WD 5TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive for Windows, USB 3.2 Gen 1/USB 3.0 for PC & Mac, Plug and Play Ready - WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN

My laptop was running out of space between work/games/school/etc, and I needed a big hard drive to keep all of my movies/shows/videos, and to be able to move/transfer/play them from somewhere else easily. This has worked perfectly for that so far. It's no flash drive, but it's portable enough to be able to put in a backpack and take wherever I need. Plug+play, and haven't really noticed any lag in the folders like I have with other WD Elements HDD's I've bought before, and it's been a year since I bought this. 3.5/4.5 TB used so far without issues, doesn't even make much noise/heat up a ton like others.If you need to hoard a bunch of data or have a lot of shows/movies you want all on one big drive, then this is a great option. Simple and effective, relatively cheap too. Would definitely recommend!

Have had this for a couple of years, use it for a backup on for the desktop. It has plenty of storage, seems like it is good quality. Small eanough it goes un-noticed, good design. Works great as a backup. Have had no issues with it at all.

I've been using WD Elements drives for years as Mac time machine backups and other drives. HOWEVER, I recently ran into an issue that was unusual so wanted to share it. First, let me say that I love these drives. They are quiet and usually very reliable. However, about 3 months ago the backup drive -that had been flawless - started not being able to be read by my Mac Studio. I would use the disk utility to check it and then it would be fine. I then later started having problems booting my Mac Studio. It would just cycle through and kept rebooting without letting me log in. Finally i decided to unplug the backup disk and sure enough, it was the reason the computer wouldn't boot. Just sharing this because occasionally, technology fails. This is my first disk of TEN that has failed on me so I consider that pretty good. Aside from this my drives have been flawless. In fact, I bought a 5TB WD Elements disk to replace the one that failed!

TL;dr – it works great. Treat it with respect, be prepared to toss the cable it comes with (because they fail) and enjoy a huge amount of storage for a reasonable amount of money.You’ve probably read a ton of reviews on external drives and have arrived here. I’ve been in the tech biz over 44 years and was there when 128Kbyte 8” floppy disks were considered advanced. I’ve used a LOT of different drives.Let’s put this drive into perspective: it is NOT a “portable drive”, it’s an external drive that you can choose to move from place to place. AS WITH ALL SUCH DRIVES, it contains precision moving parts; if you drop it, it will likely break. If you move it around when it’s operating, it probably won’t like it. If you drop your laptop, it will likely break. If you want an external drive that you can really move around, get an SSD.I purchased one of these drives for cloud-storage and archival purposes. Simply put, I needed somewhere to dump large data collections for essentially read-only access as well as having a buffer area for cloud storage synchronization purposes (lots of r/w access to the drive). It worked so well I purchased another and might even get a 3rd.Cloud storage is great for frequently accessed data, but for your video collection, your vast music collection or the 130GB of pictures your spouse took last month, you might want off-line storage. This is a great choice.Is it fast? Slower than an SSD but faster than many external hard drives out there. If you want speed, use the local SSD in your device or get an external SSD drive. If you don’t want that expense, this is still a great drive.In operation the drive is whisper quiet and runs slightly warm. You may have read about the “click of death”, well, yeah, it happened to me too. It won’t run on an overloaded unpowered USB hub (click, click due to lack of power). The cable it comes with is frankly troublesome and honestly you should invest in a replacement. Yup, click, click, click because the cable failed (fortunately I had another to hand, doesn’t everyone?). All that will happen with other drives too, so it’s nothing unusual.My system: Win10 Pro and Win10 Home on Lenovo, Surface Books and Surface Pro; works out of the box just fine.For those complaining that the drive doesn’t work with some backup software; that’s not the drives fault. For those complaining about the speed for gaming purposes, that’s not the drives’ fault either, you should have purchased an SSD.Yes, it will work with Onedrive; just create a junction from your Onedrive folder to the required folder in the external drive.mklink /J srcFolder destFolderSince you have a large capacity drive for large data sets, robocopy (part of Windows) will be your friend as well as mklink to create junctions from your main drive to connection points in external drives filesystems.What happens if the drive goes down? As with any other drive, you might have lost your data. The solution is to (gasp) purchase two drives and sync one with the other.Pro’s: 5TB of storage for <$100. Quiet, fast and gets the job done. It’s a disk drive, it’s not there to be exciting.Con’s: I didn’t like the cable; invest $6 on a better one. As with ALL DRIVES, you need to treat it nicely.

I recently purchased the WD 5TB Elements Portable HDD, External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 for PC & Mac, and overall, I'm quite satisfied with its performance. However, there is one significant drawback that needs to be mentioned - the proprietary cable it uses, which means it does not have USB-C or similar connectivity options. This can be inconvenient as finding a replacement cable in case of loss or damage might prove to be challenging.On the positive side, the packaging of the product was excellent. It arrived in a secure and well-protected condition, ensuring the safety of the hard drive during transit. This attention to detail in packaging is certainly commendable.In terms of design, the WD 5TB Elements Portable HDD is impressively compact and lightweight. It doesn't take up much space and can easily be carried around without being burdensome. Additionally, the hard drive's casing is sturdy and resistant to scratches, which adds to its overall durability.As for performance, this external hard drive has proven to be reliable. It provides ample storage capacity, allowing me to store a significant amount of data without any issues. The USB 3.0 connection ensures fast transfer speeds, making it convenient for transferring large files or backing up data.In conclusion, the WD 5TB Elements Portable HDD, External Hard Drive is a solid choice for those seeking a reliable and compact storage solution. However, the proprietary cable limitation should be taken into consideration before making a purchase, as it may pose difficulties in finding a replacement cable. Nevertheless, if this aspect doesn't bother you, this hard drive offers good performance, excellent packaging, and a compact design that makes it a convenient option for both PC and Mac users.