less money, delivers superior performance and comes with 200GB of cloud storage for two years.
But if you don't particularly need or want to save your data in the cloud, then this drive is a good choice for your portable storage needs.
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Western Digital has announced 5 new external hard drives of various shapes and sizes. The refreshed lineup represents WD’s shift towards “smaller, smarter, and safer” storage solutions. As a result, all of these new drives come standard with built-in automatic backup software, password protection, and 256-bit hardware encryption.
There are 3 new My Passport drives (My Passport Essential, My Passport Essential SE, and My Passport for Mac) and 2 new My Book models (My Book Essential and My Book for Mac). Each of these will ship with WD’s new Mac / PC-friendly backup solution, SmartWare, which provides an “easy, visual way to protect, store and manage your important data.” One of WD’s goals was to make the software easy for everyone to use and help users avoid making mistakes with their precious data. To cut down on problems, SmartWare relies on user-friendly visual aids and simple, straightforward options to backup and/or retrieve files. In the demo I saw, the software appeared to be very intuitive and included some nice touches like a search function and real-time backup status reporting. After configuring the software the very first time you boot up the drive, SmartWare will run automatically (if you allow it), providing an automatic and continuous “backup and drive management” solution. The software comes built-in, i.e.
It resides on a separate partition on the hard drive, but the auto-backup can be disabled. As for the “safer” attributes of the new drives, each one comes equipped with WD Drive Lock – password protection + 256-bit hardware encryption.
Once the password is set, the owner (or anyone who knows the pw) is the only person who can access the data. If the password is lost, there is NO way to retrieve it because the password is never shared with Western Digital in any capacity. Beyond the password, every bit of data stored on the drive is protected by 256-bit AES encryption. In other words, without the password, the data is basically impossible to access. Might sound a bit over the top, but WD said they wanted to err on the side of total security.
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The drives come in two basic flavors: portable or stationary. The smaller, USB-powered My Passport Essential, My Passport Essential SE, and My Passport for Mac encompass the “ultra-small, ultra-portable” segment.