WD4TB My Passport Ultra, Silver, Portable External Hard Drive, backup software with defense against ransomware, and password protection, USB-C and USB 3.1 - WDBFTM0040BSL-WESN

I buy many of these WD drives to use as a backup drive for my clients computers. WD makes a great drive and I see very few failures over several years. This particular drive is quite good being a step above the rest.

My old LaCie died after many years, so I was looking for a new 2T backup drive. This one was half the price of a new LaCie and works great for my new iMac. Super easy, just plugged it in and chose how often I want it to back up. It's actually smaller and less obtrusive. Just sits on the foot of my iMac stand. Very happy with this purchase.

Great hard drive. Reliable.

Compact and does the job as a Time Machine backup.

The media could not be loaded. I am stupefied; I genuinely am. Media attached.I made this purchase because my laptop broke and I needed to take it somewhere in the hopes of salvaging the terabyte of information I had on there. I've also had 2 Western Digital external HDD's in the past; a one tb elements many years ago & a ten tb elements more recently. This one is for portability rather than desktop replacement.The moment it came in, I didn't even take it out of the box. I went straight to my nearby computer repair place with my old laptop and this drive. When it was all plugged in and my old hdd tested, it looked as if it would transfer over everything, I was thrilled!!! I had a lot of work related items I couldn't risk losing. I should mention, I'll be using this drive specifically for work (video editing, so large 2k and 4k raw video files).Then, when we plugged in this Western Digital 5tb drive, it worked, but the cord didn't fit in properly. It wouldn't go in all the way, barely half way and it kept disconnecting. It was extremely stressful for me and it was irritating the tech who was helping me because he had other business to attend to.We ended up using one of his spare cords (a usb-c to usb-c) and it fit properly and worked perfectly.In the video I posted, I thought the cord was defective at first, but when I compared it to my phone cable (usb-c to usb-c) it looked completely different!!! (See attached pic). My phone cable works with this drive, it fits securely. I had another cable that was a usb-c to usb 3a and that usb-c fit snug.Also, the cord I was given was pathetically small. 6 inches. What is the point of having a 6 inch cord? Even if you're using this on a desk, it barely gets out of your way. I'm using it with a laptop, I travel, it's extremely inconvenient to have this thing dangling because there's no length to place it nearby. This is just wrong. I mean, what is Western Digital thinking? It's completely irrational. Provide a respectable cord, and the proper one would be nice as well.Lastly, and this makes me very nervous! When you go to 'safely unplug' your peripherals from your computer by clicking on your taskbar and clicking to safely remove hardware and eject media, this always says that it can't close while a window is open or while it's in use (even when it's not in use). I had no windows open, I wasn't connected to the drive in any way other than the cord (by which I mean, I didn't have a music player open or video player or file location window accessing the unit) but when I tried to safely remove it, it began spinning or "being active". ???I double checked everything, it wasn't being used, but the light was solid and you could feel it at unrest, if you will. I tried to wait it out, 5 minutes, 10, 20, 30... It wasn't stopping. so I restarted my computer. I should also mention that I'm using a brand new Lenovo Legion 7i less than 2 weeks old.After the restart, the only thing I tried to do was 'safely remove the Western Digital HDD and the exact same thing happened! It's clearly NOT being used!!! So I just unplugged it. I hate doing that. I plugged it back in just to be sure that everything was still on there, and it was, but now I'm unsure of the device as a whole. I have very little confidence in it. Is this going to be a recurring issue? It better not be!!! The entire point of the purchase was to SAVE information, not to lose it!When I have clients that have invested tens of thousands of dollars on a commercial, and then I'm sent the media to begin the post production process, I need to have confidence in all my gear, my computer, my headphones, and ESPECIALLY my HARD DRIVES!!!Needless to say, I'm weary and uncomfortable with my purchase to this point.At these prices, one would think you would be buying a quality piece of equipment, as of right now, this isn't worth half of what I spent. I don't mind spending for quality, for sturdiness, practicality & longevity. It does work, but I have to say, if I'm being totally honest... just barely.I'm considering returning it; it's just going to be such a chore to have to re-transfer a terabyte of information from this drive to another. This whole experience has been a real pain, and I am dissatisfied and unhappy.

Dec 1 2024 It is working and I understand the thing much better. Half of MY problem was understanding what this new Mac will do or not do. I bought this 4 TB hard drive specifically for this new MacBook Air. This hard drive and computer are both lighter than my Lenovo Windows 11. As things stand now the HD is nicely connected with the Mac via a hub (also from Amazon) , it is fully encrypted, and I can keep tons of files on the hard drive. It was recommended to me by a hard core Mac user to NOT sync the hard drive to the Mac, but do the transfers on my own. Keeping the Mac free of saved files is the way to go. This 4TD transfers files very fast so it is not as if there is some painful lag in ancient times. I still do not fully understand some of their other programs to go with this thing and am NOT going to do any more experimenting.When I might do Photoshop work on files I can copy them to the Mac, work on them, and then transfer them back. Or I can just work with them from the drive. If I want a fast computer I need to keep the Mac HD filled with free space.The case for this drive is well worth the money.Nov 26 2024/ getting things figured out, but the transition was confusing to say the least. Part of the problem is that Apple confuses me with "codes", "login key", "passkey", "key chain", and password. In some cases they are exactly the same thing. I have right now at least 6 Western Digital disk drive. NONE were as confusing as this install. I still believe that this drive was in the hands of someone else and software was removed. My other ones were simple to set up with Bitlocker or the like. //////Earlier review: Not sure if I should send it back or not. For over an hour I managed to find the software on the Western Digital Mac OS site. Suddenly it started to ask me for a passkey, of which there was no such thing. I thought I had lost access, but ended up deleting the programs. Now all I have is a slave hard drive for my new MacBook Air. When I saw how things were working I had this sneaking suspicion that someone else had sent this back. Usually when I have gotten hard drives like this the proper software only needs to be clicked and things get set up. NOT in this case.Getting in contact with WD support was another 45 minutes and it proved worthless. It is always a FAQ, a video, and how things are AI driven.I want to be able to set up SECURITY ON THIS THING. However, the software keeps asking for a password(s) that never work. Is this thing using someone else's password. If I don't figure it out soon, I'll return for one that maybe needs more inspection prior to being sent. Very frustrating and I hate hate sending stuff back. I want to use it.

Hooked right into my Macbook Pro no issues right from the start. Easy to use, easy to retrieve from. I do a YouTube Travel channel and it has a lot of storage so my macbook doesn't get full' If there is a complaint it would be in the drop down menu to eject the disk: the 'erase this disk' is the the option directly below the 'eject this disk'. Luckily there is a double check option for erase.

I have always had good luck with WD drives. They Last long and easy to use and set up, and they pare well with Apple computers.