Western Digital Passport Essential ext hard drive

There are no instructions with this product other than attach to computer via usb2.

Having attached I get Passport icon on desk top and have now clicked on every folder but cannot sync drive to my computer.

Am I missing something obvious?

If you know how to install this product I would appreciate some help.

Thanks

While the drive itself is mc compatible, the software they supplu is windows only

Synchronized and secure - Plug My Passport into any PC, edit files, read e-mail, and view photos. Then sync all of your changes back to your home or office computer. Your data is protected with 128-bit encryption. (Windows only)

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What version of OS X have you got, Tiger or Leopard - that will let us know which back-up or sync method is best for you.

Do you want to use that drive just on your mac or do you need it for PCs as well?

WD passport essential

thanks for prompt reply

running OSX 10.5.4

only need to back up documents, photos and music

do not have a PC so mac only

regards

skrinton (Northants UK)

You say the drive mounts so that's OK, its working

Ignore all the folders on that drive, they are the windows software that syncs in windows only, none of that software will work for mac

If you are going to use that drive on your mac only, then open up disk utility (in Applications > Utilities) and you should see your external drive in its list

Select your external disk and select the erase tab, Choose MacOS extended (Journaled) and reform the external drive.

Once done you can either back-up your files manually, or I would recommend backing up your whole home folder (the user folder) using RsyncX, which can then just update the back-up (sync) as often as you want

http://www.freemacware.com/rsyncx/

similar question

I have a similar question about the same device. Any help would be much appreciated! I need to transfer my files (from my last PC) off of the drive and into my Macbookpro. Any ideas of how to do so?

ive got the same quiery, but im gunna be using my WD hard drive to transfer files to-and-from my PC to blackbook...anything i should be aware of/do?? cheers guys

pfeffema said:

I have a similar question about the same device. Any help would be much appreciated! I need to transfer my files (from my last PC) off of the drive and into my Macbookpro. Any ideas of how to do so?

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you need to format it to FAT32 to be able to use it on both PC and Mac

benparko said:

you need to format it to FAT32 to be able to use it on both PC and Mac

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Hi, is there any topic to instruct how to format the hard drive to FAT32? And is it safe to use it on both PC and Mac, I heard that data sometimes may corrupt...

Thanks!

babybungbu said:

Hi, is there any topic to instruct how to format the hard drive to FAT32? And is it safe to use it on both PC and Mac, I heard that data sometimes may corrupt... Thanks!

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It's best to use a Windows third party application to format a hard drive to FAT-32 if you wish to use it for both your Mac and a PC. Disk Utility does not create a "clean" single partition for FAT-32, instead it leaves a small 200 MB EFI partition at the beginning of the drive. That can cause problems with a Windows PC.

You can also use the free open source Linux GParted to format a drive to FAT-32.

Regards.

chscag said:

It's best to use a Windows third party application to format a hard drive to FAT-32 if you wish to use it for both your Mac and a PC. Disk Utility does not create a "clean" single partition for FAT-32, instead it leaves a small 200 MB EFI partition at the beginning of the drive. That can cause problems with a Windows PC.

You can also use the free open source Linux GParted to format a drive to FAT-32.

Regards.

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Thank you for your prompt reply.

I'm using a MBP so I need to find a PC to do the format for my hard drive?

What platform does your preferred software Gparted run on? And if it doesn't run on Windows, what other software can I use?

Thanks.

You would need a third party Windows program because the built in formatter in Windows will not format a drive to FAT-32 that is larger than 32 GB.

As far as GParted is concerned, it's Linux based. Go to the web site I included in my last reply. You can download a free ISO and burn it to a CD. The CD is bootable and will be able to format your hard drive to FAT-32 regardless of size.

Regards.