WD My Passport for mac

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Hi Gang, My WD My Passport for mac 1TB is nearing full. As I don't know much about these things, Im wondering if I get a 4TB unit will I have to somehow transfer the info from the full one to the new one?Thanks in advance! Bob
 
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Bob, that would be entirely up to you. Do you HAVE to? No, you don't. Just add the new drive to the "farm" of drives as long as you have an attachment point.

Now that was the simplistic answer, which should work for 99% of use cases. However, if there is something unique you are doing with the external, then it may make sense to copy the data over to the larger drive and then repurpose the smaller one for something else.
 
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Hi Gang, My WD My Passport for mac 1TB is nearing full.


Some other answers may also depend on how you are using the WD My Passport for Mac 1TB External Drive.

Are you using it for manually storing data or large files like videos etc., or is it being used as a backup drive with software like CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner)???

By the way, if it is being used for backups, a single backup source Is absolutely minimal, especially if it is critical data.


- Patrick
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Thanks Guys for the imputes, Im using it with my iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) I Just use it to, I believe hold some of the storage that would be taking space on my system mostly photos. I don't have any videos saved. I may have a lot of duplicate files I could sweep out if I knew how! MacInWin when you say farm do you mean plugging in a New 4TB in one of the usb ports along with my original near full passport?Thanks Guys.
 
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Yeah, sorry, that term is from my mainframe days when you had a "farm" of storage drives all in one place on the floor. Right now I have a farm of nine external drives, plus two networked drives in my network. For your purpose your farm could be the two drives. If you run out of USB ports, you can get a USB hub to connect more. Powered hubs are generally more reliable than unpowered ones.
 
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One thing I don't like about WD Passport drives is the fact that the usb connector is soldered to the internal drive's logic board. If the usb port gets damaged, retrieving the data could be a nightmare which is why I prefer to buy a bare drive and enclosure separately.
 
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One thing I don't like about WD Passport drives is the fact that the usb connector is soldered to the internal drive's logic board.


Good valid point to consider.

Thanks.

EDIT: They are also almost double the thickness of a standard notebook/netbook drive. Just in case someone was planning to re-ues the bare drive internally.

Western Digital MyPassport 2TB USB 3.0 HDD Disassembly
YouTube



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One thing I don't like about WD Passport drives is the fact that the usb connector is soldered to the internal drive's logic board. If the usb port gets damaged, retrieving the data could be a nightmare which is why I prefer to buy a bare drive and enclosure separately.

I go one step further... and avoid anything from WD. I've had too many WD Passport drives fail on me. And even when Western Digital replaced one under their warranty, the drive replacement they sent failed after only using it twice.
 
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I've had too many WD Passport drives fail on me.


That's rather surprising to me, and opposite to my experience, but maybe that's because I try to stick with their Black models. But even their external portable drives have worked well, at least for me.


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I try not to use anything but WD and have never had any issues with them at all. Seagates, on the other hand...just. say. no.
 
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I have used Seagate portables for years with no problems.

I have put together my own portables using Samsung, WD, and Seagate 2.5" drives with excellent results and reliability.
 

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Just a couple of things from me:
As far as transferring the data from one external HD to another it is really just a matter of plugging them both in and using Drag & Drop from one to the other. This method will remove the file from one HD and transfer it to the other or if you wish to keep both copies (which I suggest is safer) you could clone the smaller drive to the new, larger drive using my favorite cloning software Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC). You can also select which specific folders to clone.

Regarding duplicates, that's a bit tricky. There are a lot of third party app's that will allow you to search for and remove duplicates, some are specific for photos, others include all data types. Duplicate Fixer and it's Pro version will allow you to search specific Photo Libraries whereas Gemini 2 will allow you to search for all file types but both cost money and the down side is that you can't compare files from the Mac HD with files on an Ext HD automatically.

This is why I no longer suggest people copy their Photos library to an external HD unless it is due to space limitations and they intend to use it as their default library. If it's just a backup it becomes very difficult to keep the two in sync after a short time.

By far the easiest way to ensure that your backup stays in sync is to clone the entire Mac HD to an external HD and update it on a regular (I use weekly) basis.
With CCC you also get a "Safety Net" for files you may have deleted on the source accidentally.

CCC (and some other cloning software) also creates a bootable clone meaning you can run your device from it in the event of internal drive failure or repair it where possible. Very handy for Restoring your old computer to a new device or new HD too.

For my money (CCC is about $50.00) is well worth the cost and peace of mind.
Lastly you can get a free, fully functional, 30 day trial version to test out.
 
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Rod


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PS. I have had a WD My Passport fail on me, thankfully nothing lost due to additional backup but hen I've had other makes fail too over the years. By the way don't go paying extra for My Passport for Mac, there is no difference between it and the PC version except often the "for Mac" version costs more and is harder to find. The stock standard My Password just needs to be reformatted, an easy task with Disk Utility.
The only and oldest external HD I still have is a 10 year old Transcend 250Gb, I currently use a 1Tb Transcend for my MBP CCC clone.
 
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Thanks a lot Rod, lots of good info to consider! just ordered a 4TB passport today.
 

Rod


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Well, let us know if you have any further questions. When you actually get your hands on it you may want to consider two options whicg are really only available before you start using it; formatting and partitioning.
Yes I know its a WD My Passport for mac but I like to format new USB HD's myself to ensure they are running the same format as my computer. It will probably be a HFS+ filing system in Macintosh Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format which is fine but I like to check.
The other thing is partitioning, you might like to consider the possibilities of dividing the HD up into smaller partitions. This could be for different uses or even different formats to make the device compatible with other devices such as a Windows PC. Just a thought to consider, I used to use a 1Gb USB HD divided into two equal partitions for a portable backup, one partition for a bootable clone and the other for Time Machine backups.
 
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Rod, in that backup scheme you actually only have ONE backup. If that drive fails, you lose both backups. That is fine, as long as you know the risk. It would be better to move one or the other backup to a different drive.
 

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Jake, point well taken but it was merely an example of what can be done with partitioning, I said, I used to use a 1Gb USB HD divided into two equal partitions for a portable backup. I don't do that any more, I use a second bootable clone nowadays (the other remains at home) for trips overseas. Not only do I have more that one copy of all my backups but i would never suggest "putting all ones eggs in one basket" like that as an only backup.
I could just as easily have suggested one partition for photos and the other for documents.
The point I was making was that this is easier to decide at the beginning rather than after the device is in use.
 
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And that's fine, Rod. Just didn't want anyone reading this thread to think that two backups on one drive is a good thing. :)
 
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And that's fine, Rod. Just didn't want anyone reading this thread to think that two backups on one drive is a good thing. :)



That reminds me of the impractical Frenchman who belonged to the local Mac users group who insisted on doing that and was convinced he was double protected, but with the extra misunderstanding that the drive he was using for the backup was, you guessed it, his boot Drive!!!

I don't know if I ever actually got through to him explaining his folly.

He was convinced his partitions were separate volumes. And yes they were. And all part of the same hard drive!!! :Smirk:


- Patrick
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