Calling all digital data hoarders, Content Creators and gamers, Western digital have just released a new Portable HDD just for you.
The Western Digital My Passport Portable HDD is small at 2.5 inch, pocketable but super sized in storage with a world first of 6TB.
Sure, I hear you, there’s cloud services for on the go.
There is, but to get to a storage of 6TB via a subscription is super costly and an on-going cost.
The Western Digital My Passport 6TB keeps your files local, can fit in a laptop bag real easy and and you don’t need an Internet or data connection to access your files.
There is a My Passport app for both MacOS and Windows (if you have a new MacBook you will need to a USB-A to USB-C adaptor). This, among other tweaks and settings, allows you to encrypt folders for sensitive data and password protect the drive itself, should you leave it laying about or lose it.
With 3.0 / 3.2 (Gen 1) the data transfer speeds are pretty good.
This said, with the influx of handheld gaming PCs I would have liked to see the Western Digital My Passport 6TB have USB-C from the box.
Myself I have used this drive for back ups of large gaming data folders and rendering out 4K video.
A gaming data folder (Steam) that was over 1TB transferred at mostly 108Mbps, taking a few hours… but not days.
Rendering out a large 4K video directly to the drive from Premier was a lot snappier than I thought it would be, finishing in around 6 minutes (to compare I rendered the same video to an older (2022) My Passport 2TB HDD and it took 28 minutes).
While having the new Gen of USB is future proofing and great for read / write speed, your console (if used on a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X) will opt for the 3.0.
For PC’s the data transfer for both read and write will depend on the specs your Rig or laptop has, as well as anything else that may be going on with internal processing power.
Transfering multiple large data folders or files does cause a bottleneck and your transfer speeds will slow.
Gaming directly from the Western Digital My Passport 6TB for Steam games worked brilliantly. No hiccups or lag, and installing direct to the drive was on par with a local install.
Western Digital’s My Passport 6TB HDD is a recommend for Content Creators from all aspects, gamers and anyone else that has large files they may need while on the go.