Its combination of solid performance, hardware encryption, and useful utilities makes the 5TB WD My Passport a robust contender for everyday backup of sensitive data or storing a huge collection of videos, photos, and documents. Get details in WD 5TB My Passport Ultra For Mac Review.
Pros & Cons – WD 5TB My Passport Ultra For Mac
PROS
5TB is peak portable single-drive capacity.
Small and lightweight .
AES-256 hardware encryption with password.
Ships with apps for backup/restore, reformatting and checking drive health, and more.
CONS
At asking price , the 5TB version features a higher cost per gigabyte than the 4TB version.
WD 5TB My Passport Ultra For Mac Review
One of the differences between a generic external disk drive and a top contender just like the WD My Passport ($149.99 for the 5TB model tested here) is that the manufacturer’s added effort to form an easy plastic box look attractive. Slightly rounded edges and ripples over a part of the surface give the My Passport drive the design and tactile-friendly feel of a consumer gadget. The ripples also help keep the drive from slipping out of your hand easily. Add a choice of colours , a size which will slot in a shirt pocket, a variety of capacities from 1TB to 5TB (5TB is that the top capacity you’ll get at the instant for a single-drive portable hard drive), and easy-to-find discounts from asking price , and therefore the WD My Passport may be a clear standout and our new Editors’ Choice among high-capacity portable hard drives.
The My Passport a minimum of arguably earns WD’s description of it as “stylish.” The drive I even have for testing, pictured here, is black, but you’ll also get versions formatted for Windows during a red or blue case, or one formatted for the Mac during a darker blue case only. Fit and finish are excellent, with no screws needed to carry the case together and no sharp edges to catch on clothing or a bag. The partially rippled surface covers half both the highest and bottom, running from one corner to the diagonal center line on both, while an understated WD logo occupies the upper right corner of the highest . devour the drive, and it seems like a solid, well-built product.
Aside from the seam that joins the highest and bottom sections of the case together, the sole obvious detail on the graceful sides of the case may be a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the short side (top edge) near the brand . The port uses a Micro-USB Type-B connector to match the included cable (or cables, if you get the Mac version; more thereon during a minute). When the drive is connected and dealing , you’ll see a standing light near the port. confine mind that while you’ll connect the drive to a USB 2.0 port, which will slow data transfer to USB 2.0 speeds.
My Passport drives for Windows come formatted within the NTFS file system; the Mac versions accompany HFS+. You can, of course, reformat either version with the opposite filing system to use the drive with the opposite OS, or reformat with exFAT if you would like to maneuver the drive freely between Windows systems and Macs. Just make certain to copy any files on the drive first, so you’ll copy them back when you’re done.
Capacities, Costs, and Complications
In addition to the 5TB version I tested, WD offers three other capacities for the Windows version of the drive, with list prices of $59.99 for 1TB, $79.99 for 2TB, and $119.99 for 4TB. That equals a price per gigabyte of 6 cents for the 1TB drive, 4 cents for the 2TB model, 2.8 cents for the 4TB unit, and three cents for 5TB. All four models are readily available for fewer at this writing, which provides them lower costs per gigabyte within the world . Even so, the difference in price is so small that it’s hard to justify choosing the 1TB version if there’s any possibility you would possibly someday need 2TB.
Which is better – 4TB or 5TB?
The choice between the 4TB and 5TB drives may be a little more complicated. supported list prices, the marginally higher cost per gigabyte for the larger drive argues against choosing it, but current street prices make the 5TB model an equal or maybe better deal. make certain to ascertain prices for both once you buy to see which one is that the smarter choice thereon particular day. All that said, the 5TB is special therein 5TB is that the single highest-capacity portable drive you’ll get at the instant . WD is not the only maker offering a 5TB portable (Seagate, LaCie, and ADATA even have 5TB portable offerings), but this is often the capacity you would like if what you would like is that the roomiest possible pocketable USB storage.
Note, too, that the My Passport’s size and weight varies with its capacity. All four versions have an equivalent 4.2 by 3-inch footprint, but where the 4TB and 5TB drives are 0.75 inch thick, the 1TB and 2TB devices are a way slimmer 0.44 inch thick, also as an honest deal lighter (4.3 ounces versus 7.4 ounces). That said, even the 5TB drive I had for testing fits comfortably during a shirt pocket. WD touts it because the slimmest 5TB drive within the company’s portfolio.
WD 5TB My Passport Ultra For Mac – is it worth?
The Mac versions of My Passport cost a touch quite their Windows equivalents. More precisely, the asking price is $10 more for the 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB capacities, with the upper price justified by a second cable. Both Mac and Windows versions accompany a USB-A-to-Micro-B cable; the Mac drives add a USB-C-to-Micro-B cable, as well. If you have already got a spare cable, you’ll buy the Windows version, reformat it for HFS+, and save a couple of dollars. there’s no 1TB Mac version, but if you actually need a 1TB Mac drive, you’ll buy the Windows version, find the acceptable cable somewhere, and reformat the drive.
Security and Software
Platter drive technology is mature enough that there’s little difference in performance, reliability, or maybe price from one vendor to subsequent for two .5-inch, 5,400rpm hard drives just like the one inside the My Passport case. that always leaves features like built-in encoding (or the shortage of it) and bundled software because the best reasons to select one brand over another. The My Passport offers a robust argument on both scores.
A serious issue for little , portable drives is that they are easy to lose and there is always an opportunity of their being stolen. If you’ve protected sensitive information—say, all of your financial data plus documents together with your Social Security number and birthday—that’s a nightmare in waiting. The My Passport addresses that potential problem an equivalent way because the Editors’ Choice Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch does, with AES-256 hardware encryption and password protection. Assuming it’s implemented properly, AES-256 is currently considered essentially unbreakable.
To take advantage of the encryption, you merely install and launch the WD Security app that comes on the drive, enter a password, and optionally add a password hint. By default, whenever you connect the drive to a computer or reboot, you will be prompted for the password before you’ll access your data.
You can optionally set the program to automatically unlock the drive for computers you employ regularly. However, you would possibly want to skip that convenience. If you forget the password, there is no thanks to recover it, and you cannot change it without knowing the present password. Reformatting the drive will remove the password and allow you to use the drive again, but doing which will also erase all of your data. The default setting will assist you remember the password by forcing you to enter it on a daily basis.
Both the Windows and Mac versions of the drive accompany assorted utilities for his or her respective operating systems, but if you reformat your drive, you’ll download the utilities for the proper OS from the WD website. Both versions offer most of an equivalent features. The WD Drive Utility allows you to reformat, diagnose the drive condition, and manage the drive’s power use. WD Discovery can download data from cloud storage and social media accounts. WD Backup, for Windows only, can copy to Dropbox also because the My Passport drive. For the Mac, WD relies on Apple machine for backup.
One notable plus is that WD Discovery allows you to download Paragon drivers at no charge, which can allow you to use an NTFS-formatted drive with a Mac or one formatted with HFS+ in Windows. If you connect a drive with a mismatched format to your computer with WD Discovery running, you will see an choice to download the acceptable Paragon driver.
WD 5TB My Passport Ultra For Mac Performance review
The 5TB My Passport turned within the performance you’d expect from a 5,400rpm drive from a reputable manufacturer, coming in tied for first or an in depth second in several of the PC Labs benchmarks below. (Frankly, with little significant difference between first and last place in many of the tests, a win doesn’t suggest much.)
PCMark 7 auxiliary storage Test
The PCMark 7 auxiliary storage test generates a proprietary score supported a mixture of simulated workloads, including a Windows Defender scan, video editing tasks, and application launches.
WD My Passport (2019, 5TB) (PCmark 7 SST)
The My Passport finished an in depth second to the ADATA HD710M Pro, with a score of 1,783 versus 1,822. However, even the slowest drive within the group managed to attain 1,148, which makes the difference from top to bottom too small to matter in most real-world applications.
Crystal DiskMark
Crystal DiskMark, a test of sequential read and write speeds for straight-line transfers of contiguous data, represents a best-case scenario for platter drives. Results are in megabytes per second (MBps).
WD My Passport (2019, 5TB) (Crystal DiskMark Sequential Reads and Writes)
The 5TB My Passport may be a close second here for sequential reads and tied for an in depth third for sequential writes. But in both tests, four of the five drives are about even for practical purposes.
PCMag Folder Transfer Test
For our own folder transfer test, we use a MacBook Pro laptop. This drag-and-drop test consists of copying a typical 1.2GB folder from the Mac to the test drive, with the results shown in what percentage seconds it took to end the work .
WD My Passport (2019, 5TB) (Folder Transfer Test)
The LaCie Mobile Drive and Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch posted a photograph finish in 11 seconds, with the opposite three drives, including the WD My Passport, taking 12 seconds. Again, the difference is more or less too small to note .
BlackMagic 3.1 Disk Speed Test
The BlackMagic utility measures a drive’s throughput in MBps for reading and writing various video formats. you will not be surprised to ascertain the results were once more extremely close.
WD My Passport (2019, 5TB) (Blackmagic)
The Seagate earned bragging rights for the fastest transfer rate for disk writes and tied for first place for disk reads. However, the LaCie drive was an in depth second overall, with the ADATA HD710M Pro an in depth third. The 5TB My Passport was a tad faster than the ADATA for writes and tiny quite a tad slower for reads.
Hits the Spot for Max Capacity
Unless you would like a ruggedized drive to face up to rough treatment, the WD My Passport checks off all the proper boxes for an external portable disk drive . Its performance is on par with the competition; the built-in hardware encryption and bundled utilities enhance its usability; and it doesn’t hurt that it’s good, too. If all you would like is 1TB or 2TB of storage, it can go toe to toe with the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch, the winner being the one that’s selling for fewer on any given day. And if you would like more capacity, the My Passport can get you as many terabytes as today’s tech allows during a portable, making it an Editors’ Choice for high-capacity portable hard drives.
