Customer Reviews

Western Digital My Passport for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - WDBBXV0010BBK-NESN

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I own many WD external hard drives, including TWO of these. As you can read by the other reviews, it eventually starts having problems. The PORT for the wire goes bad after a while. At first, I had to plug it in over and over multiple times before the computer would recognize (none of my other external hard drives do this ever). Then, it gets worse and worse until eventually you can't get access to your hard drive at all. Now, it is TOO LATE to retrieve your data. This happened with BOTH of the ones I own after about 1 year.

The HARD DRIVE itself is fine - but the port is bad. I had to go to RADIO SHACK to get adapters to get access to my data and transfer it to another hard drive.

Before you buy this, go GOOGLE "Western Digital Hard Drive External Hard Drive For MAC." You will see how many people have this problem.

Every other WD Hard Drive I own is great - even the ones with USB 2.0 ports. However, THIS PARTICULAR MODEL, which is SILVER and made specifically for MAC with the USB 2.0, has a serious design flaw, in my opinion.

I am not saying it happens all the time, and I am sure there are many people out there who love this model; however, it does seem to happen a lot, and I am not alone in saying it - and it seems to be the SAME PROBLEM.

At first I wanted to delete all the applications that it came with as I do with all portable hard drives, but they were drag and drop apps so I used the security one since the drive has hardware encryption.

I didn't know what hardware encryption meant, I really wanted to know if taking the case apart would allow someone to access my data.

Western Digital website was no help at all.

Looking at online forums, I found out that if something happens to the casing (USB port etc) it's almost impossible to recover the data (I think it encrypts whether you have a password or not). So you really should have a copy of the data somewhere else.

To me, this was great news because I don't want to worry about my data being accessible if I forget the hard drive somewhere. So it's really important to have another copy of the data.

The drive itself is fast and the encrypted drive shows up normally (there is a setting so you don't need a password if you access the drive form your own computer).

I tried to connect the drive to another mac (no software installed) and it popped up a locked drive and when I put the password in, it worked fine.

My main complaint is the price. The Windows versions of Western Digital drives which have USB 3.0 are cheaper on Amazon than this USB 2.0 drive. It irks me that just because a product is targeted for Mac users, it's more expensive. The MSRP on Western Digital's website for both drives are the same.

I have an 11" MacBook Air, so portability is kind of the point. However, with a 128 GB solid state drive, storage can be a big problem. This drive solves that.

The package includes the drive, a short cable, and an instruction manual. I really didn't even bother reading the instructions - there was no need. I plugged in the drive, and my MacBook instantly picked it up. The drive includes some encryption software, but honestly, my data isn't that interesting, so I didn't use it.

The drive is pretty fast, and mounts and ejects quickly. I use it to store graphics and video projects, and I can work off the drive pretty easily in most cases, so there's usually no need to move files back and forth.

It also has a very small form factor, so I can just toss it in my laptop bag along with my Mac. The cable isn't very long (about a foot), which works well for my use - I don't want a mass of cable all over the place when I'm trying to be all high-speed/low-drag at a Starbucks.

If you need really convenient, functional mass storage, I highly recommend this drive.

Stylish portable hard drive with loads of disk space but in such a small device.Great value for money also.I'd recommend this product to anyone looking for an external hard drive.

I bought this to use as a travel hard drive for use with both my MacBook Pro and my Windows 7 Machines and it works perfectly. I simply use Partition Magic to separate the hard drive into 2 partitions. A 700gb NTFS partition for Windows 7 and a 200gb HFS+ partition for the Mac. It sounds complicated, but it isn't Partition Magic (There are also free solutions that work just as well) really makes it straightforward. You can even just let Windows format the whole drive and use it strictly for Windows should you be so inclined. There's nothing that makes it "Mac" only.

A few notes regarding the product:
1.) It's quite tiny! I am surprised how small it is for the amount of storage space. It's only a little bigger than a deck of playing cards.
2.) It's all plastic, but seems well built. I wouldn't want to go lobbing it off a building or anything, but it looks as if It'll take a short fall or two.
3.) Actual total formatted capacity is 931gb. This is NOT a defect. There's loss in the conversion of Megabytes and Megabits. That's just the way it is.
4.) It comes with a short'ish MicroUSB cable that looks to be about 18 inches or so. It's pretty thick and seems to be of good quality. You don't need the dual USB plugs included with some hard drives.

As I type this, I am transferring 466gb of movies from my Windows 7 Server to this hard drive and data is flowing right along at 26MB/s. Definitely nowhere close to USB 3.0 speeds, but still decently fast for USB 2.0.

The only negative that I have found with this unit, is it's price. But this does include hardware encryption, which tends to jack the price up a bit. If this is something you need, then the price may be warranted, I suppose. There's still the "Mac Tax" that raises prices simply because it has "Mac" on it. Which is totally ridiculous. That being said, if you don't need hardware encryption and aren't enticed with the unit being pre-formatted for Mac, there are cheaper units out there. But I still feel this to work exactly the way it's supposed to, regardless of price and thus, I still recommend it.

Every time I go to use this drive, I have to plug and unplug it 6 or 7 times before my MacBook will recognize it. It's unreliable and a pain in the tuckas!

If you're looking for a rock solid drive with tons of space on it, this is the one. This makes the second drive from Western Digital I've purchased in this form factor (the previous one was a 500 gb), and I plan on continuing to buy them.

I use this one for three purposes, (1) it records live sessions directly from an Allen and Heath soundboard, (2) Time Machine backups of my mobile workstation, and (3) secondary partition for storage and transfers. It does all three like a champ.

Pros:
- Solid case: the plastic is very ridged and sturdy.
- Single cable design: one USB cable supplies data and power connectivity.
- Designed to compliment a Mac: I'm just being a nerd here. The white activity light is a nice touch, and break away from the typical green activity light.
- Time Machine gets alone with it very well.
- Speedy transfer times. Keep in mind this is a platter drive, not solid state, and it spins at 5400 rpm, so don't expect too much. It is still very fast in reads and writes.
- Runs very cool, even when recording long sessions.

Cons:
- Just because it says "for Mac" should not be an excuse to drive the price up $20-30. Let's move past the 90s, m'kay?
- It comes pre-loaded with Western Digital crapware. Nuke it and reclaim a few megs. Again, let's move past the 90s, m'kay?
- It doesn't come with a case. (I bought this one, and it fits perfect Case Logic QHDC-101 Portable EVA Hard Drive Case (Black))

Okay, quit reading the review and go buy one. You'll be very happy with it! As for my comment about it costing more since it's specifically for Macs, there is a reason to my madness. Even though it is the exact same as the not-made-for-Mac drive, this one has Apple's approval (it's sold in the Apple Stores). This means that if you have Time Machine issues or NAS issues when connecting to an Airport Extreme, Apple cannot claim that the problem is being caused by a non-Mac-ready device, which means they can't support it. I've been down that road once, and it wasn't pretty.

Just got this drive from amazon to be my time machine backup drive, the plan is to have two of them and always keep one offsite. So how do I like the drive:

- I think it is a great package, it comes in a small sleek silver package that can easily fit into your pocket so easy to transport it around.
- The speed of the drive is pretty fast for backups, so it seems to be appropriate for the task.
- When the drive is being written to it is quiet and does not get too hot.
- The utilities that come with the drive installed easily, I have not used the device driver to accelerate the drive, but the others are easy to use. I have password protected the drive so that I can safely store this in my safety deposit box. Setting this up was easy, despite the huge warnings.

In summary, I think this a great drive and small enough to go anywhere with you.

I'm a Mac user that uses this drive for extra external storage on the go. It works perfectly with Mac computers, is quiet, runs cool, and has fast access speeds. Not only does it do all of this, but it matches the finish of my MacBook Pro. About the size of an iPhone and about as heavy. A great value too. Ounce for ounce, you really couldn't ask for more from an external hard drive made to travel. Highly recommended!

I always have external hard drives for my computers. This Western Digital My Passport for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDBBXV0010BBK-NESN is beyond the imagination as far as capacity. Although if you want the ability to store the Library of Congress and carry it with you to use on you MAC, this is the drive to have. Actually, I wanted this to dump most of my collection of DVD's onto so when I travel I have the ability to watch whatever I'm in the mood for. It works simply by plugging it into a USB port and off you go. I have no complaints nor issues. It does what it is supposed to do and it does it very well. A full TB is a lot of space.