Western Digital WD 5TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive for Windows, USB 3.2 Gen 1/USB 3.0 for PC & Mac, Plug and Play Ready - WDBU6Y0050BBK-WESN

TL;dr – it works great. Treat it with respect, be prepared to toss the cable it comes with (because they fail) and enjoy a huge amount of storage for a reasonable amount of money. You’ve probably read a ton of reviews on external drives and have arrived here. I’ve been in the tech biz over 44 years and was there when 128Kbyte 8” floppy disks were considered advanced. I’ve used a LOT of different drives. Let’s put this drive into perspective: it is NOT a “portable drive”, it’s an external drive that you can choose to move from place to place. AS WITH ALL SUCH DRIVES, it contains precision moving parts; if you drop it, it will likely break. If you move it around when it’s operating, it probably won’t like it. If you drop your laptop, it will likely break. If you want an external drive that you can really move around, get an SSD. I purchased one of these drives for cloud-storage and archival purposes. Simply put, I needed somewhere to dump large data collections for essentially read-only access as well as having a buffer area for cloud storage synchronization purposes (lots of r/w access to the drive). It worked so well I purchased another and might even get a 3rd. Cloud storage is great for frequently accessed data, but for your video collection, your vast music collection or the 130GB of pictures your spouse took last month, you might want off-line storage. This is a great choice. Is it fast? Slower than an SSD but faster than many external hard drives out there. If you want speed, use the local SSD in your device or get an external SSD drive. If you don’t want that expense, this is still a great drive. In operation the drive is whisper quiet and runs slightly warm. You may have read about the “click of death”, well, yeah, it happened to me too. It won’t run on an overloaded unpowered USB hub (click, click due to lack of power). The cable it comes with is frankly troublesome and honestly you should invest in a replacement. Yup, click, click, click because the cable failed (fortunately I had another to hand, doesn’t everyone?). All that will happen with other drives too, so it’s nothing unusual. My system: Win10 Pro and Win10 Home on Lenovo, Surface Books and Surface Pro; works out of the box just fine. For those complaining that the drive doesn’t work with some backup software; that’s not the drives fault. For those complaining about the speed for gaming purposes, that’s not the drives’ fault either, you should have purchased an SSD. Yes, it will work with Onedrive; just create a junction from your Onedrive folder to the required folder in the external drive. mklink /J srcFolder destFolder Since you have a large capacity drive for large data sets, robocopy (part of Windows) will be your friend as well as mklink to create junctions from your main drive to connection points in external drives filesystems. What happens if the drive goes down? As with any other drive, you might have lost your data. The solution is to (gasp) purchase two drives and sync one with the other. Pro’s: 5TB of storage for <$100. Quiet, fast and gets the job done. It’s a disk drive, it’s not there to be exciting. Con’s: I didn’t like the cable; invest $6 on a better one. As with ALL DRIVES, you need to treat it nicely.

First order of business: I ordered this drive (WD Elements 5tb) and received it in about 18 hours. I checked the shipping label, and it is their proprietary delivery service. USPS, take note. The box it came in was pretty regular, no fancy presentation. Which is fine. I don't like paying for felt lining. It has one port on the back, and comes with a USB cable. I plugged it into my laptop and checked it out. Drive capacity actually reads 4.54 Tb. Which isn't unusual for larger volumes. It came formatted as NTFS. Which is great, because FAT32 has a file size limit of 4gb. Next test: I plugged it into a 3.0 Anker USB Data Hub. The drive revved up, then started clicking. I recognized those clicks as motor failures from a power drop, so the USB hub is not going to do it. This beast of a portable drive needs a main-line. It can be used in USB 3.0 or 2.0 But I highly encourage 3 for faster speeds. Especially with a volume this size (You are buying it for a reason, right?) Next test: A phone mount. Similar to a Samsung Dex setup, the device I used is a Baseus USB C mount. It connects my Note10+ phone to HDMI, and...for this test...a USB 3.0 port. I wasn't sure if it would work, because the hub charges the phone, and would have to "lend" some power to the 3.0 port to power the drive. It worked. I plugged it in, and my exFAT/NTFS app fired right up. It recognized the drive, mounted it, and was ready to go. For the technical folks out there, this was by powering the phone dock with a samsung travel adapter that came with my phone. It has a variable output, but can pack a whopping 11v-2.25a (24 watts) at its highest. This 24 watts was enough to fast charge my phone, AND have the drive running. Final test: Directly into the note10+. I used a USB C - USB A adapter that came with my phone and connected them together. It worked. My phone was powering the darn thing. So there we have it. This little pocket sized drive (seriously, my wallet is larger) can be plugged into 3.0, 2.0 or directly into my phone. It came formatted NTFS, just the way I prefer. Description: I purchased a black one. As I said, it is wallet-sized. It has one port for the cable, and a small status light. The light appears to stay a solid color for both standby and active. A power failure results in a blinking status light. When the drive is spinning, you can feel a humming purr, barely audible. The casing is plastic, but solid and sleek looking. It has four non-slip dots on the bottom. Pros: Huge storage for the price, powered through USB only, NTFS formatted, small. Cons: None discovered yet. Recommended Uses: This would be a perfect drive for home network storage, office/school/home work. It would also be ideal for gaming consoles even as modern as the XBox One X. Or a handy volume for torrents. Or a handy volume for backing up a system or family photos. Possible Uses: It runs on 3.0. While Pro Gamers might chuckle at the idea, it could be used as a Steam Library. Initial load times might be slower than a built in solid state drive, sure. But so what? This is 5Tb. Portable. For under 120. It could also be used for beginner-level production. Again, it is slower than a dedicated solid state drive, of course. But for a new youtuber, or designer, or developer...this can store a lot of content.

I bought this because the PS5's revolutionary SSD can only hold 7-12 games, depending on which games you want on there. As soon as I plugged it into the PS5 it instantly recognized it as extended storage and let me transfer the PS4 games I had on the SSD to this without any sort of setup. It does take a few minutes longer than I expected to transfer games to it, but it's really not a long time and worth waiting for. You do lose the benefit of the incredible speeds of the PS5's internal SSD but for some games it's not a big deal (the Sims 4 and all of its DLC took around 3-4 minutes to boot up/load on the PS4 Pro, takes about 15-20 seconds on the PS5's SSD, and takes about 0:45-1:25 on this external hard drive). The storage space on this hard drive is massive (I chose the 5TB version); I have about 33 PS4 games on (some with tons of DLC added) it and there's still over 3TB of space available. The games run perfectly fine from this hard drive, there's no lag or stutter, and it's small enough to hide behind the PS5 so I often forget the games aren't running from the PS5 itself. One downside, though, is that some games (NHL 21 and Madden 21 PS4 versions come to mind) don't install the title updates to the hard drive; I have to move them to the internal hard drive, which takes 6-12 minutes or so, apply the updates, and then move them back. It's not a big deal and doesn't take much time at all, but still unfortunate that it has to be done. Overall, I recommend this hard drive; whether you're using it for your PC or for a PlayStation console, you can't go wrong for the price. The quality you get with this is top-notch both in terms of how it runs and the durable build.

The Western Digital 5TB portable external hard drive has been a lifesaver for my data storage needs! I needed a reliable solution for backing up my large library of photos and pdf crafting templates, and this drive did not disappoint. With a massive 5 terabytes of space, I was able to store everything I needed with room to spare. The setup was incredibly easy—just plug and play. It’s compatible with both Windows and Mac, and transferring files is fast and smooth. The size is perfect too. It’s compact and lightweight, making it easy to carry in my bag without taking up much space or adding extra weight. What I really appreciate is how durable it feels. The casing is sturdy, and it seems like it could handle some bumps while traveling. Which is important because you don't want to lose your files. Overall, this is an excellent external hard drive for anyone needing large storage in a portable format. Highly recommend for photographers, videographers, or anyone needing lots of reliable backup space!

So you wanted storage. Lots of it. You wanted to keep every photo, every movie you said you’d watch “later,” and every game you’ll probably uninstall in two weeks anyway. Enter this WD Elements 5 TB drive — your digital hoarding companion. What it offers: Five terabytes. Yep, 5 TB. That’s enough to fill with backup after backup of backups. Reviewers report it hits around 100–135 MB/s for large sequential transfers. GadgetsGenes +3 Happy TechFam +3 Review Finder +3 Plug‑and‑play simplicity: Just USB it, and you’re off (on a Micro‑B connector, because apparently USB‑C is still optional). Happy TechFam +1 Great value: At one point the 5 TB version dropped to ~$89, making it one of the more affordable “massive storage” options. Tom's Hardware Lightweight and portable enough to toss in your bag. Reviewers like the portability. GadgetsGenes +1 What you don’t get (and what you’ll be forced to accept with a sigh): It’s still a mechanical hard drive. That means spinning parts, slower speeds especially when dealing with lots of small files, and vulnerability to drops. Reviewers measured write speeds around 80–100 MB/s or less in some tests. Techwatch.de +2 Review Finder +2 No fancy extras: No hardware encryption, no bundled high‑end file‐management software, no USB‑C (in the standard model). If you were hoping for premium features, you’ll feel that absence. GadgetsGenes +1 Mixed reliability feedback. Some users swear it works flawlessly; others report failures within a couple of years, especially if handled roughly. ProductReview.com.au +2 Reddit +2 My summary in plain English (with a side of sarcasm): If you’re looking for a “put‑it‑in‑a‑drawer and never think about it” backup device, this is a great pick. It gives you lots of space for not lots of money. If, however, you’re planning on using it for mission‑critical data (like 10 years of family archives), expecting SSD‑speeds, or you’re planning to travel with it and subject it to being tossed in a backpack with your laptop and coffee tumbler — well, maybe temper the expectations. Don’t rely on it as the only copy of anything. Final verdict: Buy it if you need capacity and want a simple solution. Treat it with respect (i.e., don’t drop it, plug it into a USB‑3 port, remember: backup your backup). Expect it to get the job done, but don’t expect miracles.

Fast and has a lot of space for those many files.

I've purchased several of these drives, they are really good, durable, easy to use just plug and play. It is small, black and unobtrusive. I use it for backing up my PC.

This is an awesome external hard drive. It is very quick to backup all of my files and is small enough to fit in my backpack when traveling. Easy to format and setup. I will definitely buy more of these at this price.

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Its pretty solid and heavy which is good. Its pretty quick and reliable. No hard drive errors at all. Just format it first before use. Dont do a "quick format" in windows. Uncheck that and it will format it much slower, be patient, it will take 3-4 hours BUT what that does is remove any dodgy areas so that youre not recording valuable data onto damaged areas. This prolongs the life and reliabilty of any hard drive (this is untrue of ssd).

Disque d appoint pour mon nas. Il ne tourne pas des semaines ou des mois d affilés, mais, je prie que ca dure, il est tourne.

Très satisfait de ce disque dur externe WD Elements. Avec ses 5 To, il offre énormément d’espace pour stocker photos, vidéos, documents et sauvegardes sans avoir à se soucier rapidement du manque de place. L’installation est vraiment simple : il suffit de le brancher en USB et il est immédiatement reconnu sous Windows. Les transferts sont également suffisamment rapides pour un usage quotidien grâce à l’USB 3.0. Malgré sa capacité importante, le disque reste assez compact pour être facilement transporté. C’est exactement ce que je recherchais pour disposer d’un gros espace de stockage externe sans installation compliquée. Un produit simple, efficace et fiable, avec un excellent rapport capacité/prix. Je recommande sans hésiter.

nice items