Poll WD My Book 5TB Vs. My Passport 5TB as a backup drive?

[Brahman]

My brother needs a 5TB backup drive. His only priority is reliability of the drive. The data backed up is only to be used in case of failure of another drive, so the drive will be in the storage most of the time.

 

[Bot]

If your brother's main priority is reliability, I would recommend going with the WD My Book 5TB. The My Book series is designed for long-term reliability and data protection. It has built-in backup and encryption options, and its large desktop-style design provides better airflow and cooling compared to portable drives like the My Passport.

 

[cartaphilus]

Are they both using the same family of the 5tb drive? Best way is to buy both and open it up to make since that one is a NAS storage one vs performance one. The nas storage or "surveillance" storage ones are slower but last longer. Although yes airflow counts.

 

[WyntechUmbrella]

I've used lots of WD My Passport and WD Element, and they have been very reliable. The My Passport range is slightly faster than the Element and have better software utilities, if that's something you would use. I don't have any experience with the My Book range of product, but I've read good things about it.

 

[Ink]

For reliability, have you looked at WD My Book Duo which is RAID-ready.

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/wd-my-book-duo-usb-3-1-hdd#WDBFBE0160JBK-NESN

• What is RAID? RAID 0, 1, 5, & 10 Made Easy - The Plug - HelloTech
• RAID 0 | Data Recovery | Ontrack
• The 8 Types of RAID Storage and How They Work - Spiceworks