NCIX.com - Reviews of Western Digital WD My Passport Essential 500GB USB ULTRA-PORTABLE USB 3.0/2.0 Drive Midnight Black

andre_b
06/11/12
Experience: 1 Days

Verified Owner

Pros
Compact and easy to carry

Cons
Warranty is droping in length (2 years now)

Summary
Purchase for a friend for data backup after a hard drive crash.This external drive is compact,easy to carry and attractive.Usb powered is great.Now with usb3 makes it ready for future.

Joffrey_E
06/07/12
Experience: 4 Months

Verified Owner

Pros
very nice and coinvienent for travel

Cons
none

Summary
great for traveling since it doesn't require to be pluged in an outlet for power since it get's it from the usb port. Would purchase again anytime

Emperuman_V
06/03/12
Experience: 1 Days

Pros
Great speed
Reliable
USB 3.0

Cons
Kind of pricey for a 500GB external
Could have been at least 750GB

Summary
Overall, this is great. Its my first ever USB 3.0 external hard drive. Have no issues when copying over the files, etc.

Rex_L
06/01/12
Experience: 2 Days

Pros
- Western Digital Quality, Reliability
- USB3.0

Cons
- $$$, you could settle for the cheaper portable external hard drives if all you're looking for is space.

Summary
A great portable external hard drive. I would buy more, but I have nothing left to store.. haha.

Alex_Q
05/28/12
Experience: 4 Weeks

Verified Owner

Pros
+small, sleek design
+no power brick
+USB 3

Cons
-normally a bit pricey, but if you can get it on sale well worth the money

Summary
very nice little external drive. was looking for something for travelling to accompany an old laptop, and this fit the bill perfectly, especially for the awesome sale price i paid. doesn't require an external brick for power and flies with USB 3

Steven_C
05/17/12
Experience: 8 Days

Pros
fast and able to store the data in seconds

Cons
none

Summary
I bought this as I have slow usb sticks that are not meant to store large amount of data. This hard drive works well with big storage like documents and medias. well recommended

Trevor F
05/07/12
Experience: 6 Months

Pros
Small, Portable, Reliable

Cons
None (So Far)

Summary
Me and my family store lots of Home Videos And Photos on this and came vary handy when our harddrive crashed on our main computer and we still had everything important

Hao_C
04/03/12
Experience: 8 Weeks

Pros
Fast
-Easy to use
-Great software
-Password lock
-USB powered (No extra power cord)

Cons
Stiff cord (Not very flexible, stays in one position)
-Case scratches easily

Summary
I got this drive for christmas, and cannot say very many bad things about it. If you accidentally or purposly unplug it without "safely removing", then it won't damage it. I have accidentally unplugged it a few times, and my has dad purposely done it numerous times with his separate one. Both of us have no compliants, and would recommend it to anyone

Paul_A
01/27/12
Experience: 2 Weeks

Pros
Fast, reliable and small. Comes with a case.

Cons
Expensive because of the flooding.

Summary
Great drive. Software works well, though limited in customization. Works well for non-savvy people.

Brendon_R
01/25/12
Experience: 1 Years

Pros
Compact and stylish.

Cons
The drive failed after about a year.

Summary
I bought one of these drives about a year ago for backups and travel. The drive was connected only during backups and was otherwise kept on a shelf inside a protective shock-absorbing case. Despite that, the drive failed about a year after purchase, exhibiting a "click of death". The drive could not be reformatted or even properly accessed by partitioning software.

I did like the drive and I think I will purchase another, however I am wary of it after this experience.

Aviator
01/12/12
Experience: 4 Weeks

Verified Owner

Pros
500GB, light, portable

Cons
None

Summary
It's light, portable, doesn't need its own power brick, and stores lots of files. Would recommend it to others

Kevin_H
08/04/11
Experience: 2 Years

Pros
Encryption.

Cons
none

Summary
I love this drive, its fast, easy to use and ultra portable. I use it for a backup drive for all my videos and other important stuff.

Ryan_C
03/05/11
Experience: 2 Days

Verified Owner

Pros
* Fast
* Small/Compact
* Stays Cool

Cons
The USB cord is very short - next to that nothing bad to say!

Summary
I have 3 different WD External HD's and I have been impressed with them all - this one is no different!
The only thing I noticed different with this, is that the cord (USB 3.0 / 2.0) is actually shorter!! I will have to buy one as when I plug it in to my tower, the cord doesn't even reach the ground so I am setting the drive on the top, lol.

Next to that, it loads nice and fast and seems to stay rather cool!!

will_c
11/20/10
Experience: 2 Days

Verified Owner

Pros
-small, portable

Cons
-short usb cable

Summary
This WD hard disk is smaller than an actual passport. It is very portable but it won't work with micro-usb cables and the provided cable is only about 30cm. It doesn't get hot after long period of use. Comes with 400mb of WD software.