WD 3 TB My Passport Wireless Pro, Black

Product Information

Taking these capabilities and running with them further, the My Passport Wireless drives can also be used as DLNA or Plex media servers, wirelessly streaming content to compatible players like smart TVs, and their batteries can also be used to charge other devices over USB like phones.

There are a number of important options in those tabs and you might want to go through each one individually. But while a direct USB connection is massively faster, it does restrict the drive to being accessed by one device at a time; ideal if you’re simply dumping a load of data to or from it, but in effect no different to a basic portable hard disk. I do photography and Time lapses so many pictures transfer and I need something fast with a battery that would last a day of shoot meaning 3 to 4 64gb sd cards. Again a faster SD card could see this process completed sooner, but generally I’d insert the card and let it finish the task unattended, sometimes with the drive in a bag or on a car seat.

To conclude, it takes a while to know whether the My Passport Wireless SSD is something you actually need, or just a product that’s providing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. This gets quite annoying, since you don’t know if what you’ve done has actually registered with the unit, and had me impatiently pressing buttons multiple times. There’s no display on the drive, but four blue LEDs indicate the backup progress, one quarter at a time. The Sony a9 III is the world's first full-frame mirrorless camera to feature a global electronic shutter with simultaneous readout.

My plan is to dump from SD card onto the SSD and to process off the SSD with Lightroom Mobile (yes I have a CC account) and then to save the processed files back to the SSD. If you’re connecting directly to the drive, say in the field, then you’ll need to browse the available Wifi networks with your device and choose the drive’s 2. Once again I’d recommend selecting the option to copy new files only, otherwise your drive will fill up fast with duplicated content. By checking the box, you acknowledge Western Digital's Privacy Statement and agree to receive communication from Western Digital that includes newsletters, updates, and promotions related to Western Digital's products. The drive comes in different sizes; 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, and I went for the 500GB version as it’s very rare that I ever shoot anything like that amount of data when I’m travelling, even with the 4k video on my cameras and drone, and shooting full uncompressed RAW images.While the former is something many of us can certainly live with, those who are planning to use the device to back up data from external memory card readers will be sorely disappointed with the performance of the latter. When I copied approximately 53 GB of data to Gnarbox, it took a total of 45 minutes and 27 seconds, something I was very unhappy about, as it only took around 11 minutes to copy the same data to my computer.

Ultimately if you can’t imagine travelling without your laptop, then you should simply go for a smaller and cheaper portable drive instead like WD’s My Passport Ultra. WD provides a list of compatible cameras, although you may find newer unlisted models also work so long as they share a similar format to previous models; for example, I was able to view RAW files taken with a Sony A7 III even though it hadn’t yet been added to the compatibility list; WD can also provide compatibility with newer cameras via firmware and app updates, although none were available during my testing period. Well, essentially it’s a portable solid state hard drive with a slot where an SD card can be plugged in, and with the touch of a button backed up onto the drive with no need for a laptop, so it can be backed up in the field, in the airport, or anywhere. There’s LaCie’s DJI Copilot hard drive, not to mention Kickstarter projects like the Gnarbox, currently gearing-up to launch its version 2 model by the end of 2018.On my iPad I can transfer up to 66MByte/s WebDAV or FTP instead of 10-12MByte/s SMB (sustained, large files) on AC866, so… wireless may not be quite that unusable, depending on protocol and App used. In truth a pair of pants can weigh more than a laptop, so one fewer makes room, though I usually have no trouble with room in the photo backpack I carry on board as my “personal item”. Previously, I’d have to select photos I wanted to edit/share back of my camera, then transfer them via Bluetooth to my iPad. And while the rubber bumper helps soften any blows, it’s far from bullet-proof and in no way water-resistant.

You can also use the rubber casing to sandwich your phone whilst it’s charging – I’m assuming that’s what it’s there for! The WD My Passport Wireless SSD has one more trick up its sleeve: it can be used as a wireless media server, dishing-up photos, music and videos to compatible players. The idea of a self-contained drive is to provide backup in the field without the need to lug around a laptop. You can only imagine how painful it will be to transfer files from XQD, CFast and other fast media types…you will need to wait a while for the process to finish. Use of an internal HDD in a RAID configuration or device will void the Data Recovery Plan purchased with the product.I’ve never really liked travelling with a laptop if I can avoid it as I just prefer not having to carry one with me or leave it in the hotel room or refuge, and I rarely want to do significant editing while I’m on the road.