I’m needing advice on a backup harddrive. WD has portable ones (Passport) that probably are based on 2.5 drives, and so called desktop ones (My Book) that I presume are based on the old bigger drives. The smaller portable ones appeal because they don’t need power bricks, and the bigger ones do. I don’t need portable, but like not having another brick. Planning to connect to USB 3 on my router as network backup. Is the portable drive a compromise in some other way? Less reliable because smaller? Thx
Hi,
My Passport is around 5 years old, formally moved every month from one location to another. Now runs only on my PC for past three years. Had some software problems early this year. Now runs on WD Backup and WD Discovery with no trouble. Backups are limited to one or three times a week and only active files. Others have had problems, especially having the Passport and MY Book recognized.
I have no experience with network router or MY Book. You should also check Knowledge Base for details of Passport capabilities.
Cliff
3.5" drives aren’t “old.” 
The advantage to 3.5" drives is that they’re available in much larger sizes than the 2.5" portable drives.
I think you can get up to 4TB in 2.5", but up to 12TB in 3.5".
Also, the 3.5" drives often are faster I/O than 2.5" drives due to power and caching.
