WD My Passport Ultra (2TB, 7th Gen)

[HEXUS]

Bags of storage, capable performance and cute colour options.

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[Gronich26]

Having used 1TB & 2TB drives over the last 5 years I do wish they would get a grip with the vibrations these drives produce i.e. Where is the most likely place you are going to put them - on top of a metal PC case were it resonates loudly. Yes, they have small rubber feet but they come off while being carried in a bag.

Love'm but just fix these niggles.

[Rob_B]

I don't see how anyone can innovate in the portable HDD space, so I don't imaging a review in a years time will offer any difference in performance metrics either. Is this worth £15 more than a competitors product? Probably not for a lot of people, I think the 'portable USB HDD' range has peaked but I'd love to be proven wrong.

[ByteMyAscii]

If the grips offered an integrated cable, then they in my view would be a more appealing prospect.
That way you get the convenience of the integration, avoiding the need for a loose cable while maintaining the ability to change it for another should the cable get damaged.
That is a concern with my ageing Freecom model, where it is integrated but non-removable and showing its age with physical damage to the outside.
I suppose without faster drives at a premium, then we wont see any improvements to their speed.
Flash would I think be the way forward, but until the price premium is much reduced, these will still have a market.

[azrael-]

I'm using a 500 GB earlier model My Passport along with several 1 TB drives of a more recent model of its slightly cheaper sibling, the Elements Portable to extend the storage on my Panasonic BD/HDD recorder which supports USB 2.0.

I'm specifically not buying drives with more space because they draw more power (more platters). This can be an issue because even though the WD drives are backward compatible with USB 2.0 they still rely on USB 3.0 power delivery (0.5A for USB 2.0 vs. 0.9A for USB 3.0) and they rely on that power to be provided by the host device.

In short, make sure your host device can deliver sufficient power before splurging out on high capacity bus powered drives. Just something to keep in mind if you have a similar usage scenario.

[Athlon™ eX]

I would like to add another "bad" item to the list...

WD tends to use HDD's with semi-native USB interface, I mean if the USB controller failed ( and it happened a lot with WD ), then you're out of luck, you can't connect the SATA drive to another USB controller or directly to a PC because there's no SATA port inside, the only port is the micro USB port you see... the USB controller is built into HDD board it self and you will need a lot of electric engineering knowledge to figure out where is the SATA point so you can weld them and bla bla bla.. yeah that's complicated...

[Neostar]

I would like to add another "bad" item to the list...

WD tends to use HDD's with semi-native USB interface, I mean if the USB controller failed ( and it happened a lot with WD ), then you're out of luck, you can't connect the SATA drive to another USB controller or directly to a PC because there's no SATA port inside, the only port is the micro USB port you see... the USB controller is built into HDD board it self and you will need a lot of electric engineering knowledge to figure out where is the SATA point so you can weld them and bla bla bla.. yeah that's complicated...

This is also why I continue to avoid these types of drives now. I use an Orico external enclosure with standard 2.5" drive which is way more reliable, if it ever fails I just take the drive out and put it in another one

[Slothy]

I'm concerned about heat issues with this drive - seen some feedback suggesting they get a lot hotter than earlier WD drives. Any measurements / observations about this? I would also have liked some benchmark comparisons against equivalent drives. Looking at a Seagate Backup Slim drive myself, has a Samsung drive inside.