Which is worth buying – WD My Passport Ultra VS My Passport? My Passport is warranted for 3 years. A 5TB model costs $125.99 on Amazon; £112.99 within the UK from Scan. The 1TB model is $47.00 (£46.05.)
This pricing makes them affordable for desktop, notebook and low-intensity gaming systems. High-intensity gamers will do better with external SSD storage. the remainder folks can enjoy 5TB capacity for $0.026/GB. Cheap as chips.
However, 5TB of slightly faster (5,526rpm) spinning Seagate Backup Plus Portable auxiliary storage , which is shingled also , costs $109.99 (£98.66) on Amazon; cheaper still.
My Passport Ultra comes with metal cover innovative style and relatively slim & small which is straightforward to handle and confine handy as compare to My Passport.
Another difference is My Passport Ultra is USB-C ready, USB 3.0 compatible and formatted for Windows 10 to with plug-and-play storage out of the box. It also includes with NTFS driver for macOS so you’ll work on macOS OS without reformatting. While you’ve got to reformat My Passport into compatible file format so as to use it on macOS.
Apart from above, both accompany WD Discovery software for WD Backup, WD Security and WD Drive Utilities.
WD My Passport Ultra VS My Passport – which is more secure?
WD also sells the My Passport Ultra drive. What’s the difference? A WD spokesperson said: “The My Passport drives are the simplest choice for many everyday consumers. The 5TB My Passport drive is really the slimmest of its capacity within the WD lineup. For those trying to find a more premium portable disk drive , the My Passport Ultra features a contemporary metal design and USB-C technology out of the box. Both drives offer a three-year limited warranty and WD Discovery software (including social media and cloud importing, WD Backup and 256-bit AES hardware encryption).”
Power comes through a USB port: USB-C for Macs, and USB 3.2 Gen 1 for Windows. there’s 256-bit AES encryption and built-in password protection.
The device features a SATA interface, spins at 5,400rpm, and therefore the actual capacities available are 1TB, 2 TB, 4TB and 5TB, using 1TB platters.
The drive dimensions are;
1-2TB – Length:107.2mm, Width: 75mm, Height: 11.15mm, Weight: 120g
4-5TB – Length:107.2mm, Width: 75mm, Height: 19.15mm, Weight: 210
The 4TB and 5TB drive’s extra thickness and near doubled weight reflects the 2 extra platters inside. The case is part-diagonally ribbed and available in blue for Mac and black, red and a special blue for Windows.
Transfer rate
The 5TB drive, claimed to be the thinnest such drive available, uses drive-managed shingling. This slows the info rewrite process as blocks of tracks need to be read, the info altered, then the block re-written to the drive. Fresh data writes to empty tracks proceed as normal.
Large sequential files are accepted by the drive and written with no interruption. Smaller randomly-addressed files are stored temporarily during a cache then , when the drive is idle, written call at a sequential manner, with address translation to hurry the writing process.
WD’s Discovery software provides management functions, and enables the drive, with included Backup utility, to backup host system files on a settable schedule. It also can backup Facebook, Dropbox and Google Drive (cloud) account data, like photos, videos, music and documents. Data is transferred to and from the drive at up to 5Gbit/s. In practice meaning , , 100 to 115MB/sec when reading large sequential files.
Writing such files over deleted files are going to be slower due to the shingled media effect. In other words, the 5TB drive will seem slower because it fills up and files get deleted to form space for newer ones. The 4TB drive shouldn’t suffer from this effect.
Should you buy Passport portable – WD My Passport Ultra VS My Passport?
Why the portable? Mainly that both drives have the precise same specifications, with two small exceptions.
Exception 1: The Ultra features a metal case whereas the Portable features a plastic case. I haven’t seen any difference in durability with either model.
Exception 2: The Ultra has an App called WD Discovery Online User Guide , which allows you to connect with a few Cloud Storage sites and replica the contents right down to the drive automatically. the sole advantage is it are often automated, otherwise just hook up with Dropbox or Google and drag and drop the files you would like onto your passport drive.
