This works PERFECTLY with the PS4! The hard drive shows up to 918GB on the hard drive (bought a 1TB) Just plug it in a USB slot and it automatically recognizes it! Just keep in mind that the PS4 will tell you to format it. It's super fast and easy. You can move games to the hard drive and save a lot more space on your ps4.
Let me start by saying that I was ready return this hd (or chuck it against the wall) after multiple unsuccessful amateur troubleshooting and reformatting attempts. I'm running MacOS High Sierra 10.13, which is not included on the WD support page. Their instructions sound simple - open Disk Utility, erase, reformat in exFat. If your computer is like mine, it gives you an error message when you attempt to erase and reformat. That's when I was ready to whip it against the wall and call it a day. Reluctantly, I decided to call WD tech support. I spoke to a very nice man from another country who was able to help.
**To reformat for MacOS High Sierra 10.13**
-Go to support.wdc.com, then scroll down to Software for Mac and click WD Drive Utilities for Mac to download.
-Once all is downloaded, open WD Drive Utilities.
-Make sure your hd is plugged in, then select it at the top of the page (mine shows an image of My Passport Ultra).
-Click "Drive Erase", make sure Format is "HFS+J", select the check box, then Erase Drive.
-Your hd should now show up on your desktop ready for files to drop.
Now that it's reformatted, it's working as expected.
(Photo note: slightest bit of oil on your hands will change the color of your hd...)
I bought this hard drive to use with my PS4 because I used up the majority of the 500GB on there, and it has worked great. All I had to do was take it out of the box, connect the two devices with the USB cable that came included, the PS4 detected the hard drive and did some formatting, maybe check a box or two in settings, and it was all done. It has been about a month now, and its worked great. I'll try to remember to update this review in a year to let everyone know how its held up.
Update #1 ~5 Months Later: Works great. I've had no problems with it.
Update #2 14 Months Later: Still works great, excellent purchase
After being underwater for 8 days during the Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston I figured all my backup data was destroyed. After purchasing a new Imac I plugged-in the external hard drive and it fired right up. I apparently didn't lose anything and it has been working flawlessly ever since.
In my recent review of a Canon printer, I mentioned how easy it was to install. I also alluded to the fact that helpful product support is not always possible to get. I falsely assumed that the Passport would be relatively easy to set up, but remember I'm a senior citizen with very limited technical knowledge. So you might guess by now that I had to call customer support to get the Passport to work properly. The person that helped me was fantastic. He took over my computer and download all the setup files that were needed in order for the device to work properly. He was extremely patient and helpful and had things working properly in about 15 minutes. So, theoretically, it should have been easy to get the Passport installed and working properly. I can honestly say that I would not have been able to do that without the help of the rep. Thanks Western Digital for having such helpful reps.
- 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. Compatible with: PC
Mac users running El Capitan and Sierra: The instructions in the online manual for preparing the drive for use on a Mac are incorrect.
If you follow the manual instructions that tell you how to use the Mac Disk Utility already on your computer to erase and reformat the new drive, you will receive the FAIL info box. My new drive was set up for Windows when it arrived and I needed to erase and reformat it for Mac OS.
Since I only wanted a simple external drive that was portable and could hold all the stuff I was working on, I had no need for partitioning.
When you open the disk utility, you will see My Passport (volume) and My Passport XXXX Media....... in the left hand column.
Click on the TOP (My Passport .....Media....) listing to select it. Don't click on the bottom (volume) listing as shown in the online manual.
Then go up top and click on "ERASE".
You will see a box open up that shows a drop down box: "My Passport .......Media.......
The second line will show four possibilities and I selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
The bottom line should be selected GUID ......
Hit "erase" and let your disk utility go to work.
When it is done (mine took a couple of minutes) you are ready to drag files in and out of your My Passport on your Mac.
1 terrabyte storage. Comes with its own special 3.0 usb cable, and it's spefically made for it. Do not damage the cable. Works flawlessly with Xbox one system had no issues.
*EDIT* After a little over a year, I had a partition on this drive fail. WD provides no software or first party support of any kind in terms of data recovery. Luckily I know my way around a computer pretty well and was able to recover my data myself, the average user however will probably have to shell out some money in the case that this happens to them. Also while WD is providing me with a new drive as a replacement, I am having to pay for shipping, which I find to be a little ridiculous. This entire process has been a headache and while I've purchased two new drives to use as backups, I am reluctant to buy from WD again. Taking a star off because of all of this.
*ORIGINAL*
This hard drive functions perfectly. It's very light weight and has a very small footprint. By default it comes formatted for Windows (NTFS I believe) and reformatting it to work with my MacBook was a bit challenging, but that was more due to macOS than this drive. Needless to say, after formatting, this drive now functions flawlessly and I use it for Time Machine backups regularly.
The only downfall I've found is that it seems like LED in the back won't completely turn off of the drive is connected to power, even if the computer is off. In my case, this was evident due to the fact that I have it connected to a powered USB hub, so even when my computer is off, the drive still receives power. This however is solved by just unplugging the drive when not in use so it really is just a minor issue, if even one at all.
I will definitely go with Western Digital for my next external hard drive purchase
This is my first external USB portable drive and I do like it quite a bit. It's small, sleek, and very quiet. I don't even notice when the drive is active. The included USB cable is rather short so I purchased a 3 ft cable to give me more flexibility in terms of how I connect the drive and place it relative to my desktop. I reformatted the drive, effectively wiping out the included software, which I didn't really want or need. The drive activity light is on the same end as the USB connection, which seems backwards to me. It makes more sense to me to put the light on the opposite end.
The only issue I had was upon initial installation of the drivers. The Western Digital SES Driver failed to install on Windows 7. Fortunately, a legacy driver is available for download from WD's web site. The driver is not required in order to use the drive, but if you don't install it you'll always get a driver failure when you login. I did reinstall Windows 7 for various unrelated reasons and the SES Driver did install successfully after a clean Windows reinstall. So, I image if your Windows is clean and fully up to date you may not have any issues installing the SES Driver.
Overall I think it's a great drive. I'm withholding one star though, because of the short cable and the issue installing the SES Driver.
I've had this external hard drive for about 2 and half months now and everything is fine so far. It's size makes it easy to store and very portable. I use it to backup files for school and to free up memory on my laptop.
The only con I've experience is the software needed to use the hard drive. Unfortunately I'm unable to use it at school because it needs a special program in order to function and downloading programs on campus computer isn't permitted. Therefore I'm limited to using it on my personal devices.