Western Digital WD 5TB My Passport External Drive

This hard drive is easy to use with no programming necessary for my Mac. Just connect it to the computer and let it do its job. Nice that it has the usb C adapter as well, it is very compact too.

My Passport operates with the ease of a USD drive – which it actually is – but is easier to keep up with. The increase storage capacity is a welcome change from the multiple USB drives.

This model is the latest generation of the many My Passport drives I’ve owned or purchased for clients. 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 when I tested using CrystalDiskMark.

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.

If you want more details, read on…

SUMMARY:
The My Passport USB 3.0 drives are simple to use and come with reasonable software tools and backup/sync software. These are now in a single installer on the drive. I have my own backup solution and do not want encryption on this drive, so have not explored this software. If these are of interest, be sure to check for newer versions on the WD web site.

Pluses:
+ This drive works fine with Windows, Linux or Mac out of the box. With Linux or Mac (where it is read-only with NTFS). They generally performs best when reformatted with a native file system to the respective operating system. Mine came formatted with NTFS for Windows.
+ This generation has 5TB, 4TB, 2TB, and 1TB models. The 500GB models were dropped a couple of generations ago and more recently the 3TB models.
+ This drive is faster than the last generation, but just a little. Up to about 3% faster in benchmarks, but barely noticeable in practical use.
+ The form factor of the new drive is lighter and slightly smaller before with a much nicer case without pointy corners and scratch/fingerprint prone glossy finish.
+ The warranty has been returned to 3 years from 2 years on the 2016 generation.

Minuses:
– It comes with the same very short USB 3.0 cable as previous versions. I like a longer 

3ft (or more) USB 3.0 cable

: a very good upgrade purchase for the My Passport drives.

IN THE BOX:
The My Passport comes in a easy to open retail package containing the drive and a annoyingly short USB 3.0 cable. There are a couple small pieces of paper for warranty and quick-start. That’s it. The cable in this model is the same as previous versions. This may be just fine for a lot of folks but I keep some 

3ft (or more) USB 3.0 cables

 handy for longer runs to my desktop or even on top of a tall computer.

FORM FACTOR vs. PREVIOUS GENERATION:

I’ll compare the new generation of My Passport with my 2016 My Passport Ultra
This Model My Passport’s dimensions:
1TB-2TB: 0.27lb, 4.22in X 0.44in X 2.95in
4TB-5TB: 0.46lb, 4.22in X 0.46in X 2.95in

2016 My Passport’s dimensions:
1TB: 0.37lb, 4.33in X 0.64in X 3.21in
2TB-4TB: 0.54lb, 4.33in X 0.85in X 3.21in

TESTING:
I tested both my older 2016 My Passport 4TB drive and my new My Passport 4TB model using CrystalDiskMark benchmark software and by copying 11GB folder of updates and files to the drive. This was to compare the benchmark with real-world copying. The 11GB folder has a broad mix of file sizes and types including files an over 2GB iso DVD image.

Using CrystalDiskMark I found sequential reads were about 3% faster and writes about 8% faster with the new model. Random reads were just a tiny bit slower and writes were about 8X (!!!) faster. While the benchmarks showed significant differences using them in my real-world copy test the difference was most noticeable with lots of smallish files, but not so much with large sequential reads/writes. If you need to write smallish files this drive is noticeably better than the 2016 model and about the same for large files.

For my testing the My Passport drive was connected to built-in USB 3.0 controller on my Dell 7710 Precision Mobile Workstation. I also tried it on a older add-in card with the Renasas USB 3.0 chip set on my Dell Precision T7500 tower. I have the latest Renasas drivers installed. Both are running build 1903 of Windows 10 Pro and both have SATA SSD boot drives. I used CrystalDiskMark V7 64bit version.

CRYSTALDISKMARK Results:
The New Generation My Passport:
Sequential Read (Q8T1): 129.18 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q8T1): 119.75 MB/s
Sequential Read (Q1T1): 120.37 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q1T1): 118.08MB/s
Random Read (Q32T16): 4KiB 0.6 MB/s
Random Write (Q32T16): 4KiB 10.8 MB/s
Random Read (Q1T1): 4KiB 0.49 MB/s
Random Write (Q1T1): 4KiB 7.8 MB/s

The 2016 My Passport:
The New Generation My Passport:
Sequential Read (Q8T1): 125.5 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q8T1): 113.7 MB/s
Sequential Read (Q1T1): 119.1 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q1T1): 113.7 MB/s
Random Read (Q32T16): 4KiB 0.573 MB/s
Random Write (Q32T16): 4KiB 1.290 MB/s
Random Read (Q1T1): 4KiB 0.505 MB/s
Random Write (Q1T1): 4KiB 1.305 MB/s

REAL WORLD COPY:
In my real world copy test the new My Passport drive was just noticeably faster than the older My Passport Ultra. More on the writing than reading side and more noticeably with smaller files than larger files. It peaked out at about 70MB/s with large files. I never dropped below 35MB/s even with large amounts of small files being copied to the drive. The 2016 My Passport Ultra peaked out at about 68MB/s and dropped several times to 30MB/s.

I’m thinking the newer drive may have a larger on-drive write cache or maybe it’s just a bit faster drive. Maybe both. On big copies the new My Passport may save you a few seconds here or there but if copying a lot of small files to it the difference was much more noticeable.

CONCLUSIONS:
The My Passport line of drives from Western Digital has been very good to me and to my clients. This reliable and good to excellent performing line has a long positive history with me.

This WD My Passport model is an evolution over the 2016 My Passport. I’m picking it for new purchases over the older model, but won’t rush out to replace older drives. I like this 2019 My Passport’s rounded corner case better than the 2016 sharp edged and glossy one, but it’s very minor point for me. Overall it’s an excellent evolution to a 5 star predecessor and continues to be a very good external storage choice.

For making improvements in small file write performance and correcting the 2016 bad case design issue this new 2019 generation of My Passport drives is worth 5 stars in my opinion.

Hope this helps someone!

This WD external hard drive arrived very promptly after ordering in perfect condition in commercial packaging. It is small yet mighty with 4TB of storage space and uses USB to connect to a hub. Works fine. I have used Western Digital products many times over the past 30 years and they have proven to be reliable and relatively long lasting computer hardware. Performance (read-write speeds for data transfer) are fine. Not light speed but perfectly good for a home movie, music and gaming library or backup.