- #How to format wd elements for mac and windows mac os#
- #How to format wd elements for mac and windows software#
- #How to format wd elements for mac and windows Pc#
- #How to format wd elements for mac and windows windows#
#How to format wd elements for mac and windows windows#
All that I suspect happens is that they all fall off the end of the same production line and x get sent to be formatted as Windows and y get sent to be formatted as Mac but otherwise they are identical.
I would be extremely surprised to find there was any actual difference in the hardware between the two. As I posted above WD do a My Passport Windows and a My Passport Mac. You may only know for sure when you plug it in. My mac has no problem recognising the My Passport I own but that model is from 4 years ago. Ok, so one last question: how would I know in advance if my mac is able to recognise the drive? If you don't have any need to share files then having separate Mac and Windows partitions suitably formatted will be OK. If so then you need a file system that both can read and write to.
#How to format wd elements for mac and windows Pc#
Depends if you have a need to share files between a Windows PC and a Mac.
#How to format wd elements for mac and windows software#
One last thing, if my mac can read it will it be able to work with time machine like my old My Passport? I plan on doing regular auto back-ups and don't wish to use the internal back up software on the drive.Īlso, can't I just partition the hard drive like I did last time and reformat each partition to my liking?Įntirely up to you. My fear is that my mac won't read it in order for me to actually reformat it. Like I said, I have My Passport at home and it works like a charm with both windows and mac so was confused when I saw the currys specs and it didn't say it could be reformatted. But even that is pretty minor in the grand scheme of things as if all else fails just format as FAT32 and it should be usable on both.Ĭool, thanks. It only becomes a challenge if you want to use the same drive with both Macs and Windows PCs. But with other drives I don't bother looking at the specs to see if it is Mac or Windows, I have yet to find a drive that the Mac can recognise and list in Drive Utility that it hasn't been able to format with the Mac file system.
So Drive Utility could not format it as it didn't know it existed. The only issue I have ever had is with a Toshiba drive that, for some reason we never did figure out, the Mac just could not see. I use Macs at work and have used several USB drives with them.
#How to format wd elements for mac and windows mac os#
The only real difference between it and the "Windows" version is the file format it uses out of the box and the software bundled with it will be Mac OS compatible rather than Windows. If you go to the WD website for the My Passport drive it says it comes pre-formatted for Windows but can be reformatted for other operating systemsĪs I said above as long as the Mac Drive Utility recognises the drive it should be able to format the thing irrespective of what file system is already on the drive. This is what 'WD My Passport' looks like today: It's not even compatible with mac anymore according to the specifications.īasically, WD Elements looks exactly like how My Passport used to look, visually, and unlike today's My Passport seems to work on mac which is why I was finding it confusing.Īh right, it sounded like you were talking about your current drive.Īnyway I wouldn't believe Currys if they told me the sky was blue and grass was green. Drives don't normally change appearance for no good reason so the only way it could physically alter is if the drive you have in your hand is not the one you had before. And what do you mean by the drive doesn't look the same? Do you mean what is listed by Finder (or not depending on the file format) or physically.