WD My Passport GO, we tested this compact and rugged external SSD

The WD My Passport GO is a small , portable external storage drive built to travel with its owner. The manufacturer of this external drive has had the courtesy of sending us one of the units to temporarily check its writing qualities. Not approaching the sensational performance of the blazing-fast WD My Passport SSD , it is more discreet in that sense, this hard drive stands out for its rugged design . Join us for an in-depth look at Western Digital ‘s new device made for worry-free travel .

Presentation, design and construction of the WD My Passport GO

The My Passport GO is one of Western Digital ‘s most compact and rugged storage solutions . A unique device built to carry data and backup with speed and reliability .

Presentation of the product

WD houses the device in convenient and attractive packaging. The striking two-color design of the box is similar to that used in so many other company products. An image of the disc dominates the front face of the package. It is surrounded by informative text and icons that summarize the characteristics of the device.

The unit awaits inside the box embraced by a plastic cradle. A multi-language brochure with technical support and warranty information is attached to the portable drive .

design and construction

This external storage unit stands out for its practicality and toughness . It has a rectangular format , with rounded edges and a flat silhouette . The manufacturer has sent us to test the 1 TB model with a cobalt edge . This peripheral is only 10mm thick , and measures 95 x 67mm from side to side . It is as compact as it is light , since it only weighs 55 grams .

The product incorporates a shock-absorbing rubber protector , is distinguished by being a different color than the center of the unit, and has no moving parts . It is capable of withstanding drops of up to 2 meters and the band, also available in amber , protects the contents against shocks and vibrations .

It’s basically a pocket accessory , considering that WD has integrated the connection cable into the device. The idea is to have a practical and easy-to-carry peripheral , from which we do not have the risk of forgetting a component that prevents it from being useful to us outside the home.

WD My Passport GO Use and Utilities

The WD My Passport GO 1TB drive provides the same features and has identical applications as a regular external storage drive. Its main use is to store data: programs , music , photos or videos , to name a few examples. It is as easy to use as a flash drive . It has added value a free program that the manufacturer offers to take better advantage of the Passport .

We refer to the WD Discovery application , also available as a free download on WD ‘s own website . The installation on our computer adds the possibility of incorporating more free software from the company: WD Drive Utilities ; WD Security ; and WD Backup . They serve to reinforce the security of the device and facilitate backup tasks , among other things.

Test of performance

Windows users do not need to perform any previous steps before using the device. Just plug the external drive into any USB port and start transferring files. The WD My Passport GO has better performance than classic mechanical drives, being able to double the speed of standard storage solutions. We have contrasted this advantage by carrying out some writing and reading tests with the peripheral connected to a USB 3.0 port .

Transfer speeds

Thanks to the CrystalDiskMark program , the performance offered by the product can be measured on our equipment. This utility runs a series of miscellaneous tests on the drive. Our results have been the following.

In the test with a data block of 512 MiB the results are:

• [Reading]
  • Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 459.520 MB/s [ 438.2 IOPS] < 18194.37 us>
  • Sequential 128KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 439.213 MB/s [ 3350.9 IOPS] < 9425.04 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 181.336 MB/s [ 44271.5 IOPS] < 11377.11 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 21.938 MB/s [ 5356.0 IOPS] < 186.29 us>
• [Writing]
  • Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 451.038 MB/s [ 430.1 IOPS] < 18533.40 us>
  • Sequential 128KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 433.892 MB/s [ 3310.3 IOPS] < 9628.22 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 189.948 MB/s [ 46374.0 IOPS] < 11021.19 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 39.105 MB/s [ 9547.1 IOPS] < 104.55 us>

Whereas with a  2 GB block , the results are:

• [Reading]
  • Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 458.939 MB/s [ 437.7 IOPS] < 18224.11 us>
  • Sequential 128KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 437.278 MB/s [ 3336.2 IOPS] < 9518.33 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 180.663 MB/s [ 44107.2 IOPS] < 11362.66 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 15.619 MB/s [ 3813.2 IOPS] < 261.59 us>
• [Writing]
  • Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 457.596 MB/s [ 436.4 IOPS] < 18267.53 us>
  • Sequential 128KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 444.371 MB/s [ 3390.3 IOPS] < 9339.79 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 191.693 MB/s [ 46800.0 IOPS] < 10614.97 us>
  • Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 36.831 MB/s [ 8991.9 IOPS] < 110.94 us>

 

WD My Passport GO 1TB Technical Specifications

Here is a summary table with all the technical details of this WD My Passport GO external drive :

Conclusions, availability and price of the WD My Passport GO 1 TB

The WD My Passport GO external drive offers capacities according to the needs of each user with great performance and, above all, with fantastic reliability that withstands daily traffic. Its virtues make it an expensive product, but nothing out of place in such a competitive market. Its ultra-compact format and the exceptional lightness of the device contrast with the resistance of a design capable of withstanding impacts that would destroy any common disk. In short, an ideal storage solution for very active users who do not stop still anywhere.

The experience with the WD My Passport GO has confirmed the quality of a device designed to follow us from one place to another, which is why we awarded it the gold Award .