# WD My Passport

- Source: https://stierproducts.com/products/wd-my-passport
- Category board: https://stierproducts.com/categories/hard-drives
- Placement: #1 of 18 in Hard Drives, S tier
- Brand: WD
- LP on this board: 964
- Last researched: 2026-09-10T07:06:27.866Z
- Method: https://stierproducts.com/methodology
- Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22062813 - every board at once, one dated snapshot per release, same licence, prices and photographs left out
- Reuse: Text, rankings, tier assignments, LP values and verdicts are free to quote and reuse with attribution to stierproducts and a link to the source URL (CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Product photographs are not covered: they belong to their respective owners and are reproduced to illustrate the product being reviewed. Do not redistribute them under this licence.

## Verdict

Excellent portability and price per terabyte.

## For

- Compact, lightweight design
- Good transfer speeds for a portable drive
- Affordable
- Built-in automatic backup
- Reliable performance

## Against

- Limited to 5-year warranty on some models
- No built-in encryption in older versions

## Evidence

Consolidated from 29 cited sources across 27 outlets

| Outlet | Said by | Stance | Link | Link status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| r/DataHoarder | u/Dreamboy1209 | C | https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1tstcx0/is_western_digital_my_passport_5_tb_hard_drive/ | fetched and confirmed |
| r/DataHoarder | u/AnonymousYTer | C | https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1r2yd2c/is_western_digital_my_passport_that_bad_of_an/ | fetched and confirmed |
| Stellar Data Recovery India | Stellar Data Recovery India | B | https://www.stellarinfo.co.in/kb/wd-elements-vs-my-passport.php?srsltid=AfmBOoonXoZpaWLrGjmi9tLrdYmr-Ak4zmR8WpeedmDutSlH_DsL0ivL | fetched and confirmed |
| Instagram | - | B | https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcald-HHz7P/ | fetched and confirmed |
| MDrepairs | MDrepairs | B | https://mdrepairs.com/blog/western-digital-my-passport-data-recovery/ | fetched and confirmed |
| Kotaku | Mike Fazioli | B | https://kotaku.com/wd-5tb-my-passport-falls-to-0-02-per-gb-as-amazon-goes-no-margin-on-storage-deals-post-cyber-monday-2000649736 | fetched and confirmed |
| Havecamerawilltravel | havecamerawilltravel.com | B | https://havecamerawilltravel.com/wd-mypassport-wireless-review/ | fetched and confirmed |
| Home Office Research | homeofficeresearch.com | C | https://www.homeofficeresearch.com/external-ssds/wd-my-passport-ssd-review/ | fetched and confirmed |
| Facebook | - | B | https://www.facebook.com/100094893073224/videos/take-your-data-wherever-you-go-with-the-wd-my-passport-portable-hard-drive-relia/1552059079735498/ | fetched and confirmed |
| MiniTool | Vega | C | https://www.partitionwizard.com/clone-disk/wd-my-passport-vs-elements.html | fetched and confirmed |
| PC HUB | PC HUB | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pO1vzbIK30&vl=en-US | fetched and confirmed |
| Gauging Gadgets | Gauging Gadgets | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RBpaRPI5r0 | fetched and confirmed |
| Stellardatarecovery | Kees Jan Meerman | C | https://www.stellardatarecovery.co.uk/data-recovery-blog/wd-my-passport-hard-drive-not-detected.htm | fetched and confirmed |
| Byte of Geek | Byte of Geek | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DliTrIQVB9o | fetched and confirmed |
| Franklin Reid | Franklin Reid | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhiLngY49fk | fetched and confirmed |
| Tech YES City | Tech YES City | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_DjZGjYvgQ | fetched and confirmed |
| RevAtlas | RevAtlas | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-MHp_eBGDU | fetched and confirmed |
| Lon.TV | Lon.TV | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogk-kI35bks | fetched and confirmed |
| SpookyFairy | SpookyFairy | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uZXIyk1Ioo | fetched and confirmed |
| WISE MAN | WISE MAN | B | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0pK2l0ejfc&vl=en | fetched and confirmed |
| EaseUS | easeus.com | B | https://www.easeus.com/computer-instruction/wd-easystore-vs-my-passport.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqAT1K9azvZ4cFZ8EhgDBkZcq3htgnqiIVGh7_IBG7ENpgYCslZ | fetched and confirmed |
| Tonfotos | Vitaly | B | https://tonfotos.com/articles/Best-External-Hard-Drives/ | fetched and confirmed |
| MiniTool | Shirley | B | https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery/wd-my-passport-access-denied.html | fetched and confirmed |
| TechGearLab | Aspen Rain Weaver | C | https://www.techgearlab.com/reviews/electronics/external-hard-drive/western-digital-my-passport-portable | fetched and confirmed |
| Gizmodo | Zainab Falak | B | https://gizmodo.com/amazon-quietly-offloads-wd-5tb-my-passport-portable-external-hard-drive-at-near-record-low-2000798525 | fetched and confirmed |
| Critical Reviews | Critical Reviews | D | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsG0gHXiTk8 | fetched and confirmed |
| Vivid Repairs | Vivid Repairs | A | https://www.vividrepairs.co.uk/wd-my-passport-6tb-external-hard-drive-review | fetched and confirmed |
| Handy Recovery Advisor | Stefan Ionescu, Roman Demian | A | https://www.handyrecovery.com/wd-my-passport-recovery/ | fetched and confirmed |
| PCWorld | PCWorld | B | https://www.pcworld.com/article/406861/best-external-drives.html | fetched and confirmed |

## Nearest alternatives on this board

| Rank | Product | Tier | Page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2 | WD Elements Desktop | A | https://stierproducts.com/products/wd-elements-desktop |
| 3 | LaCie d2 Professional | A | https://stierproducts.com/products/lacie-d2-professional |
| 4 | Seagate Portable (STGX) | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/seagate-portable-stgx |
| 5 | WD Elements Portable | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/wd-elements-portable |
| 6 | SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE | B | https://stierproducts.com/products/sandisk-professional-g-drive |
| 14 | WD My Passport Ultra | D | https://stierproducts.com/products/wd-my-passport-ultra |
| 15 | WD My Passport for Mac | D | https://stierproducts.com/products/wd-my-passport-for-mac |
| 16 | SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE ArmorATD | F | https://stierproducts.com/products/sandisk-professional-g-drive-armoratd |
| 17 | LaCie Rugged USB-C | F | https://stierproducts.com/products/lacie-rugged-usb-c |
| 18 | Seagate Ultra Touch HDD | F | https://stierproducts.com/products/seagate-ultra-touch-hdd |

The full board is at https://stierproducts.com/categories/hard-drives.

## What this tier means

- S: Exceptional. Finishes top run after run; capped at 3 slots per category.

## How to read this

- Each category is researched in four independent runs, one per lens (expert consensus, value, reliability, community pulse). Every run ranks a board of candidates that deliberately includes products buyers cross-shop but should avoid. Placements score on a ranked ladder (LP), and tiers are derived from LP, so no tier is ever assigned by hand.
- LP is this product's points on its own category ladder. It is comparable within a category and not across categories.
- Link status reports what our pre-publication link check found when it fetched the cited URL. It says nothing about the quality of the review.
- A citation with no usable link is listed rather than dropped, and is excluded from the counted total above.

## Image

https://stspimgdevmfyk46r5vwkay.blob.core.windows.net/images/products/wd-my-passport.webp

Product photographs are not covered: they belong to their respective owners and are reproduced to illustrate the product being reviewed. Do not redistribute them under this licence.