Passport External Storage

• The My Passport™Essential Portable Hard Drive provides high-performance portable storage for your PC and Mac® and comes with sync & encryption and Google™software (PC only). For the latest WD product information and news, visit our website at www.westerndigital.com.
• A: Answer The WD My Passport 2TB external drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS(s) Windows: 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 MAC: Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra The WD Passport 2TB external drive back up software is only compatible with Windows: 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 So you should be ok.

• My Passport File Access
• My Passport External Storage
• Wd Passport Is Not Detected
• External Hard Drive My Passport

Ways to contact WD support.

When your WD My Passport Ultra hard drive or external hard drive is not showing up, you can neither access nor use the drive on your computer. And don't worry.

Follow this guide, you'll learn the causes and how to fix the WD Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up error on your own.

Here is the complete guide to making your WD Passport external hard drive detected again:

Some of you may also want to learn what causes the wd external hard drive not showing up issue on the computer. Continue reading and check it out.

Why Is My WD Passport Not Showing UP

We consulted many experienced users and IT professionals, and we concluded the causes below. Check out why is your WD Passport Ultra external not showing up:

1. 1. A faulty USB port/cable, or a damaged USB hub on PC
2. 2. No drive letter is assigned to WD Passport drive
3. 3. Corrupted file system or bad sectors makes WD drive unreadable
4. 4. WD drive driver is out of date
5. 5. Universal USB controllers drivers are outdated

These causes may also lead to some of your other devices malfunctioning, such as:

So how to fix these errors and make your WD Passport Ultra external hard drive show up on PC again? Follow through the tutorials below to get rid of this issue immediately.

Part 1. Check The State of WD External Hard Disk in Disk Management

Connect the WD external hard drive to your computer via the USB cable. Follow steps here to check the state of your WD external hard drive in Disk Management:

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, and click 'OK'.

Step 2. In Disk Management, locate and check the state of your WD external hard drive.

Part 2. Fix WD My Passport External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Error

Check the state of your not showing up or not detected WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive and refer to the right fix to make your drive work normally again.

Tips to Remove WD External Hard Drive Not Showing Up/Not Detected Error:

Pick a respective fix and follow the full guide to fix your WD My Passport external hard drive not showing up issue now.

Fix 1. Add New Drive Letter to Make WD Passport External Hard Drive Showing Up

Applies to: Fix WD passport external hard drive not showing up error due to drive letter confliction.

If your WD displays as 'New Volume' with no drive letter in Disk Management, it won't show up in File Explorer. Don't worry.

You can change or add a new drive letter so to make WD passport detectable and accessible again in Windows PC:

Step 1. Press Win + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog, click 'OK' to open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on WD drive which fails to show up and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.

Step 3. Click 'Add', set a new drive letter to assign to the WD external drive, and click 'OK'.

If the WD drive has already been assigned with a letter, click 'Change' to choose another letter for it.

After this, restart your PC and check if you can visit the WD external hard drive in Windows File Explorer.

Fix 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD External Not Showing Up

Applies to: Fix WD passport external hard drive not showing up due to file system error or bad sectors.

If the system files are corrupted or the WD device contains bad sectors, Windows disk management may detect it as '*Others' or RAW. Your computer may not even able to detect it from File Explorer.

EaseUS partition manager software with its Check File System feature can help. As long as your Disk Management can detect it, you can apply this tool to fix the corrupted file system and bad sectors on WD hard drive.

Follow to see how to fix corrupted system files and bad sectors on WD device:

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2. In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

Step 3. The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

After this, you can check the drive. If your files were missing, move to Part 3 and apply reliable data recovery software to bring back all your WD external hard drive data.

Fix 3. Send 'Unknown' & Not Detected WD External Hard Disk for Repair

If your WD external hard drive displays as 'Unknown' in disk management, the last thing you can try is to send the disk for repair.

You have two options for this issue:

• Option 1. Beyond the Warranty: Send WD external disk for repair in a local repair center
• Option 2. Within the Warranty: Send WD external disk back to its manufacturer

Fix 4. Contact EaseUS Support Team for Help

If your WD external hard drive is detected in Disk Management but not showing up in File History, you have two choices:

1. #1. Refer to External Hard Drive Shows Up in Device Manager Not in This PC for help.
2. #2. Contact the EaseUS support team for manual service help.

Fix 5. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC

When your WD hard drive neither shows up in File Explorer nor Disk Management, you can try to change the USB cable, try another USB port, or a new PC to see if the drive can be read or not.

Step 1. Switch a USB port/cable and replug it to your computer.

If the drive can be read via new a USB cable or on a new PC, then the drive is working fine. The problem is with the USB cable.

Step 2. Reconnect the WD drive via a new USB hub or to a new PC.

• If the WD Passport drive shows up, it is the damaged USB hub that stops WD from showing up.
• If the WD passport is not detected either on your current or the new PC, replace the WD drive with a new one.

Fix 6. Update WD External Device Driver & Reinstall BUS Controllers

When the WD Passport drive is not working, it might be caused by the outdated device drivers. So the best way is to update its driver via the following three paths:

#1. Download and Install WD Device Driver:

Step 1. Connect the problematic WD external hard drive to your PC.

Step 2. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 3. Find and expand Disk Drivers, Portable Devices, Universal Serial USB Controllers, or Other devices.

See if the WD external hard drive is shown as an 'Unknown' device.

Step 4. Right-click on Unknown or not working WD external hard drive, select 'Properties'.

Step 5. Go to the Details tab, set Property to 'Hardware Ids'.

Step 6. Right-click the top Value and click 'Copy'.

Step 7. Paste it into a browser and search for the correct device driver.

Step 8. Find and download the correct WD device driver and install it on your PC.

After this, restart your computer. And everything shall work fine with your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

#2. Update WD Device Driver from Device Manager:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Expand Device Manager and right-click the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Step 3. Select 'Update driver'.

Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software', wait for the process to complete.

#3. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers

When the Universal USB Bus Controllers are outdated, it may also stop your WD passport from being detected or showing up. So you can try to uninstall and reinstall USB controllers:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click on USB controllers of the WD drive, and select 'Uninstall device'.

Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one.

Step 3. Restart the computer and Windows will automatically reinstall the USB controllers of your WD drive.

After this, you shall be able to visit and access saved data on your WD Passport Ultra drive normally by then.

Part 3. Get Data Off WD External Disk and Format It to Work Again

If your WD hard drive shows up and you can access the disk again. Take the last guide in this part to fully protect your files and make the WD external hard drive viable for saving and editing data again.

#1. Get Data Off WD External Hard Drive

Here are two ways that you can fully get files from your WD external hard drive:

1. 1. Open and copy data from your WD hard drive to another storage device as a backup.
2. 2. Recover lost files from WD drive with EaseUS file recovery software.

Note that, if you lost some valuable files during the process, don't worry. Professional file recovery software can scan and bring back your files in 3 steps:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

Remember to save the recovered files to another secure location and then move to the next guide to format your WD My Passport external hard drive to usable again.

#2. Format WD External Hard Drive to Usable

Here, you may also let EaseUS Partition Master help. It's easy and efficient in formatting a disk:

My Passport File Access

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.

Step 2. Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.

Step 3. In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.

Step 4. Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.

My Passport External Storage

After this, you can save the data back to your WD external hard drive again.

Make Your WD External Hard Drive Show Up and Work Now

On this page, we explained why is WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and provided 6 practical fixes for you to follow and make the drive show up again.

As a beginner, we suggest that you follow the whole guide one by one. These fixes also work to resolve the same issue on all brands of external hard drive, internal hard drive, USB, or SD card. Laptops compatible with cricut maker.

Now, it's your turn. Take steps to fix your not showing up WD external hard drive and make it work again without losing any data.

People Also Ask

For further issues related to the WD passport, check the questions and answers below. You'll get a satisfying answer:

1. WD My Passport not showing up on Mac

If you are having a similar issue that WD My Passport external or internal hard drive not showing up on Mac, you can try the following tips as listed here for help: （Some are similar as shown on this page)

Some of you may also want to learn what causes the wd external hard drive not showing up issue on the computer. Continue reading and check it out.

Why Is My WD Passport Not Showing UP

We consulted many experienced users and IT professionals, and we concluded the causes below. Check out why is your WD Passport Ultra external not showing up:

1. 1. A faulty USB port/cable, or a damaged USB hub on PC
2. 2. No drive letter is assigned to WD Passport drive
3. 3. Corrupted file system or bad sectors makes WD drive unreadable
4. 4. WD drive driver is out of date
5. 5. Universal USB controllers drivers are outdated

These causes may also lead to some of your other devices malfunctioning, such as:

So how to fix these errors and make your WD Passport Ultra external hard drive show up on PC again? Follow through the tutorials below to get rid of this issue immediately.

Part 1. Check The State of WD External Hard Disk in Disk Management

Connect the WD external hard drive to your computer via the USB cable. Follow steps here to check the state of your WD external hard drive in Disk Management:

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, and click 'OK'.

Step 2. In Disk Management, locate and check the state of your WD external hard drive.

Part 2. Fix WD My Passport External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Error

Check the state of your not showing up or not detected WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive and refer to the right fix to make your drive work normally again.

Tips to Remove WD External Hard Drive Not Showing Up/Not Detected Error:

Pick a respective fix and follow the full guide to fix your WD My Passport external hard drive not showing up issue now.

Fix 1. Add New Drive Letter to Make WD Passport External Hard Drive Showing Up

Applies to: Fix WD passport external hard drive not showing up error due to drive letter confliction.

If your WD displays as 'New Volume' with no drive letter in Disk Management, it won't show up in File Explorer. Don't worry.

You can change or add a new drive letter so to make WD passport detectable and accessible again in Windows PC:

Step 1. Press Win + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog, click 'OK' to open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on WD drive which fails to show up and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.

Step 3. Click 'Add', set a new drive letter to assign to the WD external drive, and click 'OK'.

If the WD drive has already been assigned with a letter, click 'Change' to choose another letter for it.

After this, restart your PC and check if you can visit the WD external hard drive in Windows File Explorer.

Fix 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD External Not Showing Up

Applies to: Fix WD passport external hard drive not showing up due to file system error or bad sectors.

If the system files are corrupted or the WD device contains bad sectors, Windows disk management may detect it as '*Others' or RAW. Your computer may not even able to detect it from File Explorer.

EaseUS partition manager software with its Check File System feature can help. As long as your Disk Management can detect it, you can apply this tool to fix the corrupted file system and bad sectors on WD hard drive.

Follow to see how to fix corrupted system files and bad sectors on WD device:

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2. In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

Step 3. The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

After this, you can check the drive. If your files were missing, move to Part 3 and apply reliable data recovery software to bring back all your WD external hard drive data.

Fix 3. Send 'Unknown' & Not Detected WD External Hard Disk for Repair

If your WD external hard drive displays as 'Unknown' in disk management, the last thing you can try is to send the disk for repair.

You have two options for this issue:

• Option 1. Beyond the Warranty: Send WD external disk for repair in a local repair center
• Option 2. Within the Warranty: Send WD external disk back to its manufacturer

Fix 4. Contact EaseUS Support Team for Help

If your WD external hard drive is detected in Disk Management but not showing up in File History, you have two choices:

1. #1. Refer to External Hard Drive Shows Up in Device Manager Not in This PC for help.
2. #2. Contact the EaseUS support team for manual service help.

Fix 5. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC

When your WD hard drive neither shows up in File Explorer nor Disk Management, you can try to change the USB cable, try another USB port, or a new PC to see if the drive can be read or not.

Step 1. Switch a USB port/cable and replug it to your computer.

If the drive can be read via new a USB cable or on a new PC, then the drive is working fine. The problem is with the USB cable.

Step 2. Reconnect the WD drive via a new USB hub or to a new PC.

• If the WD Passport drive shows up, it is the damaged USB hub that stops WD from showing up.
• If the WD passport is not detected either on your current or the new PC, replace the WD drive with a new one.

Fix 6. Update WD External Device Driver & Reinstall BUS Controllers

When the WD Passport drive is not working, it might be caused by the outdated device drivers. So the best way is to update its driver via the following three paths:

#1. Download and Install WD Device Driver:

Step 1. Connect the problematic WD external hard drive to your PC.

Step 2. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 3. Find and expand Disk Drivers, Portable Devices, Universal Serial USB Controllers, or Other devices.

See if the WD external hard drive is shown as an 'Unknown' device.

Step 4. Right-click on Unknown or not working WD external hard drive, select 'Properties'.

Step 5. Go to the Details tab, set Property to 'Hardware Ids'.

Step 6. Right-click the top Value and click 'Copy'.

Step 7. Paste it into a browser and search for the correct device driver.

Step 8. Find and download the correct WD device driver and install it on your PC.

After this, restart your computer. And everything shall work fine with your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

#2. Update WD Device Driver from Device Manager:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Expand Device Manager and right-click the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Step 3. Select 'Update driver'.

Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software', wait for the process to complete.

#3. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers

When the Universal USB Bus Controllers are outdated, it may also stop your WD passport from being detected or showing up. So you can try to uninstall and reinstall USB controllers:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click on USB controllers of the WD drive, and select 'Uninstall device'.

Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one.

Step 3. Restart the computer and Windows will automatically reinstall the USB controllers of your WD drive.

After this, you shall be able to visit and access saved data on your WD Passport Ultra drive normally by then.

Part 3. Get Data Off WD External Disk and Format It to Work Again

If your WD hard drive shows up and you can access the disk again. Take the last guide in this part to fully protect your files and make the WD external hard drive viable for saving and editing data again.

#1. Get Data Off WD External Hard Drive

Here are two ways that you can fully get files from your WD external hard drive:

1. 1. Open and copy data from your WD hard drive to another storage device as a backup.
2. 2. Recover lost files from WD drive with EaseUS file recovery software.

Note that, if you lost some valuable files during the process, don't worry. Professional file recovery software can scan and bring back your files in 3 steps:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

Remember to save the recovered files to another secure location and then move to the next guide to format your WD My Passport external hard drive to usable again.

#2. Format WD External Hard Drive to Usable

Here, you may also let EaseUS Partition Master help. It's easy and efficient in formatting a disk:

My Passport File Access

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.

Step 2. Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.

Step 3. In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.

Step 4. Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.

My Passport External Storage

After this, you can save the data back to your WD external hard drive again.

Make Your WD External Hard Drive Show Up and Work Now

On this page, we explained why is WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and provided 6 practical fixes for you to follow and make the drive show up again.

As a beginner, we suggest that you follow the whole guide one by one. These fixes also work to resolve the same issue on all brands of external hard drive, internal hard drive, USB, or SD card. Laptops compatible with cricut maker.

Now, it's your turn. Take steps to fix your not showing up WD external hard drive and make it work again without losing any data.

People Also Ask

For further issues related to the WD passport, check the questions and answers below. You'll get a satisfying answer:

1. WD My Passport not showing up on Mac

If you are having a similar issue that WD My Passport external or internal hard drive not showing up on Mac, you can try the following tips as listed here for help: （Some are similar as shown on this page)

1. #1. Reconnect WD Passport to Mac
2. #2. Change WD Passport drive letter
3. #3. Remount WD Passport to Mac
4. #4. Update WD Passport drive driver
5. #5. Format WD My Passport on Mac

2. How to use WD Passport on Windows 10?

For a new WD Passport: Connect Passport to Windows 10 PC > Open Disk Management and Initialize Disk > Create a New Partition on WD Passport drive.

For a used WD Passport: Connect it to Windows 10 > Open it in File Explorer to use it. If you need more space, delete some useless files on it to free up space.

3. Why is my external hard drive not showing up?

Accordingly, many reasons may cause your external hard drive not showing up. Here is a list of major reasons:

• The external hard drive is not connected to the PC correctly
• Faulty USB cable or USB hub
• External hard drive is not initialized
• External hard drive is doesn't contain a volume
• External hard drive has no drive letter
• External hard drive contains file system error, bad sectors, or virus

For a resolution, follow to External/Internal Hard Drive Is Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7.

Storage has never been so inexpensive and vast, and as you may well already know, the price of storage devices continues to plummet, and hard drive space and power expands as time moves forward.

Just consider the old AD for 'The Hard Disk You've Been Waiting For,' which cost a jaw-dropping $3398 and offered an astounding 10 MB of storage space. Thank goodness, these days we can get terabytes of storage space for less than $100 and keep all the files you want.

The problem is, however, that we are inundated with portable drive models from which to choose if you need some external storage, and it's tough knowing if you're getting a good deal. There are multitudes of manufacturers, and due to some white labeling product shenanigans, sometimes multiple brands look different on the outside and go by different names, but still contain the exact same hardware on the inside.

Today we're going to compare two of Western Digitals most popular portable hard drive products: Easystore vs My Passport.

Matt look lipstick review. There are many similarities between these products, such as the ability to purchase them in 1, 2, 3, and 4 TB quantities, but which one is better? I'll break down the in's and out's of each product to help you make the most informed decision, but first, I did want to begin by explaining that these technologies are traditional hard drives, meaning they have moving parts and work by spinning platters and employing the use of read/write heads.

Said a different way, I want you to be aware that none of the products compared here are portable SSD (Solid State Drives), which transfer data at a much higher rate, though typically offer lower amounts of storage. With that said, let's get started with a pricing comparison.

WD Easystore vs My Passport Price

I was surprised to see how much space storage has dropped since the beginning of the year. If you need a terabyte of storage, which is pretty difficult for the average user to completely fill up (unless you're a media junkie and have hard disks packed with movies and music), you can get an Easystore 1 TB for only $50. My Passport's 1 TB is only $10 more expensive and costs $59.99.

The following outlines the cost of the storage Eaststore products:

• 1 TB Easystore – $49.99
• 2 TB Easystore – $79.99
• 3 TB Easystore – $99.99
• 4 TB Easystore – $119.99

The following outlines the cost of storage My Passport products:

• 1 TB My Passport – $59.99
• 2 TB – $79.99
• 3 TB – $99.99
• 4 TB – $119.99

As you can see, the pricing plans are the same for all models but the 1 TB version, which is only $10 cheaper with the Easystore product.

Given that the pricing models are nearly identical, I think the comparison can only come down to a determination of superior power features, though the products are similar with regards to their features too.

To be fair, there are a few slight variations between the features offered with each product, but in all honesty, they are more or less the same. But before we dig in further, I did want to bring up something I found a little strange.

A Note Regarding Easystore 3 TB and The My Passport 2 TB

I did want to chime in and notify you of an oddity I found when searching for locations where the products are available. For some reason or another, I was not able to find the Easystore 3 TB available in the US. It is possible to purchase the My Passport products either directly from WD or through a reseller like Amazon, Best Buy, or Insight. But for some reason, I was only able to find the Easystore products exclusively through BestBuy.

Furthermore, the 3 TB model of the Easystore product wasn't available at all in the United States, and neither was the My Passport 2 TB. I imagine there is some corporate reason they are not available. Perhaps, for some reason or another, WD decided it could maximize sales for one product over the other by making it unavailable in certain regions. Whatever the reason may be, I was not able to find a place to purchase a new My Passport 2 TB or the Easystore 3 TB.

Hardware Specifications

The hardware specifications, again, are extremely similar. Essentially, they include a hard drive in an external case that is capable of USB 3.0 speeds, as well as backward compatibility with USB 2.0. The dimensions of the cases' length and height are identical too. However, though 1 and 2 TB models, for both products, are 0.54' thick (approximately half an inch), the 3 and 4 TB models are slightly thicker at 0.85'.

Wd Passport Is Not Detected

Personally, I don't think the minuscule increase in thickness would dissuade me from opting for the 4 TB drive, but everyone is different when it comes to an external drive taste. Some people love keeping everything small and compact, be it for work, travel, or simplicity.

The following outlines the hardware specifications of the external storage Easystore product:

• 3.21' X 4.33'
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 capable
• Formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 using NTFS

The following outlines the hardware specifications of the My Passport product:

• 3.21' X 4.33'
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 capable
• Formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 using NTFS

Both external drives formatted with file systems that are ready for the latest Windows operating systems. If you're a Mac or Linux user, you'll have to first format the drive before you can use it, though it's a simple process and doesn't take too long.

Furthermore, note that the 4 TB versions are a little thicker than the other versions because the hard drive requires more platters to fit 4 TB worth of bits into the case. Nevertheless, the length and width of the case are still the same.

Features

Given that the products are so similar with regards to hardware and pricing, I was surprised to see that they vary significantly with regards to the features that come with the drive. As far as I can see, the three biggest differences between each product are the ability to customize its color, a 3-year warranty, and a security and encryption feature. Otherwise, it seems that everything else is the same.

They both come with the WD Discovery software and the WD Drive Utilities, which are, unsurprisingly, simple utilities that help you find, manage, and format your hard drive. I did like that both products come with built-in backup service because too many people have lost data because they simply forgot to manually back it up. The automatic backup feature allows you to 'set it and forget it' to alleviate the irritation and tedium of having to go through the manual process every time you log off your device.

External Hard Drive My Passport

The following outlines the features of the Easystore product:

• Automatic backup feature via the WD Backup software
• Drive Utilities
• WD Discovery

The following outlines the features of the My Passport product:

• 6 color customization options (black, red, white, blue, orange, or yellow)
• 3-year limited warranty
• Password protection with hardware encryption (AES-256 encryption)
• Ability to add a message to the password prompt (i.e., 'Return to ____ if found.')
• WD Security
• Drive Utilities
• WD Discovery

As you can see, My Passport product has more features, and I know some people love the fact you can customize its color. The real added benefit is password protection and hardware encryption using AES-256.

Final Thoughts: My Passport or WD Easystore?

Even though these products are extremely similar, it seems that the Easystore product was designed to be sold through resellers, while My Passport product is sold through resellers and direct from WD. Clearly, these products are very similar, but the My Passport product line has a slight advantage due to encryption features.

If you really wanted to save $10, you could Blender intro maker. opt for the Easystore HDD, though only the 1 TB version. Otherwise, you might as well opt for the My Passport product because it has better features and cost the exact same. I wasn't altogether impressed with the watered down and uniform Easystore products.

Furthermore, while it isn't important to me at all (I prefer to be pragmatic), I am fully aware that some people will love that they can customize the color of the My Passport case. For me, the only thing that matters is how well the hard drive functions, how long it lasts, and how much storage space it offers. But some people will want a different color than black, which is the only color the Easystore product offers. Altogether, I think that My Passport is a superior product.

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