Using WD MY passport with my Mac

Hi
I have a My Passport Wireless External Disk that I am trying to use with my Mac that has EL Capitain OS. MY Passport Format is ExFAT.
I have formatted it .
Do not understand how to proceed further thru the various videos by WD or on you tube. Have tried reading similar questions on this forum but the Format of the drive is different.
I am a complete novice when it comes to these things and need to be taken through this step by step please.
I would like to use this drive to save all my photos and documents.
I would like to learn how to proceed to be able to do this.
Thank you

Welcome to the forum.

How do you want to attach the drive to the Mac? If by USB cable, all you need to do is to plug it in and it should appear in Finder and on the Desktop. Make sure that you have Finder set to show Eternal drives for it to be visible there, and also on the Desktop options to have it show on the Desktop.

If you want to attach it through your network, then it will have to be attached to the network (usually the router) by an Ethernet cable, then you go through Finder to find the drive, under "Shared" devices. Once it shows up in Shared Devices, just click on it to have it display like any other drive. If you have it set with a login and password, you will have to provide that when prompted for it.

As for using the drive to save photos and documents, you will need to be a bit more specific, as different applications have settings on where to save documents and images. What applications are you wanting to use for these photos and documents?

I would like to learn how to proceed to be able to do this.

Click to expand...

The fist step is to get it formatted for mac use and the instructions for various Mac OS X version are pretty clear which you can follow at:
https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=3865#maveandyose


As for a backup with a wireless drive have a read about doing so and using Carbon Copy Cloner.app:
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/i-want-back-up-my-whole-mac-time-capsule-nas-or-other-network-volume

As for possibly using Time Machine.app, some guru will have to comment.

But it looks like these should help and still work:
Backup disks you can use with Time Machine
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202784
and
Use an external hard drive for wireless Time Machine backup
http://thefrustum.com/blog/2014/7/19/use-an-external-hard-drive-for-wireless-timemachine-backup




- Patrick
======

Hello friends,

is it ok for me to join in here? I also have a My Passport hard drive connected to my Mac; it shows on the desktop. I'm new here and wasn't advised to format it. I believe I have backed up my Mac onto it, and it should automatically back-up during the day every day. My Mac is only 1 week old, and I haven't done much with it. I'm a complete Mac novice and can't figure out anything yet!

Frank.

@ckristoff, if you purchased a WD My Passport for Mac, then you are all set. If it was not​ “for Mac”, then it would need to be formatted to work with Time Machine.

Not necessarily. A friend of mine recently bought a 1Tb WD USB drive for use with Time Machine. She was running Sierra and when she plugged it in a dialogue box came up asking if she would like to use it for TM backups. Clicking yes initiated the reformatting of the disk without doing anything further. It was originally FAT32 . Now it is Mac OS Extended (Journalled).

Excellent to know. I usually format any new drive that I attach to my machines, including winOS, before attempting to use them. Hope I remember for the next time. Thanks.

Hello Bob,

thank you for your reply. I have got the Mac version, and as far as I'm aware, it's working.

Frank.

thank you for your reply. I have got the Mac version, and as far as I'm aware, it's working.

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I would seriously suggest that you test that it is working, and do so occasionally and check.

Also you can see what format its using and other details within Disk Utility.app and selecting the actual drive, not just its volume name.




- Patrick
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Patrick, it's a bit late for this reply, but for a Network Attached Server (NAS) drive, the format does not matter. Only if it's directly attached by USB is that critical. I have two NAS drives and neither one has ever been formatted for Mac. The Network interface takes care of the transition of the data. I use one for TM backups and the sparcebundle is created just fine.

@MacInWin

Patrick, it's a bit late for this reply, but for a Network Attached Server (NAS) drive, the format does not matter. Only if it's directly attached by USB is that critical.

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Thanks for the info Jake.

Do the other non-Mac "problems" like file size restrictions disappear as well???

Oh well, never mind, getting a bit off topic here…




- Patrick
======

Well, I don't push the 4GB limit but I suspect it does not, if the fundamental format of the drive has that limitation. But as I said, I don't push that limit with anything on the drive. Maybe somebody else here knows?