Customer Ratings & Reviews

Stores AND plays all my PS4 titles. After reading some reviews I put it through the wringer. Warms up slightly with extensive use, but not noticeable. Runs perfectly out of the rear usb ports which is good because I think it looks tacky in the front usb-c port. Love it!

With the increase in the size of the new video games, the gaming consoles' storage capacity remains at 1TB, such as the new Xbox series X and PS5. So the only option that remains is to download one or two games to play, and when completed, I have to delete and download another. Personally, I'm not too fond of this solution because I often like to go back to my old games to play. In such cases, extended storage is the practical solution. This WD Black D30 1TB is a definitive remedy to the storage capacity issue since the high graphics games are taking much space. WD SSD D30 size is compact and looks excellent and sits in place "thank you for the base." My experience has gone smooth and flawless. First, I hooked it up to my PS5 using the front USB-A, and once connected, I got the message of a need to format the SSD drive to use it as external storage. Next, I moved one pre-installed game from internal to external storage, and the transfer rate was significant fast, and 57 GB of game size was completely transferred in 8-10 minutes. However, I reversed the process by moving the game back from my WD SSD to PS5 internal storage, and here the transfer time was cut down to 5 minutes. Another attempt is to hook up my WD D30 to my Xbox series X using the front USB-A, but the first attempt did not go so well as the SSD drive was shown as media storage only. Then I noticed the USB cable was not securely plugged into the Xbox USB-A port, which tells me if the USB is not plugged in completely, then the SSD drive shows media storage only. Once the cable is connected, the pop-up screen has shown up, and I went to settings/ system/storage and saw the new external storage listed right below the internal. I went ahead and installed a new game (Valhalla) on the WD SSD drive; after 10-14 minutes, the download was complete, but the game did not load up, so I installed it again on my internal, and the game worked just fine. I thought about moving another game just to give it a try because if this SSD is only to store games on it, then to me, it is useless; I moved Tom Clancy's The Division 2, and Voila! It worked immediately, and I was amazed that the game loaded up from the external drive and was smooth and with no lags. My conclusion was that certain games could be installed and played directly from this WD SSD, and others can only be stored, and whenever I need to play them, I just move them to the internal storage as the time of moving them is shorter than redownloading them again—excellent and reliable speed.

WD has a performance Black high end drives that has generally great reviews. So riding on the praise of the Black NVMe is this drive clinging to the Black brand. No. This drive contains a WD Blue NVMe, the older WD SN500. A cheaper, but still respectable, NVMe drive that performs up to 1/2 what a true Black drive can. While I do love the Blues as an inexpensive option in my builds, it's sad they they use the Black branding on a device that has no Black drive in it. Keep that in mind if you purchase this. I got the D30 to mainly use on my Xbox One S. Coping about 100GB of games (all two games, lol) took about 20 or so minutes - I had to walk away during the copy. Load time was faster, but I forgot to time the load time off the internal HD so I compare. Having extra space in a small form factor is a nice feature for my Xbox. Now, you can use the D30 on a PC, but you can't swap back and forth without formatting. On a PC I only tested with the stock cable as I couldn't find my C to C 3.2 cable. Peak read was 462 read with 440 write. Even the random tests were respectable. Overall, this is a great external drive for everyday use or gaming. I do wish the case were smaller to take advantage of the NVMe's size. WD is building a history of deception as bad as cellphones use the word "unlimited." First was the relabeling of Green drives as Blue and having the ridiculous high load count and slower platters. Recently, selling SMR drives in their Red NAS drives instead of CMR which gives reduced reliability in a server environment. I wish they'd clean up their act and get back to what made them a good company. Because of the shady practices, this drive only passes as average, but I'd still recommend it as long as the buyer knows they're not getting a Black drive.

This drive is very easy to use and I was up and running in minutes. To use it you simply plug it into the PS5, go to settings and storage and you'll see it available as USB Extended Storage. Once formatted you can default it to always install PS4 games to the USB Extended storage where they can stay while you play them. For PS5 games, as the product description explains, they can only be stored and not played while on this drive. The process to copy the games over from the PS5 is simple and just as simple and fast to copy them back. The convenience on a PS5 game then is it frees up storage when you aren't going to be playing the game for an extended period and then allows you to quickly copy the game back to the PS5 when you do want to play. The process to copy the game back to the PS5 is much quicker than another long installation of the game. Overall the drive works exactly as explained and is easy to use while more than doubling the amount of space you have to store games on your PS5. A must have for someone running out of room on their PS5.

It’s clear that disc based media is quickly becoming extinct, particularly with respect to console and PC gaming. Solid State drive technology is light years faster than its platter-based HDD predecessor, however SSD drive space is severely limited in the lower price regions, while being insanely expensive once you get above 4 TB, or 8 TB. The new generation of video game consoles only offer 1 TB internal storage, while graphic intensive games now routinely clock in at 50 GB to 100 GB or more. While it’s not too much of a problem to delete a game and just re-download it later over high-speed internet, certain ISP broadband providers have implemented data cap (1.2 TB / month on Comcast for example). It is for this reason that this product category exists and is thriving in fact based on these being back ordered at the time of this writing. My intention for the WD Black D30 was to avoid having to delete my Forza and other games from the Xbox Series X internal drive, and install the new MSFS Flight Simulator 2020 on the WD. Unfortunately I was notified that games optimized for Series X must still run from the internal drive. The 102 GB game (before 35 GB updates) did transfer quickly from external to internal, though I did have to shuttle games off the internal defeating the purpose. This is more cumbersome than planned. By contrast Seagate offers a 1 TB extension card (for about $50 more) that is designed to use the dedicated expansion port on the back of the console, instead of a USB port. This allows the drive to be an invisible extension of the internal drive, which will then run next gen titles optimized for Series X. PROS + compact size + super fast speed + solid state storage CONS -does NOT “extend” drive storage -must be formatted for either Xbox or PS5 -must still move Optimized titles to internal drive CONCLUSION While this 1 TB SSD drive is very fast (like all solid-state), it DOES NOT allow you to play Optimized for Xbox games. Seagate’s 1 TB expansion card costs more but is a better option with less manual intervention. On the flip side, Samsung T5 and T7 external SSDs are less expensive at the 1 TB size, or slightly more for double the external storage (though would still require shuttling games between drives) Not recommended buy

Simply put, I was tired of deleting games and then adding back on later. Never thought I would need more internal storage. It’s fast when transferring back and forth. If you have PS4 games, you can play those on the storage which most of us have. I’m using this on my PS5. I learned that with PS5 games, you can only store and/or transfer to and from the internal. You cannot play PS5 games on it. If your tired of deleting games, this storage is for you.

Being one of the lucky people to find a PS5 last year was a double edged sword: I had the hottest new console on the market but I had slightly less than 700GB of drive space. Now while there aren’t many PS5 games available it still plays all the PS4 backlog I’m working through or that my kids refuse to move away from. Being able to trial run a WD Black 1TB Gaming SSD was a possible solution but I’d heard that some external drives don’t run as well as the internal or worse the PS5 locks up if you use them. I’m ecstatic to report that isn’t the case with WD Black! First, the drive size is really small, about half the size of my Galaxy phone. Second, it comes packed with a stand to clip onto it so it will sit upright along the long edge instead of just flopping over wherever the cord lets it go. Finally, and best of all, the drive performs as well as the internal drive with my PS4 games. I transferred all 500GB of my stored games to the WD drive which took a while but I don’t think it was more than an hour (I forgot to check the clock when I started but its not bad! Certainly not PS3 transfer speeds thank goodness!). Once they’re loaded up they perform fast and flawless no matter if they were digital only games or digital versions of your standard disc games (Skyrim, Lego Marvel Heroes, Last of Us 2, etc.). I put them in sleep/standby mode and woke the system the next morning and jumped right back where I left off without lag or freezing! Its amazing and makes me super happy! Setup is simple, just plug the drive into the base and the cord into the drive, set it near your console (it’s a standard 12 inch cable so it’s gotta be close), and plug the drive into the BACKSIDE of the console (no fighting over the front port for charging your controller, extra awesome!). Once plugged in it should prompt you or you can navigate and format the drive for PS5 storage format then you’re good to go! Super easy, barely an inconvenience!!! There’s not much else to say besides that its function is awesome and it looks even cooler with the rugged looking plastic shell (its not drop proof, you can feel its just a cool shell not actual protection). Hightly recommend, if you have a new system then you NEED this drive to keep space for all your games.

Starting off this drive is extremely portable and small enough to fit in your pocket. With USB type C the speeds are lightning fast at 900 megabytes a second. It says it's for PS4 and PS5 but you can only put PS4 games on it which is kind of disappointing. IT does help by storing your game saves on it but then again Playstation has the cloud for storage as well. Overall it's a nice little hard drive that I'd recommend to others ! Appearance wise as you can see is black tactical and sleek looking. with

It felt like a plug and play to my PlayStation. I’ve had one before and decided to upgrade. 1TB is a perfect size since I’m not a serious gamer but I’m don’t buy actual disc games and this storage is perfect for all the games I purchase and save. Easy to navigate. The actual size is very small and bulky so I feel comfortable traveling with it. Overall great addition to my PlayStation setup

There is not much to getting this drive set up and I’m going to have a hard time writing anything of a substantial review because this product JUST WORKS! I love products that just work right out of the box as advertised and this one fits the bill. I opened it, plugged it in to replace my older and quite bulky back-up drive for my PS5 and it was about as dumb simple as possible. I just turned on my PS5, went to Options > Storage > USB Extended Storage and click on the format button. That’s it! I love that I don’t need a separate power supply for the drive. The load speeds are super quick with it being an SSD, and it just looks cool next to the PS5. A great find.

WD made a very reliable and solid SSD. The drive performs very well with loading up games and data at a fantastic speed. D30 works with a decent amount of devices that gives you 1TB of storage. It works with the PS4, PS5 (PS4 games only), Xbox, and PC. So far for PC games, it does the job it needs to. Played a ton of games from Steam and Epic game store on the device. The SSD is nicely designed but nothing too special. It gives a rugged vibe to its design and seems to take falls pretty well. D30 does have a "gamer" look to it but it's also portable where you can just slip it into a laptop bag and go. Comes with a USB-C to Type-A cable but I'm using USB-C to USB-C on the device. I was just happy that I could just whip this around from device to device with ease. it also comes with a Stand to prop it up next to your gaming device. What is more to say? it does everything it advertises to do and with ease. everything just worked fine, games loaded up rapidly, Plug and Play. WD BLACK D30 is just a great drive and a brand I'll buy from now on.

Nice little usb storage device. Using for my ps5 to save up console storage

Not a bad device. I loved it. Just make sure to install it properly.

This one gave me issues i returned it to the store because it wasnt working on my xbox and the guy at best buy said it wasnt compatible

It does what it is supposed to do. Now my son has stopped complaining about not having enough space for all his games on his PS5

This is an awesome SSD had no problems with my series s and it works good transferring games and putting it on the external to the internal in vice versa

Good product easy to set up just plug in and play.

Easy set up for my XBOX ONE. I got thr SSD type so loading games and play is faster.

I am amazed by this little power box! My kids and i are able to finally save all our online game progress, no more slow loading, and we still have space to spare!

I have been using this solid state drive with my PS5 and gaming PC and am completely blown away by the performance. The speed of the WD Black is noticeably far superior to the older HDD external drives that I have used in the past. With modern games taking up so much space, a fast SSD external drive is now a must have accessory for console or PC gaming. In the box is the SSD drive, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and the stand. Setup simply consists of connecting it and then placing it where you want it to go. No external power is required because the drive is powered by the USB cable. Both my PC and PS5 instantly recognized it as an external drive once I connected it. The initial setup was as easy as that. A caveat for PS5 use is that PS5 games can be stored on this drive, but not directly played off of it. This limitation is set by the PS5, and has nothing to do with the WD Black. PS4 and PC games can be played directly off it. Even though the WD Black is designed for consoles (Xbox or PS), it is compatible with a Windows PC. This WD Black is not only a perfect choice for gaming because of the blazing fast speed, but would be useful for anyone that needs a fast drive for other purposes. Now that solid state drives have become more affordable, I am going to get another WD Black and use it “off label” to store and edit 4K videos that I take with my GoPro Hero7 Black. Editing and transferring 4K videos can be slow and laborious, so having a faster SSD drive will make that process much smoother for me. After using the WD Black for a few days, I am very impressed by the speed and performance. I have had great experiences with Western Digital drives in the past, so I have no worries about the reliability or longevity. If you need a quality solid state external drive, I recommend it without reservation.