(Old Model) WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive with Auto Backup, Black

I recently started going through all old home videos and pictures, and aggregating them onto my home (RAID mirrored) server. I bought this little (physical size) hard drive for one reason: to backup that data on the server. While the data is mirrored on the servers hard drives, those two hard drives are in close proximity and are susceptible to failure from external sources (electrical/thunder, water, fire, etc). The reason why I paid more and went with a small hard drive (2.5") as opposed to a full-sized hard drive (3.5") was for the ability to store the hard drive into a safety deposit box. Now if you do some research, hard drives aren't great for long term storage that is disconnected. If you attempt this method I add the caveat that you should connect the hard drive to a machine once in a while. I personally plan on updating the files every 4-6 months."But C.Rogers, why would you do this when there is cloud storage!?". Simple, privacy and speed. Cloud storage is over the internet and subsequently is limited by the fastest upload speed your internet provider gives you. It is further limited by any bottle-necks the data hits along the way to it's destination. When you're talking about backing up terabytes of data, this is already a turn off as it would take a huge amount of time (a week or more?) to upload initially. Granted after that it can do incremental back up's that won't take nearly as long, that leads me to my next problem, privacy. There are two aspects I worry about, non-encrypted transmission and legality/security of the service (who really owns the data on their servers, and how secure is it really?). Does the service provide the ability to encrypt the uploads and downloads so no one in between can look at my data? Does the data stay encrypted on their servers? When push comes to shove, who owns the data once it's on their servers? Finally how secure is the service from being hacked? While all these questions have answers that would probably sway me toward cloud storage, the fact that they exist at all means there are far more variables than I'm comfortable with. More variables mean higher percentage of problems arising from unforeseen scenarios. You know whose going to hack this hard drive when its not in my possession? A bank robber. Done."You said it's fast? How fast?". To that I can't comment fully as I don't have a machine with USB 3.0. Best I can offer is USB 2.0. To that end I can mention that I'm getting an average of 20 megabytes (not megabits*) per second writing and about 27 megabytes per second reading.Compatibility: Confirmed working on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2007 without issue.Construction: Feels solid, nice little rubber pads on the bottom. Still a hard drive though, I wouldn't go dropping it.Noise: Church Mouse statusBloatware: Minimal. It comes with Western Digital's management and back up software installed (totaling 254 MB on the hard drive). I imagine I could delete it, but I see no need. In fact I might need some of it in the future. Additionally, it's not "in your face" as soon as you plug it in. There if you want it, but silent if you don't.Other notes: The wire it comes with is about 12 inches long. If this is your first USB 3.0 device, be aware that it is a different wire than USB 2.0 1.1 and 1.0. While I believe USB 2.0 and previous micro wires will work, you will not get USB 3.0 speeds. Thus if you need a longer cable and want USB 3.0 speeds, you will need to order one separately.tl;dr:+Great hard drive for a reasonable price.+Small enough to store in a safety deposit box.+Speeds of 27 MB/s read and 20 MB/s write on USB 2.0.+No real bloatware, just additional utilities included on the hard drive totaling 254 MB's.*+Pretty quiet.-USB 3.0 cable provided is only 12" long.*did not use the auto or cloud backup options, can not comment.

I own a few external hard drives that require electrical outlets for power. Cuts down on the mobility. My biggest concern in purchasing this particular drive was that there seemed to be a lot of ambiguity regarding whether or not it would work with Macs. In fact, I even asked the question..."Will this work with my Macbook?" and someone posted a simple "No." That was helpful. Didn't give any personal anecdotes to back up that answer...just simply, no. After reading many more reviews and doing more research of my own, I decided that customer may have accidentally answered my question when they were actually thinking they were answering another customers question regarding whether or not Matrix Revolutions was a good movie. So I took a risk and purchased this little gem and strangely enough...it worked on my Macbook Pro right out of the box. I did format the drive so that I can export large files and use with Macs and PCs (if anyone would want to do that sort of thing.) And if you want to learn more about that, you can check this out:[...]But besides that...it was ready to use right away without any issues at all. I love it. Simple, easy to take anywhere...lightning fast...able to export ginormous files at once. The price is great. Oh...and did I mention that it WORKS GREAT with Macs?

Let me start my review by saying that I am your average reviewer with a solid understanding of technology but I am by no means an expert. The best review of this product has already been written by "gravemind" At the time that I am typing this review, Gravemind's review was second from the top when sorted by "most helpful" Read that review.... it will answer many questions that I didn't even think to ask when I bought this.Okay, that said, here's my review.... I am giving this 5 stars based SOLELY on the fact that these store my photo files and have done so without incident for a few years now. I am a photographer with an insane number for photo files. I own about ten of these drives in both 1tb and 1tb sizes. I also own drives from other companies. I import my photos using lightroom and have them go to two of these drives. If I was smart I would have a third drive hooked up just to be safe, but alas, the USB ports on my current computer died a couple of years ago so I am somewhat limited. I know, I know, I could plug in a 3.0 hub. I just haven't done it yet.So these drives store my photo files and they read and write very fast. I am almost afraid to type that I haven't so far gotten any read or write errors because now probably my whole system will go to hell. Still, for now, they're great.I have never managed to get their backup system to work for me and I suppose I should deduct a star for that but frankly I never really planned on using their backup system. It would be nice, but I can't at all figure it out.BOTTOM LINE: if you need solid feeling and performing backup drives and you don't much care about the bundled software, these drives are a five star experience. If you are looking for the software as well, look elsewhere.