My Passport

Review of the WD 4TB My Passport (2016) model. The photographs show the previous generation (left most in all pictures) beside this new generation of drive (rightmost drive). I'm a long time user of WD passport external usb hard drives. This is the first 4TB I've bought, used for a backup of a NAS.Capacity + Speeds:This is a USB3 hard drive, giving very fast speeds. Attached are screenshots from a benchmark utility, showing 116MB/s read 107MB/s write. For comparison, the previous generation (2TB) got 112MB/s read and 100MB/s write, so a slight improvement.The formatted capacity is 3.63 TB.The enclosure/case:The case is solid. It is a bit more fancy than previous WD My Passports, and a little bigger. Yet, it remains a solid construction and has a feeling of durability. The LED light on the back is now a horizontal slot which has a softer light compared to the previous generation drives.Comparing to the previous generation, the case is ever so slightly larger, but there really isn't much in it. See the photos. I prefer the new case as it allows multiple drives to be set on top of each other, whereas the previous generation was slightly rounded so they tended to slide off each other.Included in the box / software:The drive comes with a USB3 cable. You also get the WD Drive Utilities, Encryption software and Backup software. However, after checking the drive with the WD Utilities to ensure it survived transport safely, I wiped the drive for my own use. You can always grab a copy of the software from WD's homepage in the future.Overall, this seems like a great drive. Only time will tell how reliable it is, but it does come with a 2 year warranty as standard. This can be extended by a year if you purchase WD Care.

OK, some background. I have a PlayStation Pro and was going to upgrade the 1Tb HDD to 2Tb seeing as there was no support for external storage drives. Then along came the 4.50 system software update with support for external drives up to 8Tb. The only 'catch' as such being that they need to be USB 3.0 and, according to some who were on the Beta at any rate, not have additional USB ports for some reason. Not one to take a chance with such things, and seeing as the cost difference between 8Tb and 4Tb external HDDs isn't exactly minimal, I opted for a 4Tb. My thinking being that, to be honest, when you add to internal 1Tb (which will still be used for game saves and assorted data that doesn't get stored to the external HDD) a total of 5Tb with 4Tb reserved for game installs will be plenty. Then it was a matter of which drive, and personal experience leads me towards WD (with a three year warranty) rather than Seagate. So how did the install go? Literally took less than a minute including finding the USB at the rear of the PlayStation Pro to plug it in and for the console to identify the drive and reformat it. Works like a charm. Silent in operation, tucked away out of sight behind the console and doesn't even get particularly warm either. Would I recommend this drive to anyone wanting to upgrade the storage capacity of a PlayStation 4 or Pro? Hell yes...

Pros:1) WD utilities for hard drive diagnostics and disc checks;2) Reliable backup software;3) I had 3x 1Tb hard drives, now I have 1x 4Tb of the same size;4) Several different color choices if you want to buy several and distinguish them from the 1st glance;5) Noiseless;6) Reliable (pulled off cable during data transfer - no issues, no disc errors);7) I am planning to buy another oneCons:1) RPM is 5400, but you cannot blame the disc, it is industry standard for compact external HDDs;2) I do not think plastic case will survive drops from table to hard floors, it "screams" for soft thick shell when it is plugged into PC;3) glossy finish looks cool, but matte one would be more practical;Summary: it is time to sell your 1Tb drives and get 4x upgrade in different colors.

The performance and quality of the drive is adequate, with actual USB 3.0 speeds. For sequential read and write, this gives me enough storage and speed to save my ProRes media on long journeys, as for reliability and portability, it's small and I cannot yet say whether it is reliable. It feels like it may be fragile.

The drive is very small and ideal to fit in your top pocket. Good for storage on the go and also in the office or home for files, photos, and Movies. One negative for this drive is if you use it in a USB 2 hub to watch a movie file it tends to s kip to the next movie file after about five minutes of watching unless you connect it directly to the TV by the USB 3 connection apart from that no complaints IE: the drive a purchased was a 4TB one so it is only recognized in my TV but not by my Panasonic UB900 ultra HD 4K player so hope this helps people decide to purchase this product.