The name may be odd, but the capacity is anything but. The WD My Passport, Works with USB-C (starts at $84.99 for 2TB; $189.99 for 6TB as tested) is the second WD model we’ve reviewed to sport the new 6TB maximum capacity for portable USB-powered hard drives. It’s very similar to the first one we reviewed, the WD My Passport Ultra, while coming in at a slightly lower price. The big difference between the two models is that the Works with USB-C version has a USB Micro-B port on the drive end and can connect to a computer’s USB-C or USB-A ports with an included cable and adapter, while the Ultra (in a quirky twist, given the name of the drive we’re reviewing here) is USB-C all the way. With backup software and AES hardware-based encryption, it’s a good choice for a travel-friendly hard drive if you need to store a lot of data, and it’s our new Editors’ Choice winner for portable hard drives.
Design: Familiar Styling, With a Retro PortThe 6TB My Passport, Works with USB-C has the same basic styling as previous My Passport hard drives such as the WD My Passport (5TB), as well as My Passport Ultra models. The drive’s top is a slate gray (officially, Silicon Gray), the only color available for this particular model at this capacity, affixed to a matte-black base. The enclosure, which measures 0.8 by 3 by 4.2 inches (HWD), is marginally smaller than the My Passport Ultra’s frame. The drive feels sturdy and solidly built. The biggest surfaces of the drive enclosure have two textures, with a smooth half and a rippled half bisected by a diagonal center line, while a WD logo occupies the upper-right corner of the top.On one of the short ends of the case is a USB Micro-B port. The My Passport includes a foot-long USB-Micro-B-to-USB-A cable and a USB-A-to-USB-C adapter, which allow it to connect to either a computer’s USB-A or USB-C port. (In benchmarking the drive, we connected it to a USB-C port on our testbed.) One caveat: don’t lose the cable. USB Micro-B ports and cables were commonplace in the golden age of spinning hard drives, but not so much anymore. If need be you can order a USB Micro-B-to-USB-C cable and eliminate the need for the adapter, but it’s still a hassle.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
A status light to the left of the port glows when the drive is connected.
Capacity: Pushing Portable Platters to the MaxThe WD My Passport, Works with USB-C reviewed here and the aforementioned WD My Passport Ultra are part of a group of 6TB hard drives that the company released in May. They represent the first of the new highest-capacity portable hard drives on the market. In 2016, maximum capacity plateaued at 5TB, and there was speculation that these peripherals, which incorporate a 2.5-inch spinning hard drive and are powered from a computer over a USB connection, had reached their capacity limit—until WD broke through it. So far, no other company has either released or announced similar products.In addition to the 6TB version I tested, WD offers three other capacities for the My Passport, Works with USB-C. The list prices are detailed below. Regarding cost per gigabyte, the sweet spot is the 5TB model, with the 6TB drive having a marginally higher cost per gigabyte that shouldn’t deter users from opting for the highest capacity.
WD says that it typically does not provide throughput (sequential read and write) speed ratings for the My Passport hard drives, as they are not high-performance drives.The My Passport includes Acronis True Image backup software, plus 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption and password protection. AES is the gold standard in drive encryption, considered essentially unbreakable in the case of a brute-force attack. To take advantage of the encryption, you simply install and launch the WD Security app that comes on the drive, enter a password, and optionally add a password hint. By default, whenever you connect the drive to a computer or reboot, you’ll be prompted for the password before you can access your data.WD backs the My Passport with a three-year warranty, which is standard for portable hard drives from major manufacturers.Testing the My Passport USB-C: Solid Platter-Based NumbersWe test external hard drives using PC Labs’ Windows 10 storage testbed, a desktop PC built on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard, an Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce graphics card.The My Passport comes formatted in exFAT file format, which is compatible with both Macs and Windows PCs. (The My Passport Ultra’s native format is the Windows-only NTFS.) We first ran our two Mac-based tests—the Blackmagic Disk Speed benchmark and our own file copy test—from an Apple MacBook Pro using the laptop’s Thunderbolt port. Then, we reformatted the drive in NTFS and ran the Crystal DiskMark, PCMark 10 Data Drive, and 3DMark Storage tests on the Windows testbed.
Overall, the My Passport, Works with USB-C’s scores were in line with those of other spinning hard drives we have tested, including our comparison drives. (Remember that all these scores are poky compared with even the most basic external SSDs.) On Crystal DiskMark, Blackmagic, and PCMark 10, its scores were higher than those of the 6TB My Passport Ultra; in fact, its PCMark 10 score was the highest of the group, besting the Ultra’s score by 9%, and it also had the highest Blackmagic write throughput score. The Blackmagic Disk Speed benchmark measures a drive’s throughput for reading and writing various video formats, while PCMark 10 measures a drive’s speed by aggregating its scores on various everyday storage tasks. The USB-C-friendly My Passport also did well on the 3DMark Storage gaming-centric benchmark, though its score lagged the Ultra by about 8%. While you wouldn’t want to load or run games from these hard drives—external SSDs have far better 3DMark Storage results—it’s a great medium on which to archive them. Assuming an average file size of 100GB per AAA game, you could store about 60.Verdict: An Excellent Jumbo Hard DriveThe WD My Passport, Works with USB-C’s main selling point is that it has the same best-in-class 6TB capacity that we saw on the recently reviewed Editors’ Choice-winning My Passport Ultra. But it has other appealing features. Like the Ultra, it includes Acronis True Image backup software, plus 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption and password protection through the WD Security app, and WD backs it with a three-year warranty. The regular My Passport reviewed here is a tad smaller than the Ultra, and its sole port is USB Micro-B rather than USB-C. (It does include a cable and an adapter; between the two, you can connect either with a computer’s USB-C or USB-A port.)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The WD My Passport, Works with USB-C earns bragging rights by besting the Ultra in Crystal DiskMark testing and scoring the highest of all our comparison hard drives in PCMark 10. But although its scores were largely better than the Ultra’s, the differences were relatively minor, and spinning hard drives can’t hope to compete performance-wise with even basic external SSDs.If you require a drive with a USB-C port, the My Passport Ultra is the better choice, but the My Passport, Works with USB-C serves the same role. Its included cable plus adapter lets you connect from the drive’s USB Micro-B port to a computer’s USB-C port. This doesn’t hurt performance, and it even saves you a little money. Thus, the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C earns its own Editors’ Choice award for portable hard drives.
WD My Passport, Works with USB-C (6TB)
Pros
6TB is current peak capacity for a portable hard drive
Includes Acronis True Image backup software
256-bit AES encryption
Good benchmark results for a portable platter-based drive
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The Bottom Line
The name may be quirky, but the WD My Passport, Works with USB-C is a capacity champ among portable external hard drives, available in versions up to 6TB.
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