Western Digital 4TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 for plug-and-play storage - Western DigitalBWLG0040HBK-NESN
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This item is eligible for return within 30 days of receipt
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Availability:
In Stock.
Arrives
Nov 4 – Nov 6
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At a glance
- Condition
- New
- Storage
- 4 TB
- Number of Items
- 1
- Model
- WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN
- Weight
- 4.8 oz
- Color
- Black
- Hard Disk Interface
- USB 3.0
- Warranty
- 2 Year Limited Warranty
- Works with
- PC, Mac
Features 3
- Elevate your storage capabilities with easy access to photos, music, videos, and files in one reliable device
- Simplify your data backup routine with a plug-and-play hard drive
- Fast data transfer speeds so you can quickly access and share your files with ease
Description
WD Elements desktop storage with USB 3.0 offers reliable, high-capacity, add- on storage, fast data transfer rates and universal connectivity with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices. The sleek design features up to 10TB capacity plus WD quality and reliability.Formatted NTFS and compatible with Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. Compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system.
Specs 32
| Digital Storage Capacity | 4 TB |
|---|---|
| Hard Disk Interface | USB 3.0 |
| Connectivity Technology | USB |
| Brand | Western Digital |
| Special Feature | Plug-and-Play simplicity |
| Hard Disk Form Factor | 3.5 inches |
| Hard Disk Description | Mechanical Hard Disk |
| Installation Type | External Hard Drive |
| Color | Black |
| Additional Features | Plug-and-Play simplicity |
| Specific Uses For Product | Personal |
| Read Speed | 625 MB/s |
| Media Speed | 625 MB/s |
| Cache Memory Installed Size | 4 |
| Data Transfer Rate | 5000 Gbps |
| Form Factor | 3.5-inch |
| Hardware Connectivity | USB 3.0 |
| Hardware Platform | PC;Mac |
| Hard-Drive Size | 4 TB |
| Item Weight | 4.8 ounces |
| Item Dimensions L x W x Thickness | 6.5"L x 5.3"W x 1.9"Th |
| Number of Items | 1 |
| Unit Count | 1 Count |
| Model Number | WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN |
| Built-In Media | AC adapter, Quick Start Guide, SuperSpeed USB-A cable (5Gbps), WD Elements Desktop hard drive |
| Model Name | Elements Desktop |
| Manufacturer | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 40 |
| UPC | 801947367016 843715110929 809396065354 718037832340 |
| Item Type Name | Western Digital WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN Elements external Desktop Storage with USB 3.0 |
| Mfr Part Number | WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN |
| Enclosure Material | Unspecified |
No specs match.
Frequently asked questions
If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is:
Nov 4 – Nov 6
Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.
To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.
View our full returns policy here.
To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.
View our full returns policy here.
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Top Amazon Reviews
inexpensive drives with good capacity, easy to make into RAID set
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
I've had four dual-drive RAID enclosures for RAID mirroring. I've never had a single drive in these enclosures to fail, but I've had several controller board failures and have ended up cannibalizing the drives for other purposes. I finally discovered (and should have known for years) that macOS can turn any two same-sized drives into a RAID 1 mirror array (or RAID 0, JBOD, or RAID 10). Two single desktop drives are considerably less expensive than buying a dual-drive unit, and if one goes bad they're cheap and easy to replace and rebuild. I bought two of these Elements 4TB desktop drives to make into a RAID 1 array for Time Machine on an iMac. I didn't want the MyBook drives because I didn't want the automatic encryption as a matter of simplicity and reliability. I needed a couple of more USB ports than I had and didn't want to bottleneck my USB 3 hub, so I bought an Anker USB-C to 4 port USB-A 3.0 adapter, since USB-C's bandwidth can absorb in one port anything these 2 drives can produce. Unboxed everything, plugged it in; fired up Disk Utility, formatted each drive for Mac, went to RAID Assistant, chose the drives I wanted, chose RAID 1 and sat back. Time from start to finish: about 15 minutes total, including plug-in time. So far this setup has worked flawlessly. These drives are cool and almost silent. Transfer rates are good, better than with the dual-drive enclosures. The price was excellent, far less than buying a dual-drive enclosure. We'll see how everything behaves over time. They have done Time Machine backups hourly for several years now without issues. Addendum: it's 2024 now, and the dual raid drives have performed flawlessly. I'm about to buy another one to back up my wife's photography and have chosen this drive again because of its reliability.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020 by MildCritter
Beast of a backup drive for the price!
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
For the price, this thing is a beast of a backup drive! $90 for 4TB (and yes, it REALLY is 4TB! more on that below...) and 200MB/s write speeds. That's tough to beat. For all the poor ratings because "you didn't get the space you paid for", look again 🙄 Data size/capacity is measured in two different ways. One is base 10 where 1000 bytes = 1kB, 1000kB = 1MB, etc. The other is base 2 where 1024 bytes = 1kB, 1024kB = 1MB, etc. (Actually, these 2 different measurements have different units/names which more explicitly clarify which base it uses but the market has decided to use the same units to represent both which, to be fair, is ambiguous and confusing). So this drive has a true capacity of 4 trillion bytes. In base 10, that can be represented as 4TB and be accurate. But your computer will report the capacity in base 2. 4 trillion bytes in base 2 comes out to ~3.63TB. Don't blame this drive for the confusing measurements. Every single HDD manufacturer now represents their disk capacity in this way. Blame the manufacturer who originally chose to use a purposely confusing and potentially misleading unit of measurement to perhaps make their drives appear larger than a competitors.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2022 by Dan
Fast, even for small files; many other drives are extremely slow
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
I found out the hard way, while transferring gigabytes of photographs, that not all hard drives are fast for small files. Some of them slow to a crawl after transferring a few gigabytes of small files -- so much so that with these big drives, it can a very long time -- sometimes even days -- to transfer a bunch of files or back up a computer. Windows and Linux have utilities for measuring file transfer speed, and Mac probably does also. When I checked, I found to my horror that another major brand of 4 TB desktop backup drive that I just bought would start up fast, then slow down to a small fraction of its initial speed. All of my 3 1/2" portable drives and my USB Flash drives did the same! After checking the Internet, I bought this Western Digital 4TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive, WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN. The Western Digital works well, and I'm happy. It's quiet and reliable. Tested with Linux on 10 MiB file size ("small" files) it does slow down, but not excessively, as it proceeds. The average read and write rates are 146 MB/s and 148 MB/s, with a 16.5 msec access time. It's also fine with large files. Other drives I found tested several times slower with small files. I got similar results testing with Windows. For an economical drive like this, the performance is great, and it gets the job done.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2020 by Small Earth
Bought two. Both are going strong, making full and differential backups, for 6 years on 2 computers.
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
Bought two. Very strong points: Both are going strong, making full and differential backups, for six years, on two computers. Since I've had mixed luck with automatic-backup software, I have to spend more time than I want keeping everything backed up, but these really great. These have been far more reliable than most external hard drives in the past. Minor Downside: Since they are high-speed spinning disks, handle them with great care when they are running or spinning down. To turn just the external hard drive off when not in use for a day or more: first you must software-eject the drive using Windows Explorer, then unplug the power plug because these don't have an on/off switch. Don't move it for about 5 minutes until it has stopped and is perfectly quiet and no vibration.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2025 by OldTech99
GREAT external HDD. 2 year warranty, not 3 years
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
I got this WD external HDD (4 TB) to replace an aging and possibly failing Fantom Drive (2 TB). Transferring everything over (mostly my music) was quick and easy without problems. This new drive has plenty of room for additional files. Of note is the matter of warranty. It was advertised in several places on the Amazon site that this WD external HDD had a "3" year warranty. Having received my new drive, the box definitely says there is a "2" year warranty and there is paperwork inside making the same claim of a "2" year warranty. I have to admit the 3 year warranty was a selling point for me. Maybe Amazon should look into this matter.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2024 by ASJ
Great for anyone looking to expand their storage at an affordable price...
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
When it comes to Western Digital, they make excellent external storage solutions. I first bought an Elements drive back in 2010 (640GB), then another one in 2013 (2TB), and now once again at the end of 2017. None failed on me yet. I've used this drive for a couple weeks now and copied about 1TB of files via USB3. I use a Windows 10 Home machine and transfer speeds range from 40-170MB/s depending on the files. My last two Elements drive were USB2 and they max out around 35MB/s, so this is a welcome improvement. If you are suffering from low transfer rates, here's some advice: Try to defrag your source disk (or trim it if it's an SSD). I tried this method and having each file in one piece of the disk can help access times to be much quicker. For those who want to know which HDD is inside my Elements, it's a WD Blue 4TB drive (I checked the model number as WD40EZRZ). So if anything happens, it could be just the SATA-USB bridge connector and not the drive itself.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017 by Hunter
Could use more robust cord
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
It's been great for over 4 years now it's about full with ps4 video games I currently have 86 ps4 games downloaded to it and 13 apps the only thing is I think the usb cord maybe getting weak because I had issues with crupted data and lost everything other than that it's been awesome
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2026 by Scott
Perfect for use with Mac Time Machine backup
Memory Storage Capacity: 4 TB
Number of Items: 1
I purchased this Western Digital Elements 4Tb desktop hard drive to use with my Mac system as a Time Machine backup. I liked that it has its own power source and a large capacity. The drive is slightly larger than I was expecting because I have an 8Tb external drive that I bought a couple of years ago for use with my PlayStation 4, and it is slightly smaller. There's plenty of space where I'm storing it, so it isn't an issue for me. The power cord is very long, and I was surprised at how long the data cable is. Most of the USB cables I get with electronics are so short that they're unusable. I could actually use this one. I did buy an inexpensive Amazon Basics cable just to have the reach of a 10' cable, but the included cable will probably work for you. The unit runs quietly and it hasn't gotten hot to the touch even while encrypting the whole thing over many days. There are air vents all over it that do blow out hot air. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase and highly recommend this WD drive to Mac users. It was plug and play with no issues. 5/5 stars
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Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019 by Zero Ehxe