WD just dropped a bunch of new 6TB portable hard drives. We have two in for review.

[@andrewenglish3810]

the problem is you cannot shuck them, the interfaces are apart of the drives circutry.

[@computersales]

I'm just sad they are spinners. Although in today's SSD market if they were normal 2.5" drives that would be handy. I'm guessing the USB port is on the drives board though.

[@StorageReview]

Not everyone needs flash for portable capacity, the 8TB SSD is still $400 more than these and you need an enclosure.

[@computersales]

@@StorageReview I just like the idea of portable SSDs being more resilient.

[@AchmadBadra]

Why not 8 TB :/

[@J0k3r399]

Can you share the model numbers of the drives inside, like WD60xxxx?

[@danwat1234]

All 15mm thick. 6 times 1TB platters? Curious if the Gaming drive is any different than the others? No 2.5 drives thicker than 9.5mm have ever been 7200RPM. Samsung Spinpoint M9T 2TB has 3 times 667GB platters that I won from you over 10 year ago!

[@StorageReview]

6x 1TB yes, probably 15mm, probably 5400RPM. Need to sort some of that out. Guessing they're all the same drive, just different packaging, design.

[@J0k3r399]

WD confirmed to some sources that it's 6x 1TB SMR glass platters in a taller chassis. And their current ""gaming"" drives are identical to normal ones: 4800/5400rpm with SMR. So I wouldn't have any expectations there.

[@danwat1234]

@@StorageReview 12 years later and we have gone from PMR 667GB to SMR 1TB how slow! HAMR MAMR 3D stacked tracks FTW

[@danwat1234]

@@StorageReview Gaming firmware probably haha

[@Elemino]

Hard Drive... 6TB... I'm guessing the pro is supposed to be these are USB powered? Because if I'm getting a hard drive, I need a lot more than 6TB. Bump it up to 3.5" size and enclosure, and your limit is currently around 30TB. Who would be the target market for these? They're too slow to edit video, not enough storage to act as an archive... I don't get it WD. These seem like a fail right out of the gate to me.

[@nathanmurray]

Portability - it is much easier to carry a portable, USB powered 2.5" HDD than a full size 3.5" external with separate power supply. These kinds of drives are perfect for a photographer to offload/back up photo and video footage onto while on a trip, or as a simple backup solution for the not-so-tech savvy computer user. I personally have two 5TB ones that I use to backup the most important data on my NAS - they're rotated between the NAS and an offsite location. The 5TBs are getting pretty full, so 6TB versions are a welcome addition to the range.

[@Elemino]

@@nathanmurray I’ll stick with the Samsung T series SSD. 4 TB and much much faster… and if you drop it, there’s no risk of data loss.

[@sidbrun_]

@@Elemino are you being dense on purpose? Those Samsung SSDs are almost triple the price for 4TB (These are 6TB). The Samsung T7 4TB is £441 which is £110 per TB, whereas the WD My Passport 6TB is £162 which is £27 per TB. Cheap and slow storage, vs fast and expensive storage, they serve different purposes. It's also unclear as to how long an SSD can store data for. SSD manufacturers tell you to plug the drive in at least once per year to prevent data loss. Hard drives can last far longer without being plugged in.

[@AchmadBadra]

@@Elemino no risk data loss? Be careful for instability of electricity, those issue cause data loss for ssd, more worse bit rot, and silent degradation. Is already 2 brand with little miss configuration on their firmware, cause masses dead nand on their product, like samsung 980/990 and sandisk portable. It leave permanently damaging the ssd.

[@Elemino]

@@sidbrun_ why would I need a portable drive I don’t intend to plug in at least once a year?

[@TheOfficialOriginalChad]

You should never buy a 4-6TB hard drive.