Features:

  • Blazing-fast file transfers with read speeds up to 540 MB/s
  • Password protection with hardware encryption
  • USB Type-C and USB 3.1 Gen 2 ready; USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and USB-A compatible
  • WD Discovery software for WD Backup, WD Security, Social Media and Cloud Storage import, WD Drive Utilities
  • 3-year manufacturer's limited warranty
Excellent as an external drive for Steam library

I bought this to use as an external drive for my Steam library, and all my games have run smoothly with no noticeable change in load times. The drive comes with a USB-C cable, along with an adapter that allows it to be used on USB 3.1, 3.0, or 2.0 if needed. I used it with the adapter for my MacBook Air mid-2013's USB 3.0 port, and ran into no problems whatsoever. Definitely recommend this if you're looking for a very portable and speedy solution for external storage.

Incredible drive for physical size, capacity, and speed

Computer drives are "transparent" to the user when they work correctly, thus making them more of a commodity. That in mind, this is a great drive. Simple to use as a plain drive. It also provides WD features for encryption and cloud backup ...these services require registration but registration is NOT required in order to use the drive itself (and the drive can be encrypted with other methods than the WD method...so for paranoid types who don't want to register their encrypted drive up to the cloud do not need to do so). The physical size of the drive itself is much much smaller than I was expecting; much smaller than a standard laptop-type hard drive in an enclosure. It's like a box of matches. No complaints though! Makes it highly portable. The combination of low cost, large capacity, speed of USB-C interface makes this a very appealing drive.

PERFECT FOR MY MACBOOK ON THE GO!!!!!

I am a graphic designer and photographer with needs for significant amounts of data at hand. I wanted not only to expand the data-file capacity of my MacBook Pro that has a 1TB internal SSD, but also to have an easy way to carry the extra luggage with me on trips to remote locations. Of course, I leave all of my archives and backups at my home base, but I want all of my currently active files available with no need for remote connections to the base station. This little wonder was exactly what I needed. I actually mounted it to the outside of the MacBook's screen/cover with "industrial strength" Velcro, where it is semi-permanent and quite out-of-the-way. (Being a designer, I made sure that this does not look trashy -- looks technical and powerful, instead.) I found online a very short USB3 cable to keep the little drive, that I named "Backpack," constantly connected and available. Being an SSD with a fast connection, it operates plenty-fast enough for me, and never makes any moaning or other complaints. I use it to hold most of my data files, freeing up space on the internal SSD for current operations. Doubles my available drive space to 2TB of SSD! For cloud backup, I use Crash Plan Pro (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) which backs up this little Backpack, along with the internal drive, at no extra cost to me. I do have to handle my own local hard drive backup, because I have not figured out how to put it into my Time Machine routine, but that is no problem for me and my good backup habits. A bonus for my mobile operations: my little Backpack is so small that I am able to leave it attached to my MacBook's cover when it is zipped into a neoprene sleeve and packed into my larger (real) backpack. (For rough handling, you might want not to use this packing technique, but it is good enough for airline carry-on.)

Best portable SSD for the price.

WD has put out an excellent product here. I installed Steam and about 400GB of games so I can play my games on my laptop when I am traveling. So far I am having zero issues. This is the best portable SSD for your money right now. It also comes with an attachment for the cord that lets you plug into a standard USB 2.0-3.0 and that snaps off to let you plug into the USB 3.1 SSD slot, it saves me some USB space. I highly recommend this!

Working great so far

Working great so far, also was smaller than I expected. I'm using this on an Xbox One X at the moment and it definitely causes offline games to load faster on top of the already increased rate from the new console. I tested it by looking at load times for Fallout 4 when it was on the internal hard drive vs load times when it was on WD SSD.

Easy SSD upgrade to Mac Mini

I purchased this WD My Passport SSD drive to use as a boot drive for my Apple Mac Mini (2012). Essentially cloning the existing hard drive to the SSD was very easy (just Google it...) and worked flawlessly with MacOS High Sierra. This 512GB SSD drive is essentially the same size as the drive already in my Mac Mini. Because it comes ready to go as an external drive there's no need to purchase any cables or enclosures to use it. It will work for both Mac (High Sierra and El Capitan) and PCs (Windows 7, 8's and 10) too. The drive comes with a USB-C and an adapter for USB-C to USB-A. Backwards compatible to USB 2.0 it is USB 3.1 compatibility rated. The drive does come with WD Discovery software for backup and security installed. To use this as a boot drive, users will need to format (erase) the drive prior to installing their own computer's operating system on the drive. The drive is very small and lightweight. It's in a shock-resistant case that probably would be OK if dropped a few times from 3-4', but I'd not expect it to be abuse-worthy. It does get warm on the silver part of the drive case, but not hot to the touch. It is powered by its connection to your PC or Mac - there's no external power source needed to power the drive. The drive has a 3 year warranty through Western Digital, with the serial number on the back of the drive which is needed for registration. The drive can reach speeds up to 540MbS, but that will depend upon how the drive works with your existing system. The Mac Mini I have didn't reach those transfer speeds with a core i5 processor (2.1Ghz) and 16GB of memory, but I didn't expect it to. I was pleasantly surprised by the boost in speed over the internal hard drive though. Using BlackMagic Disk Speed Test app, I had speeds of 71MbS write and 73MbS read with the internal hard drive. Using the WD My Passport SSD I was able to get 370MbS write and 420MbS read speeds. A fantastic leap to 5-6x's faster speeds overall using the WD SSD! Boot time was also cut in half using the USB connected SSD (USB 2.0 connection) versus the internal drive. I'm very pleased with this drive. It's compact size, speed and the ease with which I was able to upgrade and bring new life to an aging Mac have me singing this drive's praises and looking to buy another one. Highly recommend this drive for anyone who wants a speedy connection or a way to boost the performance of their Mac Mini.

Xbox One PUBG

So... A friend told me to get an SSD to load PUBG for XBOX One and that it would fix "performance issues" I was a little skeptical. After googling and reading a LOT of reviews on various kinds of SSD's I came upon and trusted this WD 512 GB My Passport SSD Portable Storage. Well I'm glad to report that it actually works. I don't have "potato" buildings anymore before I land. Everything seems to load up quicker. I decided to install all the games that I play most on my SSD and I have had zero problems. I love it and since playing PUBG on the Xbox One it no longer "pisses" me off when I land and the buildings haven't loaded in yet. Because I haven't had that problem since purchasing this. I recommend it to all my friends, family, and strangers who play PUBG on the Xbox One. Glad I made this decision! Thank you for your time.

Seemingly a Nice Drive

Immediately out of the box, I was impressed with the small size of this drive for 1TB. I know that storage keeps getting smaller and cheaper, but this drive is impressively small. I actually bought two of them, one as a backup for a Mac laptop, and one as a backup for a Mac desktop. While I've only had the drives for a week or two and the real mark of a good external drive, at least for me, is its longevity and reliability, I am happy with the drives so far. I backed up approximately 500GB of data from a desktop computer using the converter for USB2 that was included, and while the transfer took a few hours, the drive had no issues and the back up went fine. I also did a back up of the laptop, which held much less data, and that process proceeded without incident too. The only thing I will note for Mac users is that if you want to use this drive with Time Machine, you will have to format it using the Disc Utility. When I initially tried to use the drive with Time Machine, I received error messages, and it took a bit of research to figure out what was amiss. The formatting process was easy and quick, but it did cause me to deduct one star for the "Easy to Install" factor of my rating. All told though, in the early days with this drive, it is a largely positive experience.

Good choice for Xbox One X external drive

I’m using this drive with my Xbox One X, storing my most played games on it, and it works great. I’ve noticed significantly faster load times.

Great SSD for Gaming on the Xbox One, however will not work with 6ft+ cables.

I have bought this SSD for my Xbox One in order to game with a faster response rate on multiplayer, which did exactly that. No slight delays along with faster loading times, this is a great SSD for gaming. However, it does not work with any cables longer than 6ft in length. I tried using a 6ft ANKER PowerLine+ Type-C to Type-A cable and it would work. Yes, the company's cables were approved to be in spec. Yes, the Xbox did recognize the device. However, the problem is that the signal is too weak and cannot be utilized properly. So if you are going to use a good quality cable for your SSD, be sure to get a cable that is around 3ft in length. Besides the cable issue, the SSD performs as well as I hoped for. UPDATE 05/15/2018: I bought the same cable, but this time it is the 3ft version. There were a bit of software problems when the Xbox loaded it up, but that all had cleared out. I will write an update to this review after I used this SSD for some time.

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