Customer Ratings & Reviews

This model is the latest generation of the many My Passport drives I've owned or purchased. They have proven reliable and good performers. They have incrementally improved with each new generation. This model features a new case design which I feel is much better looking and is slightly smaller than the last version. BOTTOM LINE (for the impatient): This model is a little bit faster than the last (2016) model I bought. I got the black 2TB model and this generation offers up to a 5TB model as well as the usual smaller capacities. This model is just noticeably faster than the last generation on sequential reads and writes. This My Passport has a new design that returns to rounded corners and soft-look matte case. I like this much better than the older one with its cheap-looking (to me) styling. The drive is slightly less thick, wide and long than the 2016 model. In my laptop bag that’s welcome even if not a lot smaller. I’m very pleased with this My Passport drive as with ones purchased over the last decade plus. It’s reliable, fast for a USB mechanical HD and gives a lot of space for a low price.

I didn't really need yet another external drive, but I had expiring Best Buy awards and this was on sale. This drive is small in size but high in capacity and gets power directly from the USB port, so no external power adapter required. Plug it into an available USB 3.0 port and you are done. I have mirrored all my important files from the other drives, so I can tuck this one into the corner of my laptop bag when I travel. It "wakes up" from sleep mode much faster than my older externally powered WD drives, another plus. Highly recommended.

great speed of transfer, huge space, small size, good compatibility. Easy to carry and store. Looks good too.

Great way to allocate more need storage for larger files!

Bottom line: Good value for an external drive that's reliable and performs well. My specific use case is as an external HD for my XBSX to store my last-gen games. The performance is good, actually seems a little better on the SX than it was on my One X, and the form factor is great. It's quiet, the one light is inconspicuous, the cable it long enough to provide flexibility in placement but short enough that I need to coil it or have extra that clutters the area. That makes it small enough to fit easily on the same shelf as my console. The price at the time of purchase was the same as the 4TB model so this is an even better value.

Great purchase! Easy and convenient. I've used this type of hard drive before and it is extremely reliable so I ordered it again. I travel frequently and this product makes for easy storage and organization. No surprises!

PROS: I purchased the 5TB with some apprehension as I noted that all brands have a high failure rate. So far, the drive has worked flawlessly. It has worked as advertised (literally a plug and play) for my Windows based system. It is small (almost the same size as the 1TB), fast and incredibly quiet. No heat issues to date. CONS: It could benefit from some anti-slip pads on the bottom surface but you can purchase some at a local hardware store. Occasionally the drive will take 1-2 seconds to re-engage if left dormant but I consider that quite acceptable. The connection cord is on the short side and cannot be easily replaced because of the proprietary connection. Come on WD, why mar an excellent product by leaving off a plug used industry wide? If the unit had a standard connection plug, I would have given it 5 stars.

This WD External Hard Drive is great! With the 5TB storage capacity and 256 AES hardware encryption, it has plenty of storage space for me to securely store my pictures, and documents. Very easy to set up and can easily be configured with a password. It comes with a 3.0 USB cable that can plug into the faster 3.2 USB connections or the slower 2.0 USB because it's backwards compatible. Also has built in software for WD Backup, Security and other WD Utilities for scanning the drive, etc. I particularly like it because of it's small size and portability. 

Works great and is easy to use. Tons of storage space.

This is still the best option for storing music, video and backup files. A single USB cable supplies both the connection and the power. It is like using a thumb drive with tremendous capacity. I also use mine to play video and music, using a MyPin video player, on my TV.

I use this hard drive (along with its 4TB little brother...) exclusively for storing games for my Xbox Series X. It has been great so far. It can play games (Xbox One and earlier) straight from the hard drive. The few times I have played this way, I have had no issues and gameplay was great, however I do not do this very often. Overall, solid hard drive for the price!

Plug and play. Easy no fuss whatsoever. Light and clean. Tons of space available. I usually stick to WD. Great product.

5 TB in such a small package for a great price! What else could you ask for. Works well with my Mac Mini and easy to reformat.

Very sleek design makes this device easy to handle as well as for storage. Super reliable and the Simplicity of plug & store right out of the box makes it ideal for those like myself who are not to proficient with computer technology and devices. 5TB of storage wow super kool and for the price, so in my price range. . Simply Simple & Awesome

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!

The My Passport 5tb external drive works well. You need to update the drivers for it to work with the utilities that come with it, it's a really easy install and works great. There is plenty of space to store what I need plus more. All of the Western Digital external drives have worked well and I'm able to backup my computer to them.

This is my 2nd WD portable hard drive. My first external drive is 10 years old but was only 1TB. My current one is 4TB and much smaller, sleeker than my previous one. It’s easy to set up, just plug in and go! It fits in my pocket and there are no discs needed to setup. Modern design and super-fast transfer. It comes in different colors as well. I highly recommend this product.

When I was born there wasn't 5TB of memory on the entire planet. My 2TB Western Digital USB drive finally died. It cost over $500 and lasted an incredible 12 years. This 5TB drive cost me about $80. I benchmarked it. It reads and writes at 110 MB/s. Far faster than the old one, as long as it's connected to a USB 3.1 port. It is the very best you can get from the most experienced hard drive maker on earth. The other option, if 2TB is enough and $300 doesn't scare you... get the Sandisk 2TB USB SSD. It benchmarks at 330 MB/s connected to the same USB hub as the drive above. It fits easily in a shirt pocket and there's no worry about a slight bump damaging the disk, since it don't has a disk...

I deduct one star for lack of instructions--nothing written, no pdf on the drive. I’ll save you the research: here is what you need to do/know: Mine came formatted for Windows devices. If you first plug it into a mac, surprise! The default “install” icon does NOT set it up for use on a mac, it just installs some WD side programs. You must reformat it. This is easy to do -- 1. On macOS you must find “Disk Utility,” on the left side highlight the WD Passport drive, then Erase. You can choose to format it for mac OS only, or format it “exfat” to use it with both mac and windows. 2. There's only one "not so positive" thing about exFAT, and that's the lack of support for journaling. Journaling is a feature that allows the file system to keep records of changes made to files stored on it. That's useful when data corruption occurs because journals can be used to recover broken data. exFAT doesn't have this feature, and that means that data can be corrupted more easily when unexpected shutdowns occur or when the removable drive formatted this way is not safely ejected. (copied from https://www.digitalcitizen.life/what-is-exfat-why-useful/ ) Once it is formatted, you will love this small quiet drive!

I purchased as I need to back up my laptop now that I am working from home. It was simple to set up. Attach the cord and voila all ready. I did format to work with Apple an my PC. I downloaded the apps for security and was up and running in 10 minutes. It is quick and I did plug it into my Samsung tv to see how it played my HD movies. Worked flawlessly! I am happy with my purchase! I did purchase a longer cable for it as it was dangling from the tv. The customer service team was great and put it in my auto within five minutes of letting them know I was outside for curb service. They also price matched for me!