Western Digital 2TB My Passport Portable SSD, 1050MB/s R, 1000MB/s W, Upto 2 Meter Drop Protection, HW Encryption, Type-C Cable & Type-A Adaptor,…

From the brand like this one should get two separate cables not that connector to convert USB C to normal USB. That connector is prone to misplace and get faulty as to its material and form factor is concerned

Ho acquistato questo hard disk WD My Passport SSD portatile 4 TB perché avevo esaurito lo spazio sul mio vecchio WD Passport meccanico da 2 TB, arrivato sigillato perfettamente ed integro l’ho messo subito alla prova e ho notato che collegato via USB A non è molto veloce, ovvero non raggiunge i 1.050 MB/s promessi, li raggiunge solo se collegato ad USB C (3.2 Gen). Io l’ho collegato alla mia porta USB 3.0 facendo attenzione al verso delle freccette. Per fortuna la Western Digital ha fatto un cavetto a senso unico nel senso che non si può sbagliare l’inserimento dell’adattatore USB C -> USB A perché ci sono delle scannellature nei connettori che ne impediscono l’inserimento nel verso sbagliato ed in ogni caso ci sono le freccette che indicano il corretto allineamento dei cavetti. Arriva formattato in exFAT il ché comporta che tutti i file copiati avranno 2 secondi in più rispetto all’origine e per ovviare al problema ho riformattato il disco WD My Passport SSD in NTFS. Adesso le date dei file sono integre e a poco a poco ho fatto la copia di 3 TB di dati avendo cura ogni 80 GB di dati copiati di fare una pausa di 10 minuti per permettere al disco WD My Passport SSD di rientrare nelle temperature normali. Il mio problema che ho avuto è che ho due hard disk WD RED con rotazione 5.400 RPM, dunque sono molto affidabili ma sono lenti e da qui l’effetto collo di bottiglia perché il WD My Passport SSD è molto veloce (circa 460 mb/s se collegato ad USB 3.0) ma viene rallentato dalla velocità di lettura del disco sorgente che come dicevo è un WD RED meccanico che non supera i 185 MB/s. Dunque il vero problema di cui ho letto nelle recensioni circa la lentezza non è addebitabile al WD My Passport SSD ma dal disco da cui si sta tentando la copia che limita la velocità in scrittura. Infatti copiando file dal mio disco di sistema Samsung 850 EVO PRO SSD fa esattamente 460 MB/s in lettura/scrittura sul WD My Passport SSD. Il guscio è in lega di metallo, resistente alle cadute, agli urti ed è talmente piccolo che sta comodamente dentro un taschino della giacca o della camicia. Arriva corredato dal seguente materiale:

✔ WD My Passport SSD
✔ Cavetto USB C -> USB C
✔ Adattatore USB C -> USB A
✔ Garanzia

Procuratevi una prolunga USB altrimenti non potrete usarlo perché il cavetto è di circa 15 cm di lunghezza dunque impossibile da usare senza una adeguata prolunga USB. Sono piacevolmente colpito dalla solidità costruttiva di questo microscopico hard disk che altro non è che una memoria SSD inserita in un guscio di metallo. Nota del 25.04.2023: oggi pomeriggio ho ricollegato il mio WD My Passport SSD e dopo 3 ore di copiatura file ho scollegato l’hard disk che era diventato caldissimo (per fargli fare una pausa di raffreddamento) e dopo 30 minuti l’ho ricollegato, ad un certo punto mi sono accorto che la velocità era scesa a 40 MB/s fissa, non saliva nemmeno pregando, così ho scambiato le porte del mio PC ed ho scoperto che in un’altra porta USB 3.0 il disco era tornato a fare 460 MB/s di velocità, a questo punto decido di ispezionare la porta che va lenta con un programmino portabile che si chiama USBDeview e scopro che la porta USB 3.0 in questione era vista in modalità compatibilità, a questo punto mangio la foglia, ovvero con USBDeview disinstallo la porta USB 3.0 dove era collegato il mio WD My Passport SSD e così l’hard disk viene espulso, lo scollego anche fisicamente dalla porta in questione e lo ricollego alla stessa porta USB 3.0, faccio un test di velocità sulla stessa porta che prima non andava e il mio WD My Passport SSD torna come per magia a fare 460 MB/s!!! Si era sconfigurata la porta dove era attaccato l’hard disk!!! Incredibile ma vero e non so nemmeno perché ma l’importante è che ho risolto. Conclusioni? 5 stelle per adesso: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Fast, stable

I’m very happy with this device. I use it as a backup for my desktop’s hard-drive. Its easy to use straight out the box and quick.

One word of caution (and why its 4 stars not 5). I’m using this to replace my current back up disk (a 2TB WD ‘My Book’), which is now over 9 years old. The old drive is about 80% full, but I struggled to copy all of this to the new drive, which is also 2TB. All disk drives divide their storage space into fixed size blocks. A file smaller than this block size, occupies 1 block, a larger file occupies two or more. The issue is that each file will occupy at least one block. I happen to have a lot of small files and it appears that the SSD has a bigger block size than the old drive, so I can’t get as many files on the new drive as the old. Its not really an issue – its just forced me to get rid of junk, but it did come as a surprise.

Here’s a short and easy review for an SSD purchase from Amazon:

I recently purchased an WD SSD from Amazon, and I’m extremely satisfied with its performance. The read/write speeds are impressive, resulting in significantly faster boot times and file transfers. The storage capacity is perfect for my needs, and the SSD feels durable and well-built. Setting it up was a breeze, and it has been running smoothly without any issues. Overall, I highly recommend this WD SSD for its excellent quality and reliable performance.

Overall, it seems to be a solid piece of hardware but there are issues with the cable and especially the software.

Motivation for buying:
I have a 10 years old 2 TB Passport HDD that is still working but that I wanted to replace. Because it’s old and very slow. What I liked about the Passport was the option to encrypt the drive and run it “stand-alone” without any software on other computers (except Linux). When you plug it in, a small partition is mounted which contains the “WD Unlocker” software that allows you to mount and decrypt the drive. I was looking for exactly the same just in SSD and smaller.

PRO:
(P1) Its tiny – The drive is half an inch longer than a credit card (and of course thicker; 0.35 inch) but its really tiny compared to the old hard drive.

(P2) Speed – The speed is appropriate as you can see in the first image. It does not quite reach the “up to 1000MB/s” but it says, “up to”. The speed was tested with CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4, USB 3.2 gen 2 port and the USB C connector. If you use the Type A connector and a corresponding 3.0 port the speed is lower (see second image).

(P3) No fake – Not really a pro but with so many fake SSD with incorrect sizes worth mentioning. It was tested with h2testw 1.4.

NEUTRAL:
(N1) Disk size – Its not actually a 2TB hard disk as you can see in image 3. Yes, it does give you 2 trillion bytes but that is only 1.81 TB. Unfortunately, this is common and other vendors do the same. Just be aware that “2TB” is not actually 2 TB.

(N2) Heat – The drive gets warm when in use. That is common for SSD and it does not get dangerously hot. But it can be uncomfortable if you touch the drive during use or shortly after.

CON:
(C1) Cable – The provided cable is really short – 6.3 inch including the plugs. And while that might be nice for transport and when you connect it to a notebook, it’s terrible when connecting to a desktop computer. Your drive will literally be dangling down on the cord. Or you pile up some books in front of your computer to create a place to lay down the disk.

(C2) Software – Just a big mess. While the cable is a small issue and can be easily replaced, the provided software is a big issue. When plugging in the drive, it has two installers for WD Discovery (Windows, Mac) on it.
The Windows story: First thing after start of the installer, it asked you to be allowed to phone home (send data to WD). If you disagree it will start installation and hang at 18%. If you google it you will find it’s a well known issue and solution according to WD support is … just allow it to phone home. If you do that, the installation will finish – but it will not recognize the Passport. Even after restarting or trying different USB ports. So deinstalled and download WD Security from the western website. Installation works and it will recognize the drive. You can now set a password and encrypt the drive. After re-plugging the drive, the small partition with the WD Unlocker software shows up and … it does not work (see image 4). It complains that we should start the WD Unlocker from the partition associated with the USB drive … which we just did. It seems similar to WD Discovery the WD Unlocker does not recognize the drive. When googling you find its again a known issue and solution is … use WD Security instead. Which means you must install WD Security on each and every computer you want to use the encrypted drive. That was tested on two different Windows systems with different hardware components.
The Mac story: Using the installer from the USB drive and allowing it to phone home will actually work and it does recognize the drive afterwards. You can now set the password from WD Discovery. However, when re-plugging the drive and trying to unlock using the WD Unlocker we are running into the same issue as on Windows. Here too, you have to install WD Discovery or WD security on all computers that you want to use the drive.

SUMMERY
If you are just interested in the hardware … you are good. Don’t be surprised that it’s not actually 2TB and that the drive gets warm. That will be no different for other vendors. Be prepared to get a longer cable to fit your needs.
If you were hoping to get an encrypted drive that “stand alone” can run on any computer you will be disappointed. You will have to install WD software on each of the computers and live with the fact that they are phoning home. At that point its worth considering free software solutions (such as VeraCrypt) that also need to be installed but at least don’t send data away + also work on Linux.

Best for those who doesn’t have more space in their laptops or system. You can connect n work without any lag.