WD 5TB Elements portable external hard drive, USB 3.0 interface, portable external storage, Plug-and-Play, SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 1, Formatted for PC and Mac, Black

I've had a fair few of these drives over the years and I've never had a 2.5" WD Passport drive fail. Even my ancient 250GB WD Passport drives still work. The longer I live, the more storage I seem to need. I used to think the "Ultra" drives were faster than the USB3 drives, but on my PC, there doesn't seem to be much in it if anything, speed-wise. This 5TB drive is quiet, has a decent turn of speed, though not blisteringly fast, and I expect it to give many years of reliable service. Supplied with a short USB A (3) USB B (3) lead, it's simply plug and play and Windows recognises it and allows you to use it. It comes supplied with some WD software, but I just popped that in a folder unused, as the WD Passport drives always work fine out of the box. My drive was made in Thailand, and looking at a few of them, most of my WD Passport drives were made in Thailand (even the really old 250GB ones), though I have one which was made in Malaysia. Oddly enough, the Malaysian drive is my only WD Passport I've got that's a little bit noisy as it vibrates slightly in use. It works fine, but I'm guessing if I do ever get an external 2.5" drive fail on me, it'll be that one. All the others I have are quiet. Whatever you need external storage for, the WD Passport drives are excellent, and when you upgrade your PC, you don't need to faff about transferring all your data over if you use these drives. Highly recommended!

Comes in fairly minimal packaging - drive, cable and a simple quick-start/support telephone and guarantee fold-out page, all held inside a clear plastic padding structure in a printed box. Just plug it in and the drive appears on Windows machines but you'll need to reformat for use with a Mac, otherwise you won't be able to use the drive. Compact dimensions - slimmer than I was expecting for a 5TB drive as they usually have a higher platter count and the drives are thicker - not so in this case. Nice polished edge to the plastic case and textured elsewhere - looks modern and up to date. I found the USB cable had quite a positive feel when pushed into the drive (wide micro-B type typical of most portable 2.5" USB drives). Cable length typical of branded external drives - maybe a little longer but need to measure (I'm guessing it's about 35 to 40cm). Very quiet - can't hear the spindle motor or any head movement. Transfer rates easily peaking over 90MBytes/sec on a disk to disk transfer over standard USB 3 - it's obviously capable of more but I don't have disk caching turned on. Regarding negative comments about the disk size, it reports as 5 trillion bytes free and as a terabyte is defined as 10^12 bytes, i.e. a trillion bytes, so the claim of 5TB is absolutely correct. A Tebibyte however is strictly defined as 2^40 bytes, i.e. 1,099,511,627,776 bytes. 5 trillion bytes divided by 1099511627776 is 4.54 tebibytes - that's what's being reported as the free space alongside the 5 trillion byte figure in Windows . Windows designation "TB" is not Terabytes, it's Tebibytes. If I look at a 4TB drive, similarly there's 4 trillion free bytes so it is a 4 terabyte drive but windows also shows a figure of 3.63TB which is 3.63 Tebibytes, i..e 4 trillion divided by 1099511627776.

I bought this as a 5TB external hard drive, when you look at it's properties it's capacity is 5,000,945,201,152 bytes or 4.54 TB so it depends on the definition of TB, not that I'm bothered for the cost and the fact that it works straight out of the box. It is a hard drive, not solid state, so you shouldn't chuck it around while it is in use, not that I would any way as I am using it with a desktop computer but if you were using it as an external drive for a mobile laptop it may be more of an issue. It is very quiet but I can't put my Lego millennium falcon on top of it as it does then produce a slight hum due to the moving discs inside. I have been using it for nearly a month now and filled it with less than 500Gb so quite a way to go. A very nice, compact and unobtrusive unit. Cheers, Schnuz.

A pretty good item

Brilliant little piece of kit, does exactly what it says on the tin. A bonus feature I didn't know about, it acts as a TV recorder as well which I was pleasantly surprised at and which I use often. Possibly in the market fot buying another as it makes economical sense as opposed to buying flash drives. Definitely would recommend this product to anyone. It's a no brainer !

I bought this to give me another backup source besides iCloud. You can't be too careful. Plugging it into my Mac, I was unable to open finder to drag and drop my files, but a quick read on the internet showed the very simple solution (and I'm no techy). Disc Utility > View > WD Elements > Erase > Format: MASOS Extended. Great build, No creaky plastic and it's recognised as connected within seconds. Near silent. Recommended!

Lasted less than 6 months. Started to unmount and then eventually the click of death. Goodbye WD. Time to find a more trusted drive manufacture.

Wish it was cheaper. I was going to wait for this to go on sale but it never did and I was desperate for hard drive space. I've had it for a few weeks now and it's constantly plugged in because I use it as external space on my mac computer for studying at home (a lot of lecture videos). Seems pretty reliable, had no issues at all with setup or connectivity. When I got it I formatted in as Mac-os journaled like the website instructions say. The blue light is annoying at night so I had to hide the drive under my monitor stand but no big deal.

The Western Digital WD 5TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive is a formidable companion for anyone navigating the vast terrain of digital data. Its generous storage allows one to carry an immense archive—documents, photos, videos, and more—without concern for space or compromise. Compact and unassuming, it slips easily into a bag, yet within its case lies the quiet strength of reliability, delivering files with steady precision. What impresses most is its speed and consistency. Transfers are swift, and the drive remains cool and silent under prolonged use, a testament to careful engineering. Its plug-and-play simplicity requires no fuss, making it accessible to both professionals and casual users. For those seeking a secure, high-capacity storage solution that combines durability, performance, and portability, this WD Elements drive is exceptional. Five stars for a device that handles the weight of data with quiet confidence.

第一関門は問題なし。耐久性についてはこれからですね。

Grote capaciteit, klein formaat

Raz spadł z biurka na ziemię (ok 50 cm) i przestał działać.