Western Digital 6TB Elements Desktop USB 3.0 external hard drive for plug-and-play storage - WDBWLG0060HBK-NESN

To enhance my media playback experience, Instead of transitioning to a NAS system I decided a more simple solution, a WD compact hard drive with 13 TB of storage capacity. This decision was driven by the desire for a more straightforward setup and seamless integration with my Zidoo media player. The installation process was seamless, and the video playback through the hard drive was flawless. The system effortlessly updated the video posters, resulting in an overall enhanced visual and auditory experience. The ample storage space provided by this hard drive allows for future expansion, and I may consider investing in a more extensive NAS system in the future. But for now, I wanted to keep it simple and less costly and I achieved both.

I carry this with my laptop as a rather large capacity archive storage drive. I never have to worry about having enough space if I run across pdf articles or instructional vids for my projects. Price was reasonable, well packaged, and arrived the next day. Can't ask for much more.

Worked perfectly right out of the box! I've been using this exact brand for over a decade and have another 1TB drive that still works flawlessly to this day. Couldn't be easier to use, would definitely recommend it to anyone in need of extra storage space or a way to transfer files.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Came highly recommended by so called experts, so far I think they were right. No issues at all with the external drive, I plan on buying another just as an extra layer of protection. Backup capability:High capacity at a reasonable cost.

I recently upgraded my MAC and needed a larger drive for my TIME MACHINE backups. Since my past experience with WD drives has always been good, I got this one. I cannot speak for future reliability, but based on my experience with the other WD drives, some I still use a few years later, I am not anticipating any issues. It is not a huge drive, so easy to hide away near your computer, if you're on desktop. I would not want to carry this around, but it i snot so big that you could't if you wanted to.However, this drive is NOT plug and play for MAC (hence my four stars). But formatting it for MAC is very easy. The main thing is: DO NOT -- and I repeat DO NOT -- install the software that comes with the drive. As others have stated, it creates nothing but issues and you do not really need it. To this day, I have never used it with any of my WD drives. Here is what you do:1) Plug the drive. Your MAC will recognize it as 'Elements.'2) Go to your Applications folder and open UTILITIES, then DISK UTILITIES.3) Find the 'Elements' drive on the left side of the window and select it. Then, on top of the window click ERASE.4) Another dropdown window will open, asking you to choose a format. For newer MACS choose the first item on the list: APFS. It will also ask you to NAME your drive. Do so. Then, proceed to erase. Your MAC will do the rest.If you're setting this up for TIME MACHINE, another window will open after your drive is formatted and mounted, asking if you want to use this drive for that purpose. Proceed from there. Otherwise, your drive will already be mounted on your desktop and ready for your use. That's it. Takes less than 5 minutes.My only gripe about this drive is it needs to be plugged in. The rest is fine.

Drive quality:I got one of these each for my siblings when they graduated college and high school so that way they'd be able to keep all of their school information together. They were using flash drives before and this was a great upgrade after one of the flash drives got corrupt. Easy to use. Huge storage and was a reliable companion during their studies.

I purchased two of these at the same time to add some redundancy in my backups. I've had no problems with the original transfer of data as well as usage afterwards.

"Plug and play" means exactly that. When I first plugged this drive in to my Windows PC, it didn't recognize the drive. This is an easy fix. Just go to "disc management" and format the drive there for NTFS. It should show up in the list there "unallocated". Just format it and bam, no problemo. Follow the auto filled prompts along. It's easy. So that is my only complaint, if you want to call it one about this drive. It is built solid and great quality as usual.