WD 18TB My Book external hard drive, Desktop HDD with Password Protection, USB 3.0, SuperSpeed USB, software for device management, backup, hardware encryption, works with PC and Mac, Black

works well . a bit noisy like all western digital drives. fast transfer speeds

Excellent product. This is the second one I've purchased in the last four years. It is very easy to install on a Mac and comes with very handy software to secure your drive with password protection. I use this one as a backup for the old one. Reliability and speed have been excellent. I have the 18TB version, which is massive capacity for storing anything you want. I would highly recommend it.

I've only had this hard drive for a day and I haven't tried many similar modern products, so take this review with a grain of salt. But this external is noisy. It's not a constant white noise that you get used to, it's a varied and heavier sound, as if it was changing gears or something. I wouldn't say it's really loud, but it is distracting.Another issue I found is that sometimes it is still active even when I am not reading any files from it. Normally, I expect that when I close all windows that are looking at files on this external and if I stop any transferring or programs that are reading off it, then it should stop 'thinking' and I should be able to 'safely eject'. With all my other externals (these are all not wall-powered FYI) that works fine. But with this external, it somehow is still thinking when everything is closed, I can't eject it and it makes noise. Usually I can then eject a few minutes later, but not always.

Bought several of these external drives in the past they all worked on plug in. This one bought October 8th 2024 is inaccessible. Even WD utilities can't access it. It appears in devices but reports it is "unformatted" and "not ready". So when WD own utilities formatting software fails because of a 5X "password" error makes me think this is a customer return unit and not a new unit. I've obviously not set any passwords. Too late to send it back to Amazon by a just few days. I should have powered it up on delivery. Last WD product I ever buy and maybe the last time I buy from Amazon. £319 down the drain. If I'd bought it from PC World I'd be able to return it today. If I could put minus stars on this review I would.

I've been using Western Digital drives for years, as anecdotally I've found them to be more reliable than Seagate. Thus far, this 14TB external drive is no exception. I regularly write and read data from this drive and find it to be more than capable of large data transfers whilst staying cool and quiet.Inside the enclosure is a white label 14TB drive, which I believe to be a varient of the WD Red NAS drives, which bodes well for reliability. Via USB 3.0, I am getting around 200mb/s read speeds and 180mb/s write speeds, which is excellent for a HDD, especially via USB.The drive isn't silent when operating, but it's certainly much quieter than my Toshiba N300 drive which easily drowns out the WD when both are being used. The drive also runs cool, topping out at around 45C when writing in an open air environment with plenty of ventilation.The only complaint I would have is that WD are still not using USB-C connectors, having to keep a specialised USB Micro-B cable around is a real pain when everything else I use has USB-C. It's a minor complaint, but the difference for a manufacturer to use USB-C over Micro-B is around 25p per connector, so it's definitely doable from WD's side.Pros:- Runs cool and quiet with proper ventilation.- Large capacity for the money.- Shuckable should you want to remove the drive from the enclosure (this does void warranty).- White label WD drive inside, similar to a WD Red NAS drive (but much cheaper).Cons:- USB Micro B.- Can slow down after an hour or so of solid writing, but you won't find a hard drive that doesn't do this.Overall, thus far I'm very happy with the drive, sustained writes maintain a decent speed and it stays cool and quiet when in use. I've had several external WD drives and all are still working to this day, so I have confidence that this one will continue to do so too. Though if you have crucial data, you should always back it up, no drive will last forever!

Large storage at an affordable price, WD trusted build quality

Use it for backups and it does what its meant to.

Noisy, makes weird clunking noises and vibrates ridiculously. I have no idea if its faulty or not, if its not faulty it sounds like its going to die at any moment. I have returned it. Maybe it was a just a faulty drive but it wasnt packaged very well, just came in the retail box and the gentle and careful delivery might a mashed it a bit. Also I just noticed that one of the corners of the box is a bit squished. Other than that, it seems like a fine drive.Update - do a search for preventative wear leveling, thats the reason it goes clunk every 5 seconds, its irritating. WD could have done more to deaden the sound as its just a plastic box with a noisy hard drive in it. And no matter which manufacturer you go with, they all do the same if the drive is over 8TB. If you can put up with the clunks and vibration, get one.