20 Best External Hard Drives For Ps4 (2023 Updated)

The Seagate 4TB external drive is perfect for the PlayStation 5. Once the USB cable is plugged in, the system recognizes it immediately and all of your PS4 games can be transferred and stored in it. The new PS5 has USB ports in the back of the unit so the cable and the drive are completely out of sight once installed.

I purchased this and the Seagate – FireCuda 530 NVMe (see link below) at the same time. Once both devices have been installed and recognized by the PS5, the system automatically will load your PS4 games to the external drive and give you a choice to load your PS5 games to either the console’s built in memory or the FireCuda.

Overall, this is a seem less process that adds memory for all your PS4 games/apps on your PlayStation 5 without using any of the PS5’s internal memory. https://click. emailinfo2. bestbuy. com/?qs=2e6da933d3328f335758db169faca0bf5a539151682265d79f6a2bc11bd4d68c9a2629f026a37279687827e6114a0614831eb27f42c35bba39439b4446985cbd.

Awesome piece of tech! I bought this for my X box Series X to store and use older Xbox One, 360, and Xbox games as well as the twin USB hub provided. Installation was easy – plugged it in and then plugged it into the Xbox, formatted, and was ready to go.

Only downside is no rubber feet on the flat surface so it is made to stand up. I feel it would be more stable as a USB hub on the flat. Storage capacity and speed – excellent! High speed USB information transfers as well as a huge amount of storage make this a no brainer.

USB hub – so far have only used this to charge my controllers and so far so good. Looks – wish they had the black one to match better but it was a small price to pay for the performance. Definitely a great add on to any Xbox system – being external you obviously can’t play the new X/S games on it but it works great for your older collection.

I have a 2TB hard drive in my PS4 and I completely filled it up. I didn’t want to go trough the hassle of installing another larger internal hard drive so I started looking around and found this external hard drive.

It works great. I moved over a bunch of games and play them regularly without any issues off of this external hard drive. Do yourself a favor and pick this up. It will save you a bunch of time and hassle.

If you need more space, this is your easy answer. Only negative I found is that you can’t fasten the hard drive to the PS4 so it just sits on top or next to the system. Also, the usb cable is a bit short so you will be limited on where you can place the drive.

I am using this drive with an original PS4 and play only physical media (discs).

Plug and play using the USB cable provided. Recognised by Windows 7 PC. Note the model number for this item. While I know about 2TB drives, there are times it seems safer to use 1TB drives instead. The value for money changes but it’s serving as a precaution against future data loss.

While we can save thousands of images on drives such as this, it really proves safer to save video mp4 style files such as Internet downloads or Freeview USB flash drive recordings which were later copied to the Toshiba drives.

The PC can send and receive files using highlight, copy and paste or drag and drop actions. The PC can also create and rename or delete new folders. I use the XYPlorer program to view files, yet for new files such as webp and svg I use the Irfanview program and its thumbnails view.

There are other file viewers which may help with file extensions such as mp2 and mp4 and the ts files. I have found that the Toshiba and the Seagate 1TB and 2TB drives are safer to use that micro SD cards and USB flash drives which may lock up files or cause problems trying to move or even copy to other drives or to the PC.

The very short USB cable connector for such external hard drives may cause problems but there are USB extension cables to buy if necessary. Whenever buying eBay items, it helps to keep the original packing just in case this is required for a return of an item or extra manual or user guide details.

I look for 1TB drives at under 45 rather than pay an excessive amount as some sellers would ask for. If we set up a quick keyword search for 1 TB Toshiba Canvio Basics and then SAVE that search then we get email alerts for future sales so this could help for many of our computing and Internet items.

Many of our cables are simply black or white but we can label these or the electric plugs for many of our domestic or office purchases. I recommend buying the white flat 8-way antisurge power units with the individual on and off switches next to the inputs.

There are PC programs we can download to protect our USB drives when we eject them. If used for Android devices then use the Settings App and select Storage and unmount storage drive.

Just got this less than an hour ago at my local Walmart. i came home and immediately hooked it up. I was curious to find the rpm speed of the drive inside so i loaded up Speccy and was reading the smart data of the internal drive.

Qhile i didnt find what i was looking for, I DID find something that I do not like! The data says thia disk has been powered on 1370 times! And a total poeer on time of 27. 8 days!! While i know this isnt a huge amount, thats not the point! Im guessing Toshiba is using old used drives to make these.

Maybe out of returned laptops or something who knows. It is just irritatong, but it does seem to work ok. Also the blue light flashes constantly even when its not doing anything. I even deleted the drives partition and it still was flashing.

What’s the point of an activity light if it doesnt work properly? For the record the box was sealed so I’m pretty sure nobody used this and returned it. Going to do a surface scan to make sure the drive is ok.

I got this device for $38 during their pre-Black Friday Sales. The device was delivered without any protective packages. It is brand new, but it did not turn on. It never happened to my other external hard drives like Seagate and Synology.

If I stored all my files on this hard drive, I may as well just delete all the files. It came with a LIMITED warranty of 1 year, covering basically nothing and not offering any data recovery service.

Do not get a hard drive that comes with a warranty, get one that comes with free data recovery. That way the data is really secured.

I’ve used my D10 for something like 2 years since ordering off of Newegg early on in the pandemic, and was very satisfied with the actual performance of the drive when using it as a secondary SteamLibrary unit.

Allocating disk space during Steam game installs can either be instantaneous, semi-fast, or agonizingly slow depending on the type of storage media you’re installing your game onto, and most HDDs tend to err on the agonizining slow slide of things–even the 7,200 RPM drives (especially the external drives) unless you’ve got a proper SATA setup going on.

Suffice it to say, the D10 is nothing like other HDDs insomuch as Steam library installations go. Every install that I’ve put on this drive has been on the instantaneous/very-fast side of things, and when you’re queueing up multiple games (especially if you’ve got several terabytes worth of titles you’re interested in putting in your download queue) this seemingly simple difference in space allocation speed can literally shave as much as 30-60 minutes of waiting time off of your queueing process if you’re lining up 30-40+ titles for download.

Not to mention, faster write speeds and space allocation also means there’s less of a hardware throttle/bottleneck on your download speeds; if you have 2. 5GB fiber optic like me, this can mean the difference in as much as 50-100MB/s of download throughput per second.

I have external SSDs (first generation, mind you) that are slower than my D10–this is one impressive HDD, and for the price its seriously hard considering buying anything else for the excellent performance.

I got mine on sale during Black Friday for something like $79–that’s a hair less than $10 per terabyte of storage. This is buy far the best price:performance ratio on any single piece of storage hardware (hell, maybe even just hardware in general) that I’ve ever paid for.

The only disk better for my money that I’ve bought is my SK Hynix P41 2TB @ $139, and that’s a Gen4 M2 clocking 7,000MBs both R/W that I was able to cop at a freakishly good Cyber Monday deal. So that’s saying something.

Unfortunately, I had to take off a star because I bought a brand new computer and with my new battlestation came a transition from Windows 10 to the new Windows 11. And now I can’t get my new computer to read my D10 WD_Black drive at all, no matter which USB port I plug it into–I’m using an ASUS Crosshair VIII, so all my ports are 3.

1 and 3. 2. And it’s not a Endpoints issue common with USB problems on Win 11; I’ve uninstalled all my other USB devices and left this the only one plugged in but it still won’t be recognized by the explorer shell.

If I plug it in to my Win 10 computer, however, it shows up just fine still. Talk about frustrating!! Sadly, I had to remove a star on the rating due to this serious compatibility issue, because I’ve downloaded all the suggested software and drivers/driver updates recommended in troubleshooting guides to zero avail.

I’m keeping my fingers cross that it’ll magically appear in explorer one day and I can once again enjoy this wonderful device. The performance difference while using these other spare external drives is massively noticeable when playing games, particularly when it comes to preloading textures and streaming cutscenes during gameplay.

The D10 was smooth as butter and absolutely mellifluous, and now I’m having to deal with macro and microstuttering on the older external SSDs that I’ve been forced to replace my D10 with in the meantime, and it’s an annoyingly disappointing nuisance.

I just want my D10 back in action! :(.

FIrst I got WD 8TB Red NAS PRO internal, as I need to substitute my WD Blue 3TB Media storage. That drive temps easily got into high 40s Celsius during file transfer, too hot for my Desktop setup (I have 3 WD Gold Helium (2TB, 8TB and 10TB), a WD Green (3TB) and a WD Blue (3TB) and Samsung SSD as system drive).

All my drives very seldom got close to 50 C, and only during hot Summer days. I needed new hard drive fast as something got corrupted on my Blue HDD and at that time I did not know yet what it was, HDD bad sectors or just files got corrupted (right now it seems like I got 5 corrupted media files, but planning to scan my Blue with HDScan just in case), so urgent rescue was necessary.

WD Red PRO could stay somewhat cool only with household fan blowing directly into HDD cage, not good. So I looked around and saw a comment that External Black has HGST HDD, that was a revelation, and that happened during Black Friday, price dropped to $199, so I returned my RED PRO and got this Black one.

As of now, writing my review, my files are getting copied to External Black from Internal Blue. I tried to put Black vertically as it should be, but my temps went up to 48 C very fast (MAX temp allowed is 60C), so I decided not to get any chances, placed Black horizontally, put 2 external 80cm USB TermalTake fans full speed on one side – not as loud as household Vonado fan and temp is steady at 43 C during past 5 hours of file transfer.

Idle temp after transfer is 41-42C, so it gets only 1-2 C up during hard work with adequate cooling, that is excellent. Good choice for my needs. So I investigated a bit to figure out what is really going on with temps, as my WD Gold Enterprise Class HDDs run much cooler.

Apparently, WD is moving away from Helium filled HDDs (Gold, or anything what have HE in model name) to Air filled, cheaper to produce, but Air filled HDDs are in fact run 10-12 C warmer than Helium HDDs.

So my previous experience with WD RED NAS PRO was in fact normal, but it has to be run in very good ventilated Server, not tight Desktop. So, what is really inside of this 8TB Black box? HGST hus728t8tale6l4/UltraStar DC HC320 (AIR filled), which is Enterprise Class HDD coming to replace WD Gold Helium filled WD8003FRYZ-01xxxxx, which are discontinued a few years ago, but still possible to find nowadays.

And External enclosure comes with 3 years warranty, which I guess is limited by enclosure, as UltraStar DC HC320 comes with 5 year warranty, which is a winner compare to 3 years warranty for RED NAS PRO.

I hope it will last as my Gold HDDs (almost 3 years now, and all perfect) and longer. So get it before WD will realize that consumer don’t need Enterprise Class HDD enclosure and will substitute it with something cheaper as it done in past – I have 6-7 years old My Book External 8TB Helium HDD, one of the first ones, still working like new, not a single hiccup.

Nowadays regular WD Externals come with either Green or RED HDDs, which are far inferior to my 7200 rpm Helium. If it is not DOA or produces loud clicking noise, it will last most likely forever in regular consumer applications, so strongly recommend.

The WD_BLACK D10 8TB seems to be the best external game drive you can purchase for the PS5 right now. I’ll get right down to to the two main reasons why. First, as of the this review, Sony has an 8 TB limit on the maximum storage size its OS will support for a single drive, regardless if it is an HDD or SSD, internal or external.

Sony may increase this cap in a future update, but for now at least, an 8 TB drive is your limit. Second, the WD_BLACK D10 8TB External Drive by Western Digital spins at 7200 RPM. This is 30% faster than the majority of external storage out there on the market for your console in that most HDDs spin at 5400 RPM.

7200 RPM equates to faster read and write times. Therefore, even if you are utilizing a 10GB/s bandwidth USB port, you are still limited to how fast the drive’s header can physically write and read data onto the spinning platter.

I am getting 200 MB/s writes and 250 MB/s reads with the D10. This is about as fast as you can expect outside of using an SSD for external storage. And sure, though SSDs are preferable due to being much faster, they are still not cost effective for mass storage.

By comparison, an 8TB SSD is expensive and really just not a practical cost effective manner for external storage on a console unless money doesn’t stand in your way. So I’ve listed the notable pros.

Are there any cons? The 3. 5″ drive requires more voltage than USB can provide alone, so it comes with an external power adapter. You will need access to a power outlet. Another thing to mention is the case includes a cooling fan to vent heat as the 3.

5″ 7200 RPM drive runs hotter and needs airflow. Though pretty quiet, you can see still hear it running. That being said, it is drowned out by the sound of the PS5 cooling anyway. So this shouldn’t be an issue.

All on all, an excellent game drive at a good value for fast transfers and mass storage. PS4 games can be played off the drive and perform to their optimal bandwidth limit. Fast transfer speeds allow you to store your PS5 games conveniently to free up needed space on the console’s internal storage without having to delete.

I use G drives for all of my external drives, from RAIDs to high-capacity backups to SSDs, and they have proven rugged and reliable. This drive is no exception. Very solid construction, plus the added security of the removable rubber bumper.

My college bought around 35 of these for students to use as their personal drives for the media program. So far this semester two of them have died completely and won’t mount while several others have had lots of connection issues.

Usually unplugging and reconnecting the cable helps, but the two that won’t mount are lost.

I ordered about 30 of these drives (Aug 2021) for my college film students. Several of the cables had to be replaced and several stopped mounting after a few uses. My students leave the drives in the classroom, so it wasn’t because of misuse or abuse.

I sent 2 back to G-Tech, each time it was about 45 minutes on the phone to create RMA’s. Then two months later I had to call to follow up. Somehow the RMAs were in the system but not being processed?? When I called back the first time they said it would be sorted in 24 hours.

I called back again after 2 days and they said they’d make things work ASAP. Before they send a replacement, you have to respond to their email saying that you’ll accept the device they are proposing.

The customer services guys were very nice, but don’t believe them when they say they are putting you on hold for 2 minutes. it was usually 8 to 20 minutes on hold per call (LOL). Next year I won’t buy G-Tech drives for my students.

It’s a bummer because everyone talks about how great G-Tech drives are.

The PS5 is a magical game console. I bought the Digital Edition and couldn’t be happier. I don’t care about discs or playing disc games 10 years from now. But I do care about having space to download games and downloading and deleting games constantly because of running out of room is just not fun.

The big problem was I had LOTS of PS4 games and only a few PS5 games so far. I needed a place to store my PS4 games “on my PS5”. The internal storage was much too expensive for a 2TB capacity, so I instead opted for a 2TB external capacity.

The WD_Black D30 is adorable and small and I got it for $199. 99 on special. When formatted it has 1. 84 TB available for games and that’s just fine. 800 GB of PS4 games installed and I have more than that left for more games! Plus with a PS5 update I can also store PS5 games on it.

FANTASTIC! The only kicker and it’s a VERY SMALL one is that if I play a PS5 game I have to have it installed internally, but all of my PS4 games play PERFECTLY from the external SSD. No issues at all.

I know I still have an internal option to buy more space on with a “blade” SSD, but this requires a super fast spec that has super high prices for much less space. I just needed space to put my PS4 games on my PS5, now that I don’t have a PS4 anymore.

This did the trick perfectly and I opted for the 2TB size because $200 was reasonable, not ridiculous like $400 for a 1TB internal option. Now I won’t have to buy space again. Did I say the WD_Black D30 external box was cute? It is.

I have black plates instead of white on my PS5, a black controller and now a black external game storage. So pretty. I know there were other brands and other choices, but Western Digital has been a good company for me over the years for computer storage and the price was good enough, and I REALLY needed the space.

When and if internal storage is reasonably priced I might consider that but then again WD might have a 4TB+ option for around $200 in their Black model externally and I’d go for that instead. I did consider a WD 5TB storage option but it was a standard disc and would make some noise.

The PS5 Digital is silent, seriously silent, so I wanted a SSD external option. It was super easy to format and set up and it’s so nice to not have to fuss about not having enough space anymore. WD and done.

Get playing.

My Strong PVR has been working well for 5 or more years but then the internal disk became inaccessible. I attached the Toshiba disk via the USB port and it has replaced the internal disk. It seems unable to cope with multiple recordings and simultaneous playback probably due to the USB limitation.

With careful programming, it works fine and has extended the life of my treasured PVR. I’m sure the Toshiba disk will find a new purpose when the PVR finally dies. Toshiba IT is good quality, I have a Toshiba laptop which is 10 years old and still boots up OK.

01/12/21- It’s the perfect size, weight, speed, and reliability for everything from PC/Steam, Microsoft Xbox 360 & One, Sony PlayStation 3 and newer, and (modded) Nintendo Wii’s. Plug & Play compatible even with a OTG or USB 3.

0 cable that most Android, Windows & Google Smartphone’s can read without specialty apps or drivers. Verified it reads on my Galaxy Note 4 via OTG cable & Note 20 via USB 3. 0 adapter. This item came with a 3 ft cable, more than what I needed to mount to my systems.

This model doesn’t come with any mounting kits, but mounting tape attached to console cases work well for awhile, but a light drop of super glue or epoxy good as a backup adhesive. Highly recommended for hot-drops, modders & partitioners.

I had previously purchased another multi terabyte Toshiba external USB 3. 0 drive that worked great. So, when I found myself in need of more storage space, this Toshiba seemed to fit the bill. I ordered it and picked it up at one of my local Best Buy stores.

It didn’t look like I expected it to. It was much smaller than the one I had previously purchased. Also, it had no power cable. Instead, it just draws power from the USB port. I was fine with the smaller size but would have preferred it to have had a separate power cord.

With this new storage capacity, I decided to reorganize my company’s audio and video assets, dedicating a drive for each category. So far, I have migrated quite a few files to this new 4 TB unit and everything seems to be working fine.

So, despite my power cord preference, I feel comfortable recommending this product.

First impression not so good, whilst performing a backup the drive kept disconnecting several times on one machine using usb2. 0 ports, I had no usb ports low to the desk and the 45cm lead that comes with this was too short, so scans LN58244 lead was used and has never given any problems before.

I then swapped to the one supplied and this time managed to complete a 50GB backup but again once more it appeared to disconnect, but no loss of data that time. The drive is shorter then the 500gb model and has no rubber feet like the previous canvio so will slide about easy.

One thing i did verify is that the drive doesn’t require any special software to access the SMART info, most software especially crystaldiskinfo will retrieve it.

Picked up this drive for my teenager for Christmas so they could install more games (the gaming laptop they have only has a 500GB internal drive). It worked great, speed was fine, no stuttering or lagging when they played games like Apex Legends or GTA V or Valorant installed on this external drive.

Problem is that after about 30 days drive stopped working. Seems to be a critical failure. Now I get it, this happens happens, and 99% of the time if you are going to have a HD failure it will be within the first 30 days of use (as a result of manufacturing defect) or after the 5-7 year mark (when it simply just wears out).

I’m just kicking myself because I have lost the receipt and this purchase was like the ONE TIME that I declined having an electronic receipt emailed to me. So if this drive works for you it will work fine.

Works great as an external game drive. Just be sure to KEEP YOUR RECEIPT because if it fails it will fail relatively soon and still be under warranty. I’m going to end up buying another one despite the failure.

I figure now that the odds are ever in my favor.

Summary: A great little hard drive to expand your storage options while looking cool! Easy to use, set up and stylish. Pros: Looks awesome! Easy to set up No external power needed Compact Stays cool, little heat Cons: Not an SSD, stuck as mechanical hard drive speeds Not good for games that need SSD speeds Unboxing: The unit comes in a compact package.

Inside you will find the hard drive, a USB 3. 2 connector (USB A to USB Micro B), some documentation (including a Xbox game pass trial). Installation: After plugging it into a Xbox One Series X, the prompt to format the hard drive appears and asks if you want to make it the primary installation drive.

I kept it as a secondary but it was nice to get the prompt. Use: Using the drive is very straightforward, after it is set up, any use is mainly in the background if it is the primary device. If it is your secondary hard drive, you might need to manage your storage on the Xbox to move games back and forth as needed.

I recommend using older games on the external hard drives and using newer games on the internal SSD since it is faster. The external hard drive is rated for 130 MB/s which is greatly different from the internal drive at 2.

4 GB/s (uncompressed) so if you are looking to fast load times and more modern games that require faster data streaming this might pose an issue. Some Xbox One Series X games might require an SSD so be aware.

If you are looking to hold older Xbox One games or have a place to move games back and forth (archive) so you don’t need to redownload, this is a great solution. The drive has a solid metallic build and looks like it will last.

There is a white indicator light for hard drive activity that is very bright. The two tone finish which is mostly black with white accents looks very cool.

One of the best hardware technology purchases I have made EVER. This little solid-state drive is incredibly fast, efficient, and looks and feels great. It contains the full contents of my studio and the USB-C connection is stable and fast.

I purchased this at the recommendation of a business partner who mentioned how important it was to have a local, physical backup of everything you own and this has been, by far, the best solution I’ve found that allows me to work locally off the drive WHILE backing up to the cloud (We use Dropbox.

) I have found the overall experience with this Western Digital drive, as always, to be reliable and of extremely high quality. This is one modern-looking and performing drive! Do not hesitate to purchase one for yourself or for your own studio.

It’s marketed as being a gamer’s SSD and I can see why. It’s fast!.

This drive barely takes up any space in my bag and transferring files is a breeze. However, I have had issues with the first one I got where any of my computers couldn’t detect it. After tons of troubleshooting, I contacted WD.

It took them a week to respond to me to approve my RMA. I sent in the drive, then over a month later, I finally got a new drive. I contacted support multi times during that month and no one could give me an answer as to why this happened.

I was without an external drive which I used for work, for 4 weeks. This was not okay. The new drive is working better however it does sometimes make the computer it’s connected lose access, only way to fix it is to unplug it and then plug it back in.

I wouldn’t recommend this drive even though it works great when it does work. However, a product that cost me $200 shouldn’t have any of these issues (on two separate drives).

So, today I will be reviewing the WD P50 500 GB SSD game drive. I have been using this on my PS4 due to lack of space and multitude of games on my system, but this external SSD can be used with just about anything from your pc, PlayStation and Xbox.

This is a pretty solid SSD with a rugged metal shell with a plastic bottom with cut outs for heat dissipation. The SSD has one USB-C connector input but comes two cables, a USB-C to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-A cable and it is pretty much just play and play.

I was easily able to access the hard drive on my laptop as well as my PS4. So, like I had mentioned earlier I primarily got this to use with my PS4 and clean up some space on the unit by transferring some games over to the SSD and I was easily able to do so, but it did take some time.

It took nearly 2 hours to transfer over about 200 GB over to the SSD and I was still able to play the games from the SSD without any issues and my games actually loaded a lot faster then they before, so the transferring time made up for it on the loading end.

The SSD does advertise up to 2000 MB/s or 2 GB/s but you have to keep in mind that your equipment that you are using needs to be able to support that as well. For my purpose, using this on the PS4 actually worked out pretty well and my games did load up faster than before.

I also transferred some pictures that I had from my PC to the SSD and again I had no problem doing so and since the file sizes was relatively small, I was able to move those over in matter of minutes.

Overall, the SSD has worked out great, it has cleared up some space on my PS4 and has helped in loading my games faster as well as cleaning up some space on my laptop as well.

I purchased the item in mid-July 2021 and today I am writing this review in Dec 2021 – around 5 months later – with a completely bricked hard drive. The hard drive appeared to be of good quality with decent read/write speeds when it was working and I enjoyed the WD security features.

However, one month ago, I noticed the HD read/write speeds were dropping considerably and my PC felt sluggish whenever windows explorer had access to the HD. The speeds of my PC continued to decline and at this point, I had no idea that the drop in PC performance was related to the WD My Passport.

It got so serious that eventually, I could not open a program without my computer crashing/freezing. I spent a week and a half updating drivers, cleaning junk files and performing other tasks to optimize my PC.

I heavily researched causes of this newfound PC sluggishness and with all the symptoms; I concluded my motherboard was failing. This was due to USB devices not responding; boot times slow; regular freezing/crashing and general non-functionality of the PC.

My father, an electrical engineer also suspected the motherboard was at fault. I was almost at the point of purchasing a new motherboard. My computer was unusable for my work, so I started transferring data to a backup laptop by plugging the WD My Passport into my backup laptop.

To my disbelief, the laptop started exhibiting all the previously discussed symptoms my main PC was showing. On the laptop, I could not open windows explorer; device manager or any programs and the laptop started freezing on simple tasks – exactly the same symptoms.

To verify causation, I plugged the hard drive into another computer in the house and that computer also became instantly non-functional. As soon as the My Passport was disconnected from any of these computers, the PC would come back to life and everything frozen would un-freeze.

The nature of this HD failure gave me no chance to retrieve data or attempt to fix the drive. Because any PC it was plugged into would become non-functional, I was unable to perform any tasks that I know can recover unresponsive drives.

I tried to perform disk defragmentation; running dskchk in CMD to repair possible bad sectors; running disk recovery tools and using a boot drive to run HDD regenerator. In addition, to rule out the possibility of a virus, I booted the PC in safe mode and experienced the exact same PC failure once plugged in.

All these methods I attempted but would end up with an unresponsive PC and frozen programs until the drive was removed. At one point, it got so bad that my PC would not even boot until the drive was unplugged.

The complex nature of this hard drive failure created immense confusion to the point where I almost purchased new parts for my PC. I have lost countless hours thinking the cause of my computer troubles were unrelated issues and spending time optimising my PC.

I never would have suspected the “WD My Passport HD” caused all this. As a result, I have large amounts of lost data and have no chance in recovering it since any PC, which connects to the drive, becomes non-functional.

Now I have to fork out more money in seeking help from data recovery specialists. It is safe to say I will never be purchasing a WD hard-drive for the rest of my life!.

I’m 72 yrs old and a still-active newsstand magazine publisher, freelance web designer, and pro photographer and videographer. Trust this: In terms of computers and drives, I’ve seen and been through it all.

I’ve been using external drives large and portable since the late 1980s, my first being SeatGate, then La iCe (the worst0, and many others. I cannot tell you how angry I was when I lost hundreds of precious family photos that can NEVER be replaced on that SeaGate.

I swore I’d never use them again, and I haven’t, or those 8 La Cie’s I got from the Apple Store (still sitting in a back room for the last 30 years, awaiting the day I can get to them and have the data and photos recovered, if possible).

I learned one thing critical to all drives: Back Up, Back Up, Back Up. There is no workaround to that. Here’s what you may not know and sellers sure as heck don’t tell you: Expect your drive (any drive) to last 2-3 yrs, if you’re lucky.

Maybe 4. Next, if it is, say, a 1-TB drive, if you load it with over 70-75%, it can cause your drive to malfunction at the loss of all your data. And this may not occur immediately. To avoid total loss of your data, ALWAYS buy 2 identical drives so you have everything backed up as I do, especially my precious family photos.

Here’s what I did 6 years ago when I started with Western Digital. Every week (or right then and there) I would load my latest information and data onto my newly purchased drives (Drive A) and back it all up onto the second drive (Drive B).

Every 6 months I would buy 2 new drives (C & D) and put personal and family photos from drives A and B onto the new drives (C & D). Note: I keep all business data and projects on separate drives. To accommodate the growing size of my data/photos, I increase the size of my drives as I need them.

With WD, I’ve gone from their 1TB to now their 5TB portable drives (BTW, the “. for Mac” models are no different, no matter what they tell you, than the significantly cheaper ones used for PCs, you just have to reformat them which is easily done) to store my personal stuff.

I also back up ALL this unto two large (18 TB) G-Force desktop drives. So, the lesson here is that ALL drives fail, usually much sooner than later with typically no more than a few years of longevity.

Whether a month old or 5 years old, they can go out on you for any number of reasons, including bumping or dropping them or smacking them down on your table unless they are SSDs, but even they can die on you too.

If you’re backed up to another drive, you’re good. If you haven’t done that, you’re. well, you know. They can also die on you for no apparent reason at all even if you’ve handle and treated them like a newborn baby.

And remember, you can be working on a report, term paper or thesis, website, editing photos, whatever, and have backed up two days earlier. Although you’ll be safe with all that back-up date on the second drive, you’ll have lost all the stuff you’ve been working on for the last 2 days that you hadn’t backed up if your computer goes out! BACK UP every 30 minutes or so if you’re working on very critical “ABSOLUTELY CAN’T LOSE THIS STUFF) data, photos, web projects, etc.

). My 27-inch Mac Pro is sitting at a computer repair shop as I write this. The video card went out while I was working on a complex website design project and I hadn’t backed up that day yet. Fortunately, the loss of the video card didn’t cause the los of my work on the computer.

But my work over the last few days is sitting in folders on that computers and I need to continue working. So, I’m taking a brand new Western Digital 5-TB portable drive over to them now to put all my folders sitting on my desktop onto that drive and I’ll back up all that to a second drive and continue working but on my laptop.

REMEMBER, always buy 2 drives, NOT one. And, to Western Digital’s credit, since I started using their products 6 years ago, only a big external drive died on me. I have 16 (8 plus their back ups) of their portable drives and ALL of them still work, even the first two I purchased over 6 years ago.

Forgive the length of my message but I hope it will help anyone buying external drives for the first time and remind others what you already know. Back Up, Back Up, Back Up. Western Digital cannot replace the data you lost (don’t throw away those drives, have the data recovered by a trusted, professional data recovery service) but you can prevent losing your data and precious memories by BACKING UP your data and buying 2 new external drives every 6 months and transfer data from the old drives to the new ones and keep the olds ones (with their data) too.

My non-techie needs are simple. As a freelance marketing writer, I needed a portable storage drive that would back up my iMac at regular interval in case my computer crashed or in case I needed to send it in for repair.

I work with the latest Mac software and I have a time capsule but this provides extra assurances for me. I like that it’s already formatted for Mac. I like that it’s “plug-in ready” and quickly begins copying files, no sweat And I like that it’s paired with my Mac’s Time Machine and password protection to keep my stuff secure.

I like that I have the option of dragging and dropping files as well as the time-controlled backup. I also like the 3 year limited warranty, which promises me that WD will stand behind its product. I can’t speak to those who are true techies.

All I can say is that for a person like me, who just wants a reliable drive that works straight out of the box and does what it promises to do, this My Passport for Mac works great! Addendum: the worst happened — my computer did crash and I had to do a clean reinstall of the operating system.

I am SO GLAD I got this product beforehand! After the software was wiped out, I simply attached it to my computer and it repopulated it with all my backup files. I am one happy camper with this product!.

I use this to run my audio software from multiple computers. The transfer speeds are good enough for me needs. Recently just recorded a chamber choir directly to this SSD from my surface go laptop. Every thing worked perfect even with my real-time file transfer being rather large.

I love the fact that I can use this to switch between my portable laptops and can then plug into my larger computer when i get into the studio for post production. This saves $ because now I don’t need travel laptops that need large internal SSDs.

This also saves time with file transferring. I love the convenience of this item. It’s very small though! Will be terrible to lose it without properly backing it up.

Works exactly as intended for my PS5 console and external SSD drive. I formatted this through the front USB port on my PS5, then I plugged it into my PS4 and began the download process of almost 2 dozen games.

The initial transfer took about an hour and a half but after that, WOW! Plugged it into the back USB port on the PS5 and now have the ability to play every single game directly from the External SSD.

It is PLENTY fast enough and there is no need to spend the extra $100 on the newer T7 model, none at all. This transfers games back and forth from internal to external with amazing speed and I have never been happier with a product like this before.

I’ve only owned 2 other external drives and this is the 1st SSD EVER! And it will not be the last. I cannot recommend the product enough. If your looking for a fast, relatively cheaper SSD for your PS5 this one works perfectly.

Just format it on the PS5 initially and it will work from that point on both systems or just your PS5. Make sure you understand how to unplug it safely. Settings, storage, external storage, Safety remove PS5.

PS4 long press PS button and the option pops up. Have fun and enjoy.

Very fast. Great for running large Parallels or VMware Virtual machines instead of running off your internal drive. Also good to make cloned drives and run them on other machines. Great product with 2020 iPad Pro also.

Very light high quality metal device. Includes two cables. The color blends in nice with the iPad space gray. Be sure to look at the 7T which offers a thumb print encryption model as well as double the read rate for newer computers that have newer USB version.

The 5T is great for older computers that top out at 400 to 500/mbs. If you have an older computer, you may want to consider the 7T for future proofing but be aware that the extra 500/mbs (for a total of 1000/mbs) will go to waste until you get a newer computer.

The price difference on the 1TB model is not that much more and worth considering.

With MANY caveats, this is an extremely useful upgrade to My Passport Ultra HHD. The form factor, weight, warranty and USB-C connection is worth the $$$. While the HHD from 2016 is still going strong, it is an HHD and the Time Machine Back Ups I’ve been using it for do have a lifespan if the HHD fails; which they can and will.

The Passport is a SSD so Read & Writes are faster, no vibrations, will last significantly longer and comes with 5 year warranty instead of the 3 year with the ULTRA. The SSD doesn’t get as warm as the HHD due to no moving parts, and can slip into your pocket with ease.

CAVEATS as noted: My Mac Pro Intel using Disk Utility took many attempts to erase and format to Mac OS Extended Journaled and then APFS for Time Machine Backups. Received consistent Failed attempts. Took many partitioning adjustments, Mac restarts, unplugging Passport and attempts to finally get a viable automatic backup available but this Passport finally succeeded.

While I would recommend whole heartedly for use with a Mac or Pc as a backup or drive extension; if you want to use for Time Machine, I hope you have an easier time than I. Another word of caution, this SSD comes with some Paragon software which you don’t need and I’d advise not to use as it’s not ready for Monterey but can be used in pre OS’s.

Bought WD 2TB My Passport to use as storage for my photography files on my new MacBook pro 2019 running OS12. 4 Monterey. First, This drive seems to be not fully compatible with the smart drive utilities.

After using the drive for less than a yr. It started showing a failure on the WD app drive tests. Yet passed on Apples disk utilities. Did an RMA and WD sent me a new drive. Which failed the WD quick drive test.

And again, The Apple disk utilities shows as passed. Did a reformat from the one it shipped with to APFS. Drive still shows as failed on WD utility but passes in Apple disk utilities. The SSD drive seems to be accepting data from my other WD drive.

So I’m sat here scratching my head as to what is going on. WD own smart utilities won’t fully work on this drive and shows it as failing a quick drive test. Apple utilities shows the drive as fine. Drive is accepting data from another WD drive via a third party backup/copy app.

Bottom line. This drive while fast and compact. Can’t be trusted and isn’t even compatible with it’s manufacturers own utilities program.

I purchased 2 of these SDD drivers in Jan of 2021 (both are 2TB models). Transfer speeds are fast and good when using the drive. Response time of the drive is slow when the drive is inactive and then reactivated to dump files on the drive (especially when building folders or navigating folders quickly within the drive).

However, my complaint is that last week one of the two drives suddenly stopped working during a file transfer. Then the drive showed up as renamed (not the name it was given) and blank of any data (note: drive was getting closer to 80% full).

Contacted local SanDisk and had the drive sent to them but they were unable to recover the data and only planned to replace the drive free of charge. However, with replacement they would not send the old drive back.

Since I really need the data I did not agree to the replacement and am having the drive sent back to me. Possibly I will try another third party to recover the data. I have been using external hard drives for the past 20 years and never ever had an issue with HDD drives.

This is my first experience with a WD SDD drive and it is terrible. Only 9 months after purchase and failure and unable to recover my data. Also, unable to replace the drive without full surrender of the broken drive.

I have no concern to surrender the old drive if they can recover data. Even no discount to keep the old drive on new drive purchase. Solution for a bad product is just to replace a new one – whatever happened to building a quality product? This is customer’s data that the drive is suppose to be securing.

9 months on a drive that cost over 300USD. Drive was cared for and always placed in a case, never dropped, never outside or damaged in any way.

Just a little history. Back when the MacBook was a little, white laptop encased in plastic. [I owned a little, black back-up drive by Western Digital. ] Then, as MacBook Pro evolved and became Silver Aluminum.

[I owned the little, white back-up Drive by G-Technology. ] On Small Business Saturday, I made the nervous decision to buy the little, grey SanDisk Portable SSD with 1 TB. Given my strange history with Western Digital, where 1 Device failed immediately.

The 2nd Device lasted forever. [It still works–despite, being completely full. ] This was still a difficult decision. However, SanDisk works smoothly! While it may not be the fastest SSD out there, it’s fast enough for my MacBook needs.

Unfortunately, I’m not into games, but I have an extensive iPhoto Library & Music Library. While I do have some iTunes films, it’s definitely not the crucial library here. I’d also like to teach myself how to backup my dvd collection to this drive.

However, it requires an optical drive or burner [that] I don’t have. So, I love it. However, like so many reviewers here. I wish the device included a stronger, longer connection. It is quite awkward.

However, because I couldn’t upgrade to next level up SanDisk. [I believe it looks similar. It has that much more space for your money. ] I knew I would have to give a little. It’s a nice device–even with a super short cord!.

I currently own two of these 1000MB/s R/W screamers (both version 1)! I trust them to be the working repository of my digital photography as I work with 45-60MB RAW files and my finished images are often 300MB TIFFs, so it’s important to that I have “complete” trust in the drives.

Of course, I have two backup systems (a 48TB NAS and less portable SSDs that are not kept online) because there’s no guarantee that I won’t leave one of these small, light drives somewhere, that some kind of physical damage could occur or that files could be corrupted or infected even though I’m pretty careful about any of those situations.

The size and weight of the drives is about the smallest available on the market. I carry a lot of gear (both computer and photography) and don’t need to add to either. These drives could only be improved upon in capacity, so I’m buying the 2GB unit next (there IS a 4TB unit in both this line and the PRO version but at $700 and $900 respectively, they’re a bit out of my price range at this point).

The one concern you might have is the lack of thermal ventilation but looking at results from DriveDx, the best SSD diagnostic software, I am not even close to the thermal limit of this drive after using it for an hour of Photoshop editing and saving.

I’m guessing that the rubberized external coating, while providing good tactile feel and better gripability, is relatively thin (while still likely to absorb energy of a fall; also because it is so lightweight, the potential for damage is low anyway), allowing for dissipation of heat energy from nearly 100% of the device’s surface.

Also, if you’re concerned about the lifetime of an SSD, DriveDx tells me that after 2. 4TB of writes and 86. 8TB of reads, approximately 100% of one of the drives’ life remains. I’ve owned these for nearly 2 years, using them on a nearly daily basis (2130 hrs and 764 powercycle counts for unit 1 and 871 hrs and 364 powercycle counts for unit 2), so neither unit is demonstrating significant electronic “wear and tear”.

Bottom line, as a user, computer consultant, and photographer, I unequivocally trust these drives. I’m ready to order my 2TB SanDisk Extreme SSD V2 now.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews on here talking about how broken or bad this drive is but these reviews are coming from people who want all of this specific high tech security function or people who are easily frazzled by technology.

I’m here to tell you, as a someone strictly looking for some extra storage space on his computer, who for years struggled with Hard drive failure, loosing data over and over because my HDD’s kept falling, breaking or disconnecting improperly, this SSD is a godsend.

I own 4 of them with the intention of buying two more, one for myself and one for my girlfriend. If you are simply looking for an SSD that will store your most treasured data whether it be work files, family pictures etc and not fail you then this is with out a doubt the last portable drive you’ll ever need to buy.

It does exactly what it sets out to do. The read/write speed is incredibly fast especially when transferring data between two of these units, It’s a very compact unit making it extremely portable and very convenient, there is no software to install you just connect and go, it’s literally like using a big flash drive.

This product is very much worth your time and worth the money and will actually save you money in the long run.

This portable SSD is perfect. It’s small and inconspicuous. People won’t hesitate to ask you “What is that?” and you will drink in their envy as you explain how the future of portable media is already here in your pocket.

It is so tactile you’ll find yourself absentmindedly running your fingers over the drop-resistant surface. It becomes meditative, like prayer beads or a fidget spinner. I have primarily used this SSD to move shows and movies to my android phone, easily accomplished with X-Plore or Total Commander.

The only way it could be more accessible would be if it could conduct wireless data transfers, but you’ll hardly notice that middleman of a cable with its blazing fast speeds and 2022 ready USB-C port.

If you’re currently relying on ancient portable hard drives for this service, forget about having a USB to USB-C converter or needing a drive mounting app on your phone or worrying about power consumption.

This thing is resilient. Like, so resilient I felt compelled to write this, my first ever review, because the world needs to know. Sure, this SSD survived flying thousands of miles and suffered use and abuse for six months aboard a Los-Angeles-class Fast Attack Submarine, but it faced its greatest challenge upon returning to shore: when it went through the washer and dryer.

And it still works. My files are still intact and accessible. Now, I don’t know if the engineers at SanDisk took this thing home and left it in their own shorts to be put through the wash – for science – and I certainly don’t recommend anyone try this on their own, but I was ecstatic to discover that The Little SSD That Could still could.

If I were to give this piece of modern engineering a con, it would be: The SanDisk Extreme Portable Solid State Drive is so small and so portable you can forget it’s in your pocket and accidentally send it through the washer and dryer.

But if you want a reliable, laundry-resistant SSD, you can’t go wrong here. Just get yourself the 2TB model; you deserve it.

Let’s start off by saying I needed something easy/foolproof (not some crazy format/interface i’d have to get used to or deal with file type conversions), reliable (doesn’t make my files go poof or disappear or decide to quit working randomly), secure (could put a password on certain files or the whole hard drive), light weight, portable, and with a reasonably large amount of storage.

SSD is the way to go when choosing between SSD and other standard hard drives. It is durable to a point and won’t break with frequent use as long as you make sure you don’t plug it in while your computer is charging, keep it cool (some heat is generated when using and that is normal), and don’t drop it into a blender (or leave it in an autoclave) so treat it like you would most tech devices.

I am a loyal Mac user and my college uses PC predominately, so I needed an external hard drive that could safely save and store files and have them in a format that would transfer well between Mac and PC and some various educational and lab software and not have to constantly deal with file type conversions.

I also needed this to handle a vast amount of school files, internship files, and personal files and wasn’t a pain to haul around or worry about it getting hacked. It is small about the size of a deck of cards but slightly thinner and fits in the palm of my hand, clips onto my keyring, and came with both a usb and usb-c connector (idk if it works with lightning connectors or iPhone/IOS storage haven’t tried that yet) but it has managed everything from Microsoft Word Products to Apple Pages products to videos, audio recordings, pictures, CAD files, Texas Instrument Calculator Files, Apps and Programs I rarely use, etc and has been amazing.

For the average college student and person I would say its a perfect backup hard drive but for me and my excessively large files it makes a wonderful portable flash drive! I hate paying for cloud storage and I like my digital data in a more tangible form.

so far it has saved me money. In my 90 or so days of use it has been phenomenal!.