difference between wd passport and passport ultra

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: Dec 25, 2015

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im planning to buy a WD external hdd but i cant decide which one . my passport ? or the element ? state there pros and cons

: Oct 7, 2007

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Hi Prince.

To be honest when it comes to buying portable drives of the 3.5 " or 2.5 " external drive enclosure type that use a Usb connection to the drive and a usb port of your system, the choice is yours passport enclosures should be smaller and use a 2.5 " drive size in most cases.

Where the Elements range of external drive enclosures can use a 3.5" sized desktop drive, and be bigger.
One thing I do have to say is the type of external drives you are looking at are often not that reliable.
I have seen a few Elements and the WD passport external drives develop faults with them after use of six months to a years use.

Due to overheating, the Usb connectors breaking on the external drive enclosure.
Or the drives controler circuit board giving out also due to heat due to the tight drive enclosure space for the drive placed in it.

: Jan 4, 2016

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Main difference obviously is size. If you want to carry it around, then get smaller one.
Performance difference is minimal, but a bit better for bigger one.

: Dec 25, 2015

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: 4,780

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Main difference obviously is size. If you want to carry it around, then get smaller one.
Performance difference is minimal, but a bit better for bigger one.

the elements have plug and play while the passport require software :/

: Jan 1, 2013

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^ that's not true , all USB hard drives are plug & play.

Are you talking about portable versions of these drives ???

If you are performance wise there's no difference at all.

Fairly certain the elements have a mini usb board in the casing meaning you could remove the drive & use as a sata drive should you ever want to.
The passports , it's a hard soldered connector (that's why theyre smaller)

: Dec 25, 2015

: 285

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: 4,780

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^ that's not true , all USB hard drives are plug & play.

Are you talking about portable versions of these drives ???

If you are performance wise there's no difference at all.

what i mean is if u plug the passport in pc it requires software while the elements is good to go

: Oct 7, 2007

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: 41,960

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It requires a usb driver made by WD to be installed on the system before use in a lot of cases when using an older os like windows Vista, or windows 7.

Windows 8.1 or windows 10 Should not be a problem if you are running either of the Os`s.
It should pick the drive up after a few seconds and have a driver in it`s driver data base to install for a passport type drive.
Prince.

: Dec 25, 2015

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: 4,780

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It requires a usb driver made by WD to be installed on the system before use in a lot of cases when using an older os like windows Vista, or windows 7.

windows 10 is a problem the usb didnt get the external hdd so i dont want to upgrade to windows 10 and yes the passport requires software but the elements dont

I have in my possession both the Elements and My Passport, let me start off by saying that both are extremely exquisite hard drives. Elements has a sleek and compact design and is a wonderful hard drive if you are looking for something to just dump your data, but if you're looking for something more fancy in terms of design plus a couple of data protection software's then My Passport would be the best bet. (Let me remind you that Elements staying true to its name is the basic version in their series and comes in a single color combination of Grey and Black)

Check out this post for further reference which includes a Performance Speed test between the two and also Unboxing of each of these drives separately - http://deepbheep.blogspot.in/2017/10/wd-elements-vs-my-passport-ultra.html

Let me know if you have any further doubts, Always happy to help!

Brilliant stuff, thanks mate!
Judging by the speed test you run on that post, My passport would be the choice for me!

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