Everybody loves new tech, and there’s more than a little pride that comes with being among the earliest of early adopters. One very big caveat: Some tech products qualify for the “old reliable” designation after years on the market with undiminished performance and a stellar reputation. Enter the WD My Notebook portable hard drive, 8 years young and still at the apex of the HDD market thanks to its reliability and durability. The 5TB model of the My Notebook is nearly at a record-low price right now at Amazon — just $215.
A 5TB portable drive sits in a specific and useful spot in the storage hierarchy. It’s more than enough capacity to serve as a full system backup destination for most users — Time Machine on a Mac or Backup and Restore on Windows — while also being small enough to live in a bag without weighing it down. The My Passport line uses 2.5-inch drives that draw power directly from the USB connection, so there’s no AC adapter involved. You plug it into a laptop or desktop, and it works. The USB 3.0 interface handles transfers at speeds appropriate for spinning-disk storage, which is fast enough for backing up large file sets overnight or moving finished video projects between machines.
Secure Software Built In
WD bundles its own backup software with the My Passport, which includes ransomware protection that monitors for the encryption activity those attacks use to lock you out of your files. Ransomware increasingly targets personal machines, and catching an attack before it propagates across your backup destination is the difference between a clean restore and losing everything you thought you had protected. Hardware-level AES encryption and password protection cover the physical side: If the drive leaves your possession, access is still locked behind credentials.
The drive is compatible with Windows and Mac, and the 2.5-inch form factor means there’s no external power supply to carry. At 5TB, it holds enough for most people’s full active file library plus archival material, which is the point where a backup drive stops being selective and starts being comprehensive. Most users doing selective backups of their most important files are working with far less.
Backed By Warranty
WD backs the My Passport with a 3-year limited warranty, which is standard for the category and a definite plus for a device you’re trusting with files you can’t afford to lose. The My Passport has been a consistent performer in the portable HDD space for years, and nothing about the current generation represents a step back from that.
Amazon’s new price of $215 for 5TB comes out to $43 per terabyte for portable, encrypted, backup-ready storage. If you’re running without a local backup or relying on a smaller drive that’s running out of room, this is the best case for upgrading the safety net.