WD 1 TB Elements Portable Hard Drive

Very compact and easy to use at a very competitive price for 2TB. I bought this specifically to take my PS4 games off the internal PS5 SSD but I didn't want to get a 'game drive' specific one as I would have more freedom if I wanted to partition it and backup some PC files as well. The setup couldn't have been easier, I took it out of the box, plugged it in and the PS5 recognised it instantly. I had to format the drive before I could use it which I thought might take a few minutes at most but only took 5 seconds, then I selected around 360GB of PS4 games/apps and started the transfer. After the format I had 1.8TB free which is more than enough and with all drives they need space for their base operating software which is usually a small fraction off the stated capacity, a lot of people clearly don't understand this from some of the reviews complaining they got less capacity than they purchased -_- The transfer was speed really good for a physical drive, better than I was expecting, it took just over an hour for it to finish moving the whole 350+GB to the external drive. My PS5 told me once that the drive wasn't removed properly after powering on after being in rest mode, I didn't remove the drive at all so I'm not sure why it said that. This error message has only come up once and happened the first time the console had been in rest mode with the new drive connected. The console has been in rest mode and turned off multiple times after this message and hasn't given me the error since so it may just be a one time thing. I'll update this review if I come across any issues. Loading PS4 games from the External as opposed to launching them from the internal SSD was a little bit slower. All times below were timed from the point of clicking resume on my game file to actually getting into the game. - Resident Evil 7 took 77sec to load which I'd played the day before on the PS5 SSD which probably took under 30 seconds. In-game the performance was perfect, no frame drop, no noticeable delay on textures rendering in. - Horizon Zero Dawn took 30-40sec which was actually quicker than RE7 despite being a huge open world game, the in-game performance was perfect too even with the 60FPS patch. - God of War took 29 seconds to load into the game. - Batman Arkham Knight took just 32 seconds to load my save and get into the game. - Mortal Shell took just 20 seconds to load into the game. - Call of Duty Modern Warfare took 56 seconds to load into the game from chapter selection.

This WD external hard drive is small, lightweight and very easy to use. It works straight out of the box with plug and play on Windows, and it only takes a quick reformat to use with Mac. The 1TB storage is plenty for photos, videos, documents and backups. Transfer speeds are fast with USB 3.0, and files copy smoothly without any issues. It feels well made and reliable, and it fits easily in a pocket or bag for travel. Overall, this is a great option if you want simple, portable and dependable storage at a very reasonable price. I would definitely recommend it.

Quietly Does Its Job Like a Digital Hero This WD 2TB Elements hard drive is not flashy. It doesn’t light up, beep, or demand attention. It simply shows up, holds all your stuff, and asks for nothing in return—and honestly, that’s the kind of energy I need in my life. Setup was plug-and-play easy. I plugged it in, my computer immediately recognized it, and suddenly all my photos, videos, work files, and “I’ll organize this later” folders had a safe place to live. Transfer speeds over USB 3.0 are fast, it runs quietly, and it’s small enough to toss into a bag without feeling like I’m carrying a brick. It’s been reliable, stays cool, and hasn’t given me a single scare—which is exactly what you want from something holding 2TB of your digital existence. No drama. No nonsense. Just storage doing storage things very well. If you need extra space and peace of mind, this drive delivers.

I am 71 and know next to nothing anout computers, but I don't suppose I'm alone in that, so perhaps the following might be of use. I hope so. This was almost too straight-forward! I expected it to be "plug and play" but no instructions came up on the screen when I did so. After some time I discovered that it was detected by my (Windows11) PC, under "This PC", but I was at a loss how to make it "work". Eventually, after referring to Chat GPT, I discovered that you simply "drag and drop" any files/documents/pictures onto it. When I became more confident I dragged and dropped my entire "My Documents", onto it, which it swallowed up in a very few minutes. I was relieved to find that they were indeed copied onto the device, and not transferred onto it; my Documents remained on my PC. I am now wondering how it "knows" when I have made a small amendment to a single document next time I do a backup, or whether it will copy my entire Documents all over again, which seems a terrible waste of effort. Finally, I wondered whether there was a minor fault because it had a memory available of 1.81TB all through my experimenting with it, but then, having swallowed pretty much my entire life's work, it now says 1.80 TB. In other words, all my documents, files, pictures and videos have taken up one 181st of its available memory. I could probably have made do with the 1TB version! In summary, a good device but we older customers would appreciate a modicum of basic instruction.

Does what it says on the package

Comes in fairly minimal packaging - drive, cable and a simple quick-start/support telephone and guarantee fold-out page, all held inside a clear plastic padding structure in a printed box. Just plug it in and the drive appears on Windows machines but you'll need to reformat for use with a Mac, otherwise you won't be able to use the drive. Compact dimensions - slimmer than I was expecting for a 5TB drive as they usually have a higher platter count and the drives are thicker - not so in this case. Nice polished edge to the plastic case and textured elsewhere - looks modern and up to date. I found the USB cable had quite a positive feel when pushed into the drive (wide micro-B type typical of most portable 2.5" USB drives). Cable length typical of branded external drives - maybe a little longer but need to measure (I'm guessing it's about 35 to 40cm). Very quiet - can't hear the spindle motor or any head movement. Transfer rates easily peaking over 90MBytes/sec on a disk to disk transfer over standard USB 3 - it's obviously capable of more but I don't have disk caching turned on. Regarding negative comments about the disk size, it reports as 5 trillion bytes free and as a terabyte is defined as 10^12 bytes, i.e. a trillion bytes, so the claim of 5TB is absolutely correct. A Tebibyte however is strictly defined as 2^40 bytes, i.e. 1,099,511,627,776 bytes. 5 trillion bytes divided by 1099511627776 is 4.54 tebibytes - that's what's being reported as the free space alongside the 5 trillion byte figure in Windows . Windows designation "TB" is not Terabytes, it's Tebibytes. If I look at a 4TB drive, similarly there's 4 trillion free bytes so it is a 4 terabyte drive but windows also shows a figure of 3.63TB which is 3.63 Tebibytes, i..e 4 trillion divided by 1099511627776.

I was in the market for a portable hard drive as my laptop has limited storage. Additionally, working on multiple devices, it is an easy way to transport documents, enabling them to be opened and edited at a time and place to suit. WD was a brand recommended to me by the technician who services my computer equipment, so I felt confident in selecting the brand. After reading up on a number of alternatives I decided on 1TB unit by Western Digital. This was competitively priced and wasn't much more expensive than one with half the capacity, so it was a no brainer. Once opened, simply plug in to your device using the USB lead provided and away you go. For example, if you have a word document open that you wish to save to the drive, simply press “save as”, locate the WD on your control panel, open the folder and click “save”. I have to say that this is perfect for my requirements. The unit is very compact, has a large memory capacity and stores all of my personal and important documents off of my computer’s inbuilt storage. It has also increased the speed of my laptop by transferring these documents from my computer, which was an added bonus. Best Uses : To free up space and back up your laptop’s (or other device’s) internal hard drive. Pros : Excellent value, compact size, easy to set up, sleek, compatible with Windows 10. Cons : None. In summary : A very good, competitively priced portable hard drive. I hope you found my review helpful and would love for you to click “yes” if you did.

Time will tell how good this drive is but I've got many WD drives and have never been let down (yet - famous last words!). I purchased it to use as a TV recorder for my grandfather (on a Toshiba TV) and it worked straight out of the box. It was well packaged. As with all drives, it doesn't actually have the capacity stated (you will never be able to put 1TB of items on a 1TB drive for example due to formatting and software that's preinstalled on it), but that's true of ALL drives. Some advice if using it, as I have, for a TV - it will likely need formatting (I was fortunate mine didn't) and the formatting required depends upon your TV. Read your TV's user manual or simply type its model number and 'what file format' into Google to find out. Then plug the hard drive into a laptop/computer, select it on your device, right-click it and go down to 'format', select the appropriate format for your TV and 'start', and away you go. Most times, when people find it doesn't work with the intended device, it is because it hasn't been formatted to the correct file type (this can be true of computers too). Additionally, some file types can store more information than others, so if you're trying to record a movie for example, depending on the file type you've selected, it may record one file, or it may have to break the movie up into several smaller files. If that happens - it's not the fault of the hard drive! Also, if using with a Toshiba TV, it can be hard to find how to access it - that's the fault of the TV software, not the hard drive. (We found the setting hidden under 'Home button' > 'settings' > 'recordings'). My 5 other WD drives are anything between 5 and 13 years old, all between 1 and 4TB, 2 are portable and would be taken to and from work every day for years on end, bashed around in bags (I'm not gentle with them) often not in a protective case (they can be purchased if needed), and I've had not a single issue to date. They have all had very heavy use, with hundreds of files being used, edited, and deleted every day and so I expect this drive will be as hardy... But remember: They're electronic devices and they CAN FAIL (I've had other brand drives fail) so if you are using it for anything IMPORTANT, ensure you make backup copies of files either to a second drive or to a cloud-based drive (for photos, Amazon Photos is free and unlimited for Prime members - but you only get 5GB free for videos, and other documents aren't supported - for that, try Google Drive and One Drive but again, the free service is limited in size). Cloud-based drives can be accessed from anywhere in the world but can be hacked - but physical backups can be lost in house fires etc so if you have both a drive and its backup in the same location they could both be lost, as happened to my family. I have both physical backups and cloud-based backups because I have hundreds of thousands of files. As this is only being used to record TV occasionally, I should imagine it will still be working fine in 30 years time! Though if it should fail, I'll come back to edit this review ;-)

Bardzo pojemny magazyn pamięci

I recently purchased the WD 4TB Elements Portable USB 3.0 High Capacity Hard Drive and I am extremely satisfied with my purchase. The drive is compact and easy to use - just plug it into my computer's USB port and I'm good to go. The 4TB of storage is more than enough for my needs, and the transfer speeds are reasonable for a standard 5400rpm HDD.. One thing that initially concerned me was the drive's tendency to get hot during use. However, I have used it extensively over the past few weeks and have not experienced any issues with overheating. In terms of value, I believe the WD 4TB Elements Portable USB 3.0 High Capacity Hard Drive offers excellent value for the price and the high capacity and decent transfer speeds make it well worth the investment. If you need a lot of storage on the go and are looking for a reliable and high-performance option, I highly recommend the WD 4TB Elements Portable USB 3.0 High Capacity Hard Drive.

Excelente producto! Lo compre y decidí usarlo como respaldo dónde guardé muchas fotos y documentos y me olvidé de él por completo. Este mes decidí descargar todos esos documentos de otra memoria externa que tenía y descubrí que todos mis archivos se habia perdido. Me puse muy triste hasta que me acordé de esta memoria externa y gracias a Dios todo estaba ahí intacto! La verdad si vale la pena tener memorias externas de excelente calidad, y varias, por si acaso. Me salvó la vida!

Utilisateur, depuis plusieurs décennies, d’informatique et par voie de conséquence de disques durs ; dans cette catégorie, je considère les WD comme le top des disques « classiques » à plateaux. Leur fiabilité et leur durée de vie sont parmi les meilleures du marché ( je n’ai jamais eu un disque dur WD crashé !). Cette version « Elements » est compacte, légère et silencieuse, et ne nécessite pas, comme les gros disques 3.5 pouces, d’alimentation externe. Commandé et reçu très vite (Bravo et merci Amazon pour le service). L’emballage du disque est parfaitement d’origine, scellé et protégé, accompagné d’une notice et du câble USB 3. Ce type , micro B, étant surtout utilisé avec ce type de disque dur, je recommande de le laisser connecté en permanence au disque, ce qui évitera de l’endommager. Sitôt reçu, testé : Déjà formaté en NTFS Windows, il y a juste à le brancher. Attention, si destiné au MAC, il faudra le formater par le MAC avec l’utilitaire disque si on ne l’utilise qu’avec un MAC. Si destiné à être utilisé à la fois sur PC et sur MAC, il faudra un logiciel de « conversion NTFS » sur le MAC (comme Paragon ou Tuxera) et le laisser en NTFS (c’est ce que je fais). Les tests : vérification état du disque avec outil Windows, du SMART avec AIDA, et des vitesses avec CrystalDiskInfo. Tous les tests sont OK, on voit que le disque n’a été allumé que 2 fois, ce qui prouve le contrôle des disques après fabrication (NB : made in Thailand et non China !). Pour la vitesse en USB3, les valeurs sont de 120 MB/s, ce qui est très correct. J’ai sauvegardé 580 Go de photos en 3 heures, en silence total et sans échauffement important. Je voudrais ici, apporter quelques informations complémentaires, contre-vérités destinées à certains utilisateurs insatisfaits, notamment concernant les capacités de ces disques. J’ai vraiment l’impression que certains « découvrent » les disques durs externes ! Il ne s’agit en aucune façon de tromperies, mensonges ou arnaques. Il faut simplement savoir qu’il s’agit d’une différence de langage et de mathématiques ! Tous les fabricants de disques ( classiques, SSD, clés USB…) comptent la capacité en DECIMAL ( Base 10 ). Un Téraoctet (To) est l’équivalent de 1 000 000 000 000 octets. Les programmes, comme les système d’exploitation, cas de WINDOWS, utilisent les système de numérotation binaire ( Base 2) . Dans ce système, 1 To est équivalent à 1 099 511 627 776 octets. En fait, les 2 équivalent à la même capacité réelle. C’est comme si on mesurait une distance en Km et en Miles : les valeurs sont différentes, mais la distance réelle est la même. Pour les usagers MAC, les valeurs sont bien indiquées en décimal, Base 10, ce qui fait que la capacité donnée par le fabricant se retrouve réellement sur le MAC. C’est surtout Windows qui aurait dû modifier son « Go » dans l’unité standardisée en 1998 : le Kilo Binaire. Exemple : Un Gibioctet (Gio) = 1 073 741 824 octets Un Tébioctet (Tio) = 1 099 511 627 776 octets Si cela avait été modifié en Gio et Tio, il n’y aurait plus d’interrogation et de doute. En fait, si on regarde dans les « Propriétés » des disques la valeur en octets est donnée et correspond bien à la capacité du disque. Pour confirmer ceci, par exemple un fichier de 25 Mo sur MAC, devient 23,4 Mo sous windows. Autres bizarreries dans les commentaires : Une dizaine de films enregistrés, remplissent complètement un disque de 5 To. Cela semble impossible, car si on prend les plus gros films en 4K UltraHD+ BluRay, ils font au maxi 90 Go. Soit environ 1 To la dizaine !! on est loin de la saturation. Egalement, quand je lis « impossible de formater en FAT32 un disque de 4 To…… bien sûr que cela n’est pas possible , ce système est limité dèjà à moins de 4 Go pour les fichiers. Il faut être en NTFS ou en ExFAT, qui n’ont pas les mêmes limites. Je fais généralement peu de commentaires sur ce que j’achète, mais au vu de ces commentaires « négatifs » je souhaitais intervenir. Je n’ai aucun lien avec WD et autres fabricants, mais j’utilise pas mal de disques ou autres procédés de stockage, mais tous sont des fabricants reconnus et fiables. En résumé, ce disque de grande capacité est d’un excellent rapport qualité/prix et mérite ces 5 étoiles. Je suis souvent étonné que certains mettent 4 étoiles et qq fois 3, alors que leur commentaire est positif. A partir du moment où un produit réuni TOUTES les qualités attendues : Livraison, emballage, utilisation, fiabilité, etc SANS réserves, il n’ y a pas lieu de mettre autre chose que 5 étoiles. Désolé d’avoir été un peu long, mais le sujet en valait la peine.

TL;dr – it works great. Treat it with respect, be prepared to toss the cable it comes with (because they fail) and enjoy a huge amount of storage for a reasonable amount of money. You’ve probably read a ton of reviews on external drives and have arrived here. I’ve been in the tech biz over 44 years and was there when 128Kbyte 8” floppy disks were considered advanced. I’ve used a LOT of different drives. Let’s put this drive into perspective: it is NOT a “portable drive”, it’s an external drive that you can choose to move from place to place. AS WITH ALL SUCH DRIVES, it contains precision moving parts; if you drop it, it will likely break. If you move it around when it’s operating, it probably won’t like it. If you drop your laptop, it will likely break. If you want an external drive that you can really move around, get an SSD. I purchased one of these drives for cloud-storage and archival purposes. Simply put, I needed somewhere to dump large data collections for essentially read-only access as well as having a buffer area for cloud storage synchronization purposes (lots of r/w access to the drive). It worked so well I purchased another and might even get a 3rd. Cloud storage is great for frequently accessed data, but for your video collection, your vast music collection or the 130GB of pictures your spouse took last month, you might want off-line storage. This is a great choice. Is it fast? Slower than an SSD but faster than many external hard drives out there. If you want speed, use the local SSD in your device or get an external SSD drive. If you don’t want that expense, this is still a great drive. In operation the drive is whisper quiet and runs slightly warm. You may have read about the “click of death”, well, yeah, it happened to me too. It won’t run on an overloaded unpowered USB hub (click, click due to lack of power). The cable it comes with is frankly troublesome and honestly you should invest in a replacement. Yup, click, click, click because the cable failed (fortunately I had another to hand, doesn’t everyone?). All that will happen with other drives too, so it’s nothing unusual. My system: Win10 Pro and Win10 Home on Lenovo, Surface Books and Surface Pro; works out of the box just fine. For those complaining that the drive doesn’t work with some backup software; that’s not the drives fault. For those complaining about the speed for gaming purposes, that’s not the drives’ fault either, you should have purchased an SSD. Yes, it will work with Onedrive; just create a junction from your Onedrive folder to the required folder in the external drive. mklink /J srcFolder destFolder Since you have a large capacity drive for large data sets, robocopy (part of Windows) will be your friend as well as mklink to create junctions from your main drive to connection points in external drives filesystems. What happens if the drive goes down? As with any other drive, you might have lost your data. The solution is to (gasp) purchase two drives and sync one with the other. Pro’s: 5TB of storage for <$100. Quiet, fast and gets the job done. It’s a disk drive, it’s not there to be exciting. Con’s: I didn’t like the cable; invest $6 on a better one. As with ALL DRIVES, you need to treat it nicely.