Hey everybody! So, I'd like to get this very popular drive: But technically these are for Windows, and they make a Mac version here: I'd rather get the black version, and I read some of the reviews stating that you can just reformat the Windows version and it will work fine for Mac. While I'm sure I could get it to mount, would there be any possible performance issues by doing this?
In other words, is there any reason to buy the Mac version, or are they identical, but just come formatted differently? Hey everybody!
So, I'd like to get this very popular drive: But technically these are for Windows, and they make a Mac version here: I'd rather get the black version, and I read some of the reviews stating that you can just reformat the Windows version and it will work fine for Mac. While I'm sure I could get it to mount, would there be any possible performance issues by doing this?
In other words, is there any reason to buy the Mac version, or are they identical, but just come formatted differently? Click to expand.Do you have a 2012 Mac with USB 3?
If not, and you have a Firewire 800 port, then you'll get better performance with a Firewire drive rather than USB. E.g.however, Firewire is on the way out and you might not find one at the physical size and capacity you want, and will probably pay a bit of a premium. Plus, if you have an Air or a vanilla MacBook its USB or nothing. I've had one of these in the past.which was great because it fas FW800 iand/i USB3, but it was a bit overpriced and I don't think they do them bigger than 500GB. Thanks for all the advice. I'm only using this drive for extra storage/backups, so speed isn't really the focus, but I definitely want a USB 3.0 drive. I'm mostly concerned with reliability, and I'm really drawn to the My Passport series because of the WD Nomad case they make: I'm a very big fan of excessive protection when it comes to HDDs, so I'd plan on leaving in that case essentially all the time.
The other option I'm considering is going with the 1TB LaCie Rugged Mini (3.0). I'm planning on getting the Rugged 3.0/Thunderbolt SSD as a speed drive, and it would be nice to 2 Rugged's, as I really like those drives.they essentially have cases built in. But that would mean I lose a whole terabyte of storage from the WD My Passport.
Anyone have any experience with the WD My Passport vs. LaCie Rugged Mini? I'd assume the LaCie has a bit of an advantage in terms of performance. I got this one and it partitioned and formatted just fine for the Mac for use with Time Machine. The 'for Mac' designation looks to be a money grab as they anticipate many people won't know it's the same device just formatted differently.
Interesting, if you use the Product Selector on and select Mac and PC in the compatibility list it returns NO RESULTS. The WDC site has no ability to directly compare the devices. Sadly, Newegg's comparison tool seems to choke on comparing the standard drive and the 'For Mac' drive.
I think you'll find the devices identical with the exception of the formatting. The actual HDD are the same, they are just formatted differently. A lot of external drives actually come formatted FAT32 by default so that there is not a problem with it being 'picked up' by Windows or OS X. Even in NTFS OS X can read it but it can't write to it without a 3rd party software. Whether you buy a 'for Mac' drive or one not marked for Mac, OS X will still initially see the drive then you can open Disk Utility and format the drive to HFS then be able to read and write.
Or like mentioned before you can install 3rd party software and format the drive to NTFS is you would be using this drive in between OS X and Windows machines. The actual HDD are the same, they are just formatted differently. A lot of external drives actually come formatted FAT32 by default so that there is not a problem with it being 'picked up' by Windows or OS X.
Even in NTFS OS X can read it but it can't write to it without a 3rd party software. Whether you buy a 'for Mac' drive or one not marked for Mac, OS X will still initially see the drive then you can open Disk Utility and format the drive to HFS then be able to read and write. Or like mentioned before you can install 3rd party software and format the drive to NTFS is you would be using this drive in between OS X and Windows machines.
I have a WD My Passport 320GB external hard drive that I am trying to hook up to my iMac for the first time. I'm running macOS 10.13.
I'm extremely frustrated because this drive is in a read-only mode, and I can't figure out how to change it! Any suggestion to fix this? Western Digital is one of the most popular hard drive brands.
Just because WD drive has been widely-used, there are users complained that their WD My Passport is read only on Mac. This problem will make us unable to write to the WD drive, including unable to create, copy, transfer, edit or delete files on the WD My Passport drive. What causes this problem? That's because the WD My Passport has been formatted to NTFS, a file system developed by Microsoft, the competitor of Apple. When we select the drive and click 'Get Info', we can see the format is 'Windows NT File System (NTFS)'. By default, macOS only enables Windows NT File System read support but disables Windows NT File System write support. So our WD My Passport is read only when using it on Mac.
As many actions on WD My Passport drive need write support, it is very necessary for us to fix/solve 'WD My Passport is read only on Mac' problem. Actually, we only need a reliable to help write to read-only WD My Passport drive. Fix/solve 'WD My Passport is read only on Mac' problem with reliable NTFS for macOS software Here are two professional NTFS for macOS software: NTFS Assistant and iBoysoft Drive Manager. Both of them can help write to NTFS WD My Passport drive. NTFS Assistant - the cheapest NTFS for macOS software in App Store NTFS Assistant is a handy Mac tool that specially designed to enable on Mac. It is not only the cheapest NTFS driver in App Store, but also can have very stable performance. MacOS 10.14 Mojave/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7 are all supported by this tool.
Guidance to download and use NTFS Assistant Step 1: Download and install NTFS Assistant from. Step 2: Download and install to enable NTFS read-write access. After installing both NTFS Assistant and NTFS Assistant Helper, NTFS Assistant has the ability to read/write NTFS drive in Mac. IBoysoft Drive Manager - professional NTFS driver, external drive & network drive manager is a professional Mac software that can easily and effectively mount NTFS drive on Mac with read-write mode. It can mount, read, write and unmount NTFS drive, FAT32 drive, exFAT drive, HFS+ drive.
It supports macOS 10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7. Aside from above, iBoysoft Drive Manager can also be a wonderful manager for network drives and external drives. It offers a menu bar from which we can easily mount and unmount network drive and external drives, including external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, CF card and pen drive. With three simple steps to write to NTFS WD My Passport drive hassle-free Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Drive Manager on our Mac. Step 2: Launch iBoysoft Drive Manager and insert the NTFS WD My Passport drive in Mac.
My Passport Ultra Mac Installation
Step 3: Write to NTFS WD My Passport drive after getting notified that the drive has been mounted successfully.