WD My Passport 500GB USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Portable External SSD, Space Gray

2025-07-11T20:00:00

Small, quick, quiet, 5TB external storage. Ordered and received quickly directly from WD. Just what I needed and for a reasonable price. Everything I have learned to expect from WD.

David O.

Originally posted at

2025-05-07T20:00:00

WD drives have been my go-to for many years in an IT support scenario. 5.25" professional drives still seem to be good/reliable, but we've had one issue after another with recent (2022+-ish) 3.5" mechanical drives. Total failure is not the issue, it's all about performance. Using the proprietary WD cable, 1GB/s has not quite been attainable -- I guess that technically qualifies as "up to 5 Gb/s". Odd issues with constant read/write cycling when idle, performance that abruptly drops during use (dropping to ~30MB/s) -- just very slow. Changing formats has little effect. Biting the bullet and moving on from the storage size benefits of 3.5" drives...

EIncog

Originally posted at

2025-04-18T20:00:00

Garbage. It unplugged once accidentally without ejecting and it's a brick. Do not waste your money on this trash.

ander35

Originally posted at

2025-04-18T20:00:00

Disconnected on week one and won't work. And there is no repair function in soft wear just a test that says it's bad. How can I trust my files to a piece of junk that breaks after one week? This is ridiculous. It's a laptop of course it will disconnect without eject at least once.

Ander355

Originally posted at

2025-04-13T20:00:00

I've had My Passport for almost 3 years, and use it regularly. It's not failed once, but I am pretty careful when storing it or transporting it. I've used it with 4 different laptops with zero issues.

EMSDude

Originally posted at

2025-04-12T20:00:00

Awful. I bought My Passport in 2020, and everything was great. But a few months ago, when I connected it to my PC and tried to open a folder, it didn't work. My whole Explorer froze for a minute and then displayed an error. From there, when I realized something was wrong, I decided to play it safe and transfer all my folders to my PC. Halfway through the first folder, the speed dropped to 0 bytes/second and never went back up. After about two hours, I decided to cancel it - and even that took another 5 minutes. All my backups were there. I couldn't access any of them. One day ago, I decided to try again. When it didn't work, I thought formatting it might "help." I couldn't format it. Then I tried deleting the main partition - it failed and said something like: "The request failed due to a fatal device hardware issue." I downloaded WD Drive Utilities. It recognized My Passport, but said it had 0 bytes. I tried formatting it from there - another error. So now I'm stuck with a non-working My Passport, and the warranty expired in 2022.

innakin

Originally posted at

2025-04-09T20:00:00

I had to replace my old external drive which I've had for over 10 yrs. as it started making strange noises. Since I digitalized all of my photos to make storing easier, they were far too valuable to let something happen to them so it was time to get a new drive. After some research, I found that most electronic stores as well as on-line recommend this Western Digital My Passport external drive as it is password protected, is small and competitively priced. It is extremely easy to set up and use.

Dee F.

Originally posted at

2025-02-16T19:00:00

2nd WD that failed. Impossible to find a live customer service agent for phone conversation. Appears to be NO way to get a $$$$ refund, only a replacement. Process on line for replacement only get error messages after numbers tries. Have read that many other people have the same problem. Not taking a chance of losing information for a 3rd time or buying again from a non-reputable company.

Youngblood 2.

Originally posted at

2025-02-11T19:00:00

I found my WD 4TB Passport easy to install and use. Was concerned about my ability to do this.

Jim B.

Originally posted at

2025-01-21T19:00:00

Fast! Dependable! Plug & Play! I love this drive. Works right out of the box and requres no instruction.

B H.

Originally posted at

2025-01-08T19:00:00

Small, different colors, good value, fast, user-friendly software, full backup service software, plug and play, durable. My first WD Passport 2TB red has been connected to my PC ever since I bought it 5/6 years ago, I use it to store files that I need to be able to take with me on the road. Just bought a new on exactly the same model and size, this will be used as a backup drive of my complete boot drive, a clone ready to reinstall if something goes wrong using the included Acronis True Image software. I trust this drive 100% but I also have a NAS. Once I get my media platform set up, it will include a WD Passport as well 6TB

The D.

Originally posted at

2024-12-20T19:00:00

Trusted? That's funny. My 3tb passport bricked after not all that much use. No way to replace the internal drive with another, so the plastic case can go into the ocean or a landfill, never to be used again. Brilliant design WD!

Chabuho

Originally posted at

2024-12-09T19:00:00

Hard drive has now failed twice. I had to pay hundreds of dollars for data recovery because my drive failed and was not usable. It just happened again and now I can't access my 40000 lightroom photos. I can't rely on this device to store my photos. Very disappointed. I would hope to be compensated for all of these issues.

Golfdude324

Originally posted at

2024-11-18T19:00:00

I have not even had this for a year. I used it one time and now it will not show up when plugged into multiple computers. I saved important data on it and it is all gone. I would advise not buying this product as it is not reliable for important data you want to access in the future.

Shanna M.

Originally posted at

2024-11-15T19:00:00

Unfortunately the WD worst storage I've come across, very complicated, unfriendly, read-only locked, waste of time

the s.

Originally posted at

2024-11-15T19:00:00

I never received this. This was supposed to be free but it never arrived.

Cc c.

Originally posted at

2024-11-14T19:00:00

I've owned 5 of these through the years, from working off mainly 'older' W-8 and W-10 15-25G HP laptops All purchased from Best Buy, No worries. The older drives still work, my older data still there. so I don't know that buying straight from this WD site makes any difference. But 5+ yrs of operating data must say something about quality.

nettiegurl16

Originally posted at

2024-11-04T19:00:00

Great product at a great price. Easy to setup and use!

BH58

Originally posted at

2024-10-13T20:00:00

I had a hard time setting up this drive when I first got it a couple years ago. I should've respected the red flags and got another device. Now here I am trying to overnight a Samsung T7 to save my PSD file I need to finsih and submit by Tuesday. My final straw: hard drive mounts and dismounts on its own accord and has corrupted my files as I bought the drive to work off of to solve my scratch disk issues. It worked until it didn't. Regret ever buying this.

sadfilesaver

Originally posted at

2024-09-04T20:00:00

worst experience ever, useless drive,waste of my money

garbage

Originally posted at

2024-05-03T20:00:00

I bought a WD passport External HDD with hoping get USB-C conncector/interface, but I what I got is Micro-B instead. At least Western Digital can firmly writes "Connector USB-C" of "Connector Micro-B instead of "USB-C Ready", "Compatible USB-C". The local computer store didn't want to exchange it because the seal is already broken upon opening the HDD. We cannot see the physical HDD, once we open the packaging, it's considered we buy it. So, I've to endure not having the USB-C type.

EdDyD0

Originally posted at

2024-04-16T20:00:00

This is a great drive, to archive any of my video and audio files that I do not access often.

Briar M.

Originally posted at

2024-04-08T20:00:00

This is an extremely compact external SSD. Very portable, Fast and Reliable! I specially like the USB-C connection, which has proven to be much more secure and sturdy that other types of connections.

Umbie

Originally posted at

2024-03-19T20:00:00

I bought WD passport 4TB of this model in 2020. I just used two times for pictures storage. Recently I found it was not recognized by computer. Checked with BestBuy, the BestBuy young girl was really nice and tried her best to solve the problem. But finally failed to get it recovered. After several round emails with WD's technical service, they did nothing to get my Passport but tried best to sell their service and product again: pay fee for fixing and 10% discount for me to buy a new WD passport. Oh, my god! So smart WD Digital, sell defect product and earn extra profit again from it!!! I lost all the files in my Passport, really a disaster for my job and my family!!! Never recommend this product!

CHENNY

Originally posted at

2024-03-13T20:00:00

I got this note after I wrote that I had been ripped off: Response from SM OLS: Hello, We are sorry to hear about your user experience with WD My Passport Portable Drive and appreciate your time providing this review and bringing this matter to our attention. Please be informed that My Passport Portable Hard Drive is a Plug n Play drive. You could simply connect the device to the computer and copy , paste the data using an USB cable. For more information about the drive please refer to the mentioned link: This is a TOTAL LIE. It is NOT "plug and play!" If it was, I wouldn't be upset! IT has ZERO info! NOT "plug and play" at all!!

This Y.

Originally posted at

2024-03-08T19:00:00

Where is the information that tells me how to put my data onto this drive? It didnt come up as My Passport, it came up as a bunch of letters and numbers. At this point, its just a worthless little box. I need to save my data and you have NOTHING to explain how it works. boot efi sources support autorun bootmgr bootmgr.efi setup... clicking on these things has NOTHING that tells me "You do THIS to get your info into WD hard drive" WHERE IS THAT INFO??????

WastedMYmoney W.

Originally posted at

2024-03-03T19:00:00

This is my second passport, it will not be my last. Great product

Byron B.

Originally posted at

2024-03-03T19:00:00

I'm so happy to have a larger hard drive for my business files. This will hold much more info than my previous hard drive.

R L.

Originally posted at

2024-02-27T19:00:00

Worst external hard drive I have ever bought, It worked all of half a day. Now it will not open and will not show up on my drive to open. The biggest waste of money

Lucky

Originally posted at

2024-02-18T19:00:00

I like my WD. It was easy to installed.

PRD

Originally posted at