I bought this new EHD to transfer files from my 2TB WD Elements EHD to this one. (I figured it was time as EHDs do not last forever.) I have personally used WD EHDs for at least 10 years now.
Since I use a Mac I had to format it for use on a Mac. It really took a handful of minutes to do, so it was not that big of a deal. But, what I did not expect was the following when I performed a check on "About this Mac." The image shows "External 4 TB USB Disk." The information, though, lists that I had the following storage: 971.45 GB available of 1.8 TB. I guess I am a bit unsure at how this could be. I though I was purchasing a 4TB EHD....yet I have only 1.8 TB available? I further then went to check the PDF file that is listed for "Product Specifications" and no real more information is listed there other than the sizes available.
So, Western Digital, WHAT GIVES? Why did I pay for this size....when I get less than half of that capacity to use on my Mac?
I just wanted to leave this review for others to be made aware.
My old Seagate Hard Drive started to fail and I needed to find a new hard drive. After checking lots of sources online and off I narrowed in on the WD 4TB Blue My Passport, because I was able to attach it to my router and also use it as shared data storage for myself and my wife. The hard drive is palm size and fits easily in my structured wiring enclosure that houses my data/phone/tv lines for my home. The small size makes a perfect choice for this space. It was easy to format and setup. I partitioned the drive for photos and backups and it works well.
I was running out of space on my PS4 HD (500GB) and was thinking about replacing the HD inside, but instead opted for this external drive. This is the third WD Passport that I've recently purchased and I love them all. There's a reason why I continue to buy them. This added so much more space to my PS4 and I can now default it as my drive to download my apps and games. Haven't experienced any lag when I play my games from this device.
Over the years, these external hard drives have had their storage capacity become larger and larger. While this one doesn't have the largest capacity available on a portable hard drive (a Seagate model has 5 TB), it is the least costly one per Terabyte at the present time.
I bought four (4) of these drives (the blue ones were the least costly at the time of purchase) in order to back up the data from my "main" computer. I had formerly used 2 TB portable drives but I can use those drives for something else.
Having four of these drives (plus one more 2 TB one which I keep in our safety deposit box at our bank), all of which have the same backed-up data, pretty much ensures that I'm not going to lose any of my data, pictures, music, or other information.
I have to tell you that backing up to these drives is MUCH faster than backing up to those other, older, drives. I'm sure that has something to do with these drives being formatted as GUID whereas the older ones were MBR.
I have read that some of these fail; you read that about ALL computer hard drives. In my own experience, I have had exactly one (1) hard drive completely fail and that was after quite of few years of extensive use. (It was a WD one; I have never had a Seagate drive fail but I generally buy WD drives.)
My total data comes to a bit over 400 GB (that does not include all of my music or my movies which I keep on separate hard drives - but it does include all of my home videos, much of my music, and all of my photographs).
My computer has a GNU/Linux operating system and this drive, as all drives I have ever owned, works perfectly with the OS. I did reformat this WD drive to an encrypted EXT4 file system.
Of course I cannot comment on longevity of these four drives. Should anything untoward happen with any one (or more) of them, I shall report that here.
However, as I do not anticipate any trouble, I shall give these WD 4 TB portable external hard drives my highest recommendation.
Thank you for reading this and for considering my opinion.
Lawrence H. Bulk
This was an investment for the family. Attached to my home network, it was a "cloud" storage for everyone at home to use. The speeds are great! It runs quiet, and looks great hooked up on my networking wall. Of course by now anyone who deals with storage will know that this isn't a true 4TB drive. You get just under 4TB of usable space. This is mooore than enough for most users. No problems so far! Just a little upset that it's all made of plastic.
PROS:
- Lots of storage in a little footprint
- Very quiet operation
- Slick design & nice weight
CONS:
- Plastic housing
- Included USB 3.0 cable is way too short
- Auto backup with included WD Backup software
- Password protection with hardware encryption
- Trusted drive built with WD reliability
- USB 3.0 port; USB 2.0 compatible. SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7. Requires reformatting for Mac OS X operating system
- 3-year manufacturer's limited warranty
My Passport is the trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your on-the-go lifestyle. Designed to fit in the palm of your hand, there’s plenty of space to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. Perfectly paired with WD Backup software and password protection, the My Passport drive helps keep your files safe.
This is our third WD Passport drive. All are still in service going back to our first one several years ago.
All three replaced smaller capacity Seagate products that suddenly failed
From now on it is WD all the way for us
Excellent drive for my PS4. Plugged it in, followed the instructions, and voilà, I have more storage than I ever dreamed of. The transfer times were long for the larger games, but now I am all set. I will never have to delete a game to make room for another.
Bought this to use as an external drive for my PS4 as I was constantly deleting something to make room for something new. So far it is performing wonderful. I have moved all my installed games to this external drive and they run great.
New model for WD. I have an old 2TB WD External Harddrive which is ugly. The 4TB, that I got in Blue, is really sleek and mainly waterproof even though I do NOT recommend submerging it in water. It's air tight. Especially with the USB cable it comes with. It's kind of hard to put in and take out but, it totally seals the WD and doesn't freaking come out with a little bump or a fall. I like the design, the size and use. I use an old Windows 8 that has been upgraded to Windows 10. This works FINE.
You can either set it up to automatically back up or when you plug it in, just select "Open Device to view files" and you'll be in the External Harddrive. Put the WD files into one and keep it on there. Then you can just manually put files on there and your good to go. 4TB is a LOT especially when you use the Harddrve to put your scanned artwork on there. I have like 200 pieces of artwork on there and BARELY touched the usage on the 4TB. Even on the old 2TB, I have like over a HUNDRED HOURS of video on it and I barely touched the usage. So, you can basically put a LOT of stuff on these harddrives. It'll probably take a year or more to fill these babies up.
I recommend it to artists, photographers, video bloggers, etc. If my shitty computer, which I had to format 5 times since I got it, can handle a 4TB WD then I highly suggest you get one.
Ive been loyal to WD since I had a 450MB on my 486. Ive had books since they started and passports, all sizes up to 10tb currently, and short of an actual SSD, I feel the most comfortable with my data sitting on WD hard drives. Ive owned MANY, and only 2 have ever had issues, and I think that was mostly my fault, lack of defragging, and re-writing them 100s of times, and even on one I still saved most of the data. But for my data that I just leave alone, or play or copy occasionally, I have WD my books over a decade old and they still run like brand new. The blue color is beautiful, and the new square design I really like personally. And 4tb on a passport, wow. Amazing. Whatever you need to store, TRUST WESTERN DIGITAL!
