Regarding the My Passport WD Drives

[mondatoalo]

Ok, so here is the deal. I want to buy a portable drive for backup. Though, the problem is, I researched too much. I found out that plenty of the WD drives have the USB port soldered on the board instead of having a Sata->USB adapter. I have checked the dismantling of the My Passport drives on youtube. Though, I am not sure about the new drives released on 2016 with the same name with a different design. Does anyone know if those drives have the USB soldered into their ports, too? Can anyone suggest a portable 4TB drive without the USB being soldered that is good for backup? I am concerned regarded the soldered USB port because I found up they can be easily broken and when that happens, you cannot do anything about it if you are out of warranty. So, I prefer to get a drive where I could replace the adapter.

 

[RolandJS]

There might be a work-around, IBusiness-oriented computer store has adapters that could be fitted onto the soldered usb port, converting same into whatever is needed. For example, Altex Electronics and Frys Electronics in Austin carry various adapters. I'm wondering if that might just work for you.

 

[mondatoalo]

Though what is the point if the soldered USB fails everything fails. I would consider buying a laptop sata hdd and putting it in an external enclosure but I am worried about the quality of those enclosures. I saw that the Seagate drives use drives with sata board + adapter. Though, the drives inside are samsung and I do not trust samsung drives even though Seagame purchased samsung hdd division.

 

[RolandJS]

I've used certain adapters and so far cannot remember having any failures with said adapters. Anything made by man can and will eventually fail. Make routine backups -- such has saved me from great OS loss and Data loss over time.

 

[Saga Lout]

Any disk will do and mate it with any proprietry caddy. The units that come as a single piece of equipment seem more likely tofail.

That said, I had a 1TB WD Blue which failed after only fifteen months and couldn't get a response from WD.

 

[mondatoalo]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Yeah, I already have an old my book hdd. That is why I am getting a new hdd to provide a backup of it. Though, I am not sure about the new line of "my passport" hdds. I want to know if they have soldering or not. I have considered getting another my book but at my home country power fails from time to time. That is why I am considering a USB powered device this time. By the way, the WiFi "my passport" devices have an adapter instead of soldered USB port. I saw the dismantling on youtube. Though, it is very expensive.

@Saga Lout, by the way, if your hdd is very old you can try opening it up and see if it has an adapter. If that is the case plug it into another enclosure and see if that help. If it is soldered, there is a service that I found on youtube that allows you to purchase a new board for the HDD, if your data is important. I do not know how much it costs, but feel free to check it out.

I am still hoping that someone who has dismantled the new hdd would reply here.

Thanks.

 

[Saga Lout]

Thanks for that but it's just a plain old 2.5" WD Blue laptop HDD which should have had a far longer life than fifteen months. Even most manufacturers don't reckon a hard disk to last more than four years but this one went down with all hands (data) much sooner than that.

The disks inside ready made caddies are usually stuffed with software which can also fail and often does. When that happens, data can sometimes be rescued from the disks using a cable with a USB at one end and two at the other, oneof which handles power and the other data.