WD 1TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive Blue backup software with defense against ransomware and password protection

Pros: + I been buying a few of the WD 4TB external USB 3.0 hard drives + Reliable, ~80mb-100mb read/writes + Plug and play, auto detected + Price, WD put a this product in a really sweet price point making it somewhat affordable for the size + Available colors, there are so many colors to choose from vs other brands/vendors Cons: - It can get expensive off sale - Older models have slower transfer rates, slightly and higher failure rates. 1/10 failed prematurely. - LED light facing the plug side which are usually the opposite side when you want to know if there's any activity. Read more

I use over 20 WD external/portable and desktop external hard drives to store my music collection which, as of July 4, 2025 totaled over 16 TB of mostly blues and rock 'n' roll artists from all over the world since the birth of recorded music over 100 years ago. WD products have never failed me yet, but they have to be stored properly and kept away from dust, excessive heat/cold, etc. My music keeps me sane, happy, chill and far removed from negative social influences. Read more

Item works good so far Read more

I don't save anything to my hard drive. It's all save to this external hard drive. It has a large amount of space. It's small enough to fit into pocket, purse or drop into your computer bag. I also ordered a small hard case for it to protect it if it's ever dropped. Keeping passwords altogether on paper is not very secure, but a spreadsheet saved on this is great. You can protect it with a separate password. I trust Western Digital. I also have another one for separate use for work. One for work, one for home. Read more

There was a definite learning curve with this but once I got past it it became a breeze to use. The storage capacity is great, more than enough. There was a bug when initially installing the software. But I found an easy fix online. Im hoping I wont have to purchase anymore hard drives in the future as this is easy to use and had plenty of space for my needs Read more

I always liked the WD passport series, as they offer good portability when on the go, while getting the WD build quality as well. Those drive are also a great way to backup my important data and have them safely stored offline. Keep in mind that those drive are not build for constant use, but more occasional one (thus using them to backup data or when I need to transport data on the go, from a station to another). Drive is USB 3 and comes with a short cable that has USB Micro-B super speed connector on one side, and USB 3.0 (blue) on the other. Write/read speed when drive is properly connected to a USB 3.0 port was 115mb/s average. And of course I love the blue color too! Read more

I do lots of video production and I have over 50 external hard drives. I have used Western Digital almost exclusively for the last 15 years and have only had 2 drives go bad over all that time, and I was able to recover almost all the data from both of them. Half of my hard drives are duplicate drives just in case one goes bad and I am unable to recover the data, but that has not actually happened yet. I love these smaller 4TB passport external hard drives - this is my 4th one. I also love the password protection software they offer. I think the black colored drives look the most professional, but the different colors are allowing me to color code my drives. This is my first blue one. The drive is simple to use - you can just plug and play. Read more

UPDATE MAY 20, 2024 - WARNING! Amazon only allows ONE REVIEW for My Passport, no matter whether it is 2TB, 1 TB, 4TB. This is an UPDATE FOR THE 2TB one I purchased. It DID SEEM to work when I plugged in, but ALL THOSE OTHER REVIEWERS WERE RIGHT! I backed up 1 TB of FILES, put it back in box for storage, THEN 9 days later I plugged in and ALL THE BACKED UP FILES WERE GONE!!!!! Only their 2 software were left! I already returned the 2 defective 4TB, so I just have to take the loss of THIS ONE! UPDATE MAY 13, 2024 I ordered ANOTHER 2TB since THAT one DID work on my Windows 10. But the Passport sent with THIS ORDER WAS CLEARLY USED BY SOMEONE ELSE! The Box was previously cut, and the hard shell ALSO. It did, however, seem to work for my quick test, but now I am worried that it is NOT stable. I will not purchase WD again. I did try a Samsung T7 shield SSD, and that started right up and copied/pasted my quick test without any problem. More expensive but I can't ever trust WD again. UPDATE MAY 7, 2024 NOW EVEN WORSE! I had ordered 2 additional 4TB (on sale) BEFORE I RECEIVED the 1st one, THAT TURNED OUT TO BE DEFECTIVE. When the additional ones arrived, THEY ARE EVEN WORSE!! Windows 10 WOULD NOT EVEN RECOGNIZE THEM AT ALL, only place Windows even acknowledges they exist is in Control Panel-Devices and Printers, but, in BOTH THESE CASES, I COULD NOT EVEN VIEW ANYTHING, verses the 1st one where I WAS AT LEAST able to ACCESS, but copy action FAILED with the "Fatal Hardware Error." Though Windows 10 DID recognize this device when I first plugged in, when I tried to copy and paste, my SYSTEM FROZE, and WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE IT AT ALL, then showed it as 'Disk 2' UNKNOWN, NOT INITIALIZED when I checked Disk Management. I SPENT 1+ HOURS following the HELP instructions try and Initialize it, using 'GPT' as its Properties shown. Response was: "THE DEVICE FAILED DUE TO A FATAL DEVICE HARDWARE ERROR" NOTE: I have previously purchased at least 10 1TB and 2TB My Passports - ALL OF THEM WORKED WELL WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS! Now, have 3 4T DEFECTIVE makes my confidence in WD at ZERO. Read more