As of 2018, Western Digital offers no shortage of external drives for Mac computers – from the My Book Essential to the My Book Pro and the My Book Studio, nearly 30 WD drives play nicely with Apple’s macOS operating system, as does the My Passport Studio model. But with more than 262.5 million PCs shipped in 2017, according to data from Statista, there’s a good chance your Passport Studio will need to play nicely with a Windows computer, too. When it comes to cross-platform flexibility, you’ve got a few options for crossing the Mac and PC streams.
I've copied most of the files on my Passport to my computer but have a problem. I can't seem to find some of the files on my computer that I know I copied. I've tried to search for them but they don't show up. Now the problem is that I don't remember how I copied the files from my Passport to my computer in the first place. A WD My Passport formatted with Mac file system will be a dud on the Windows and vice-versa. Thankfully, MS-DOS FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously.
About eFAT and FAT32 Here’s something your My Passport for Mac Quick Install Guide might not tell you: Hard drives usually come formatted in two different ways, one catering to Windows and one catering to Mac. NTFS-formatted drives work with Windows computers, and HFS+ drives work with Mac. However, by formatting your My Passport differently, you can ensure compatibility in a variety of different ways. Hard drives formatted to exFAT or FAT32 can read and write data on both Mac and PC operating systems, though FAT32 is limited to a 4-gigabyte-per-file size limit. Formatting your drive will erase all its data, so be sure to back it up before making the change.
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External Drive for Mac to Windows 10 If you’ve got a WD external drive for Mac platforms and you want it to work on a Windows 10 PC, exFAT format is your best bet. To start formatting, connect your WD Passport to your Mac; then open “Mac HD” and click “Applications,” “Utilities” and “Disk Utility.” From the Disk Utility window, select the Passport hard drive. Here, you’ll usually see two listings of partitions available on the drive – select the listing that is furthest left. Click the Disk Utility’s “Erase” button; assign the drive a name in the “Name” field; then hit “Erase,” and click “Done” when the erasing process is complete. Now, click the “Partition” button at the top of the Disk Utility and click “Format.” Choose “exFAT” from the drop-down menu that appears and click “Apply” to format the drive, which will take a few minutes. Once the formatting is complete and you get a message that says “Operation successful,” click “Done.” To Windows 8 and Earlier The external drive for Mac to Windows 8 transition makes use of Window’s built-in Disk Management software rather than the macOS Disk Utility, but you’ll still want to format your WD Passport as an exFAT drive. To do so, connect the Passport to your PC, enter the Windows 8 Start menu and choose “Disk Management.” In the Disk Management app, right-click on the drive and select “New Simple Volume.” from the menu that appears.
This brings up the New Simple Volume Wizard. Click the “Next” button until you get to the “Format Partition” window and choose “exFAT” under “File System” (you can also change the name of the drive under “Volume label” if you wish).
Make sure the “Perform a quick format” box is checked, and click “Next” when you’re ready. Click “Partition” and then “Finish” to format the drive to a cross-platform compatible exFAT mode.
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How can I move files from my PC to my Mac with WD My Passport and then use the HD as an external backup? I have about 1.5 TB of files on the PC and I would like to access them on my MacBook Air but keep them stored on the hard drive. I would then like to use the hard drive as an external backup device and a new place to store my music and films. Does this require re-formatting in order for the PC to get files on there?
If so, will I have to 're-re-format' it to read and write from my Mac? I am using a MacBook Air 2012 with OSX 10.7.5 2GB RAM 1.86GHz Duo Core 2 Intel Processor. Thanks, Mark. Click to expand.someone else will probably answer this better, but in the meantime. There are different formats for drives, all drives can be formatted in any of them but changing format virtually always means deleting all data. NTFS - micrsoft's format of choice. Works great on a pc.
Can't be read or write from a mac unless you buy a 3rd party driver and I've had problems in the past with both of the two main options. HFS+ - apple's format, so if your drive was bought with a mac sticker on it, its prob this. Windows can't see it without buying a clunky app. FAt32 - very old format, works on anything, and i mean anything.
Pc, mac, wii, televisions, anything. However doesnt handle individual files over 4 gigs. ExFAT- i always have one drive formatted as this so i can access from bootcamp and pc, a modern version of fat32, can handle big files, works on mac and pc. Just doesnt work on televisions etc. If you definitely never want to use the drive with a pc again, or with bootcamp, then reformat as fat32 or expat, copy the files from pc to drive, drive to mac. Then reformat (deleting everything) to HFS+ and use with your mac.
Click to expand.Yes, use Disk Utility to format it as exFAT. Plug it into your PC. Copy the files to it. Then your Mac will be able to see the files. However, exFAT is not the most reliable filesystem in my experience. It's kind of a kludge itself.
If you only need to access the external HDD from Macs (not from any Windows PCs), then you might consider transferring the files over the wireless network from to the PC to your Mac (with the external HDD plugged in). It will take a LOT longer, but in the long-term, it might be a more reliable way to store all that data. Or if you have a friend with a spare 1.5TB+ external drive, transfer the files to that drive and then transfer them again to your new drive.