Review on Black Passport Portable External Drive External Components and External Hard Drives by Dan Sturm

I recently realized that I was being lazy with my backups. Enter WD My Passport external hard drive. The difference between this and the slightly cheaper HD WD Elements portable seems to be that the former is better suited for backups. At least that's what Western Digital's marketing says. *** Good *** As an external hard drive, it works perfectly. I've posted screenshots of some of the DiskMark tests I ran and the read/write speeds are basically what I'm seeing on my internal SATA hard drive. Everything is fine there. *** Neutral *** The build quality is so-so. It seems extremely malleable and doesn't seem like it will take much abuse. However, it doesn't necessarily feel fragile. If I regularly toss it in my bag or travel with it, I might worry. But for internal backup it's ok. *** Bad *** I appreciate simple and reliable software. Unfortunately, WD Backup is too easy. It's as simple as it gets. There are only two options: Backup Frequency and Source. The biggest problem is that it doesn't come with syncing options instead of backups. For example, suppose I create a backup with files 1, 2 and 3 on Monday. Then on Tuesday I delete file 2 on my PC. When I use the sync software, file 2 on the disk mirror is deleted. File 2 remains intact when using backup software. No method is better than the other, just different. However, I would prefer syncing over backup. This requires the purchase of additional software. I find this very annoying as a) it is marketed as a backup oriented product and b) it contains a competing product from Seagate Software that can do both. After all, it didn't even work right out of the box. The backup process got stuck. I had to format the drive and download the latest software from the WD website. Nothing bad, but a bit annoying. *** Conclusion *** I would not buy again. I would most likely buy a Seagate Backup Plus instead. Alternatively, I could have bought a cheaper external hard drive from WD Elements and a third-party comprehensive backup/sync software solution. ***My evaluation criteria***Build quality (47.5%) - 3.5 stars. 3.0 Stars After Sales Support (0.0%) - N/A Packaging/Presentation (5.0%) - 5.0 Stars WEIGHTED AVERAGE (100.0%) - 3.3 STARS