Western Digital My Passport 2 TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive -WDBY8L0020BBKNESN (Black)
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- Sleek, compact design
- Automatic backup software
- Password protection and hardware encryption
My Passport offers up to 2 TB capacity in an amazingly small enclosure. It features ultra-fast USB 3.0 connectivity; compatibility with USB 2.0; automatic, backup software; and password protection and hardware encryption to help protect your files from unauthorized use.
Wd Hard Drive
Western Digital My Passport 2 TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive -WDBY8L0020BBKNESN (Black)
List Price: $ 349.99
Price:
An essential storage backup tool in a digital world,
I’m a computer repair technician, and one issue I have all the time with my customers is, the famous, ‘a virus hijacked my computer and those precious pictures are inside’. Yeah, the prom, the honeymoon, or the newborn pictures are usually held without ransom. Most of the time we are dealing with malware of some sort that affects the Windows operating system files, but leaves the data intact. So, before I repair the computer, I rescue the pictures, and any other file they might value. However, not all repair technicians do this, most allege that the files are corrupted, which might be the case, but usually it really means they are too busy to rescue anything, don’t know how to do it, or will not do it unless paid big cash.
For one own’s sakes, the best thing to do is backing up the data before the computer gets infected, or the hard drive fails. For pictures I recommend backing up the original files into data discs, but for faster everyday files backups (music, movies, games, software etc.) is better to use an external hard drive.
The Western Digital My Passport 2 TB is an awesome way to carry large amounts of data in a tiny container, that is always available and secure. I love its dimensions, both physically and in bytes.
Also, the truly fast data transfers done with the USB 3.0 interface save time every day. Speaking of the USB connector, another great feature is that only requires a single USB port for power, while many external hard drives and enclosures, with form factor 2.5″, require two USB ports.
This drive is great not only to keep multimedia files, but also for storing documents in digital form, because it saves space. Besides, in case of an emergency it’s faster to grab it then a folder. I’ve been doing backups using both hard drives and discs, and it has been of great help throughout the years. For example, the last time I moved, the new school district wanted my daughter first vaccines’ records. I knew I have the original card somewhere in a box, but I needed it fast. Then I remembered I scanned the card years ago, and that print-scanned image, which was storage in my daughter’s digital folder, inside my external hard drive, saved me hours of search and quickened her registering process at the new school.
About the WD SmartWare software offered by the manufacturer, I hesitated before going for it, because in the past WD back up software didn’t work well for me. However, when one is dealing with such a big amount of data, doing it manually is a pain, and the alternative of using the backup and restore features included in Microsoft Windows 7, is something I would only do for a complete system image, not for the everyday backup. So, I installed the WD SmartWare software and so far, it’s performing well, it does require time and attention to learn its functionality though. If you decide not to use the WD SmartWare, you can still use the hard drive right out of the box, like any other external hard drive.
Besides reading the user’s manual, I strongly suggest that before plugging in the drive into your computer, you go to the Western Digital My Passport’s support page, and read how to use it.
Because there are a few details to know before starting backing up your data. Among these topics, How to install WD SmartWare from the external drives, How to create a category backup using WD SmartWare, How to backup specific files and folders using WD SmartWare, How to retrieve a backup using WD SmartWare, Setting up security to lock or unlock a WD external drive with WD SmartWare, (videos are provided in some of these), and How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows (7, Vista, XP) and Mac OSX etc., etc.
I can’t post links here, but one can do a search for WD Support / Downloads / My Passport and will find the page where a variety of software that works with the Western Digital My Passport 2 TB, can be downloaded for free.
However, the most important fact of reading Western Digital’s support information for this drive, is to learn how to use it ‘before’ entrusting your valuable data to it. Specially, if you choose to install the WD SmartWare software.
There are very important steps everybody should know while setting up these drives, so it’s clearly stated on the Western Digital’s support pages.
For example, while installing the software, it will ask if you want to apply any security (password & encryption) to the drive. Before setting up the password you must check an, I understand box, certifying that you understood that if you forget the password, the data is unrecoverable. I repeat, and excuse the capitals, but this is crucial, IF YOU FORGET THE PASSWORD, THE DATA IS UNRECOVERABLE.
Since there is no way to retrieve your password if you forget it, please write that password in a secure available location. If you want, it’s possible to change your security…
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|Smart form-factor. So-So software,
This is my first experience with a Western Digital hard drive. I purchased the 1 TB Passport drive as opposed to others mainly because CNET awarded its Editors’ Choice for the 2 TB model ( which was not available for sale when I placed my order). I am currently using the WD SmartWare (version 1.5.4.5) that comes with loaded the device.
Pros:
Smart form-factor. Very small and sleek for a 1TB drive.
USB powered ( just plug it into your USB port). No need for a power cable or bulky ac adapter. Makes for true portability.
Impressive USB 2.0 speed during my initial back up of 131 GBs worth of files/content.
Automatic file backup feature
One USB cable( supplied)supports both 3.0 and 2.0.
Surprisingly quiet and runs fairly cool too.
Excellent customer support. I called twice and spoke to well trained/professional technicians.
Cons:
WD Smartware software. Surprisingly so-so for this cool little device. Not as intuitive or slick as I had expected or read about. (Am wondering if I would be better off deleting the Smartware software altogether.)
This version of Smartware is not very flexible and doesn’t include a full system backup( system image)feature. I had to install another application to create a system image ( Luckily WD provides a free copy of an application called Acronis for its customers–however I had to call customer service to learn about this application and be told where to find it on their support page.
Automatic backup feature only works while your system is idle.
Based on my overall user experience with this device to date ( only a few days) I am somewhere between a 3.5 and 4.0 rating. If however portability with incredible amounts of storage capacity ( the next model goes up to 2Tbs !)in a pocket size device is your main priority–then I don’t think there is anything else currently on the market that beats this device in that regard.
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|High Capacity, Easy to Use Backup Drive,
Let’s face it. Computers break and hard drives fail. If you’re like me, you have your entire music collection, countless photos, and important documents on your home computer. It’s important to back up your files in at least one, if not two, places.
Cloud services are becoming more popular, with the Amazon Cloud, the iCloud, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and others offering free and paid cloud storage. While these services have their merits, it would take me a super long time to upload my entire music collection (over 90 gigabytes) to a cloud service, so a hard drive is a better solution.
Enter the Western Digital Two terabyte My Passport portable hard drive, which offers a relatively fast and easy way to back up your important files.
The My Passport is super small. It’s USB-powered, which means you don’t need an adaptor to run the hard drive. One negative for me is the proprietary cable needed to connect the drive to your computer. If you lose the cable, you can’t just go to the local Radio Shack and buy a micro-USB/USB cable, but you would need to order another one from Western Digital.
The My Passport comes with backup software preinstalled. Just connect the drive to your computer, click on the software, and installation is quick (less than two minutes) and easy. Once installed, the software lets you do a lot of things, such as password protect the drive and encrypt your files, set timers to shut the drive off (so it doesn’t run continuously) after a predetermined amount of time, run diagnostics, and register the drive. The software also categorizes your files (music, video, photos, etc.) and allows you to determine which files you want to backup.
If you don’t want to use the backup software, you can remove the software and simply “drag and drop” the files you want to back up manually. While potentially more time consuming, manually backing up will give you total control over which files to backup, and you will “see” the same files on your backup drive. The software encrypts everything, so, even though it’s backed up on the My Passport, you can’t see it and must retrieve it with the software. This is great if you have a lot of confidential files to backup, but if you are backing up music (or photos) you can’t see the encrypted files even though they are there. A workaround is just to drag and drop your music and photos and use the software for more sensitive files.
The My Passport comes with limited instruction. Just plug the unit into your computer and install the software (if you want to encrypt). A more comprehensive User’s Guide is installed on the disk.
Backing up more than 90 GB of music, photos, and videos took a little over two hours, which is pretty fast. With continuous and automatic backup, new music, photos, or documents will automatically be saved on the backup drive if I continue to use the pre-installed software.
I recommend the 2 TB My Passport portable hard drive. While not inexpensive, the Western Digital drive offers an easy way to back up computer files, photos, videos, and music, which may be hard if not impossible to replace. While not infallible, (hard drives will usually fail at some point) the 2 TB size offers enough space to backup the contents of my entire computer, and then some. The drive is super small, and the software is easy to use. I like the fact that I can simply drag and drop my files as well.
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