Can't get WD external to work - please help

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I just purchased a Western Digital Passport Elite for use with a Macbook Pro running 10.4.11... mostly extra disk space for music, etc. but also would like to use for backup. I would prefer that it work with pc's as well, but if that makes things too complicated it's OK for it to be used with macs only.

At first, I thought there was something wrong with the product as I got a message saying that the disk couldn't be read. However, looking at posts on here it seems that's normal since the software that comes with it is only for windows. I've tried erasing and partitioning and just get an input/output error. I've never done this before and am close to just returning the thing to Costco and getting something more mac-friendly (please advise on a good buy if you don't have suggestions on getting this to one to work).

Thanks.
 
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THose Western Digital Passport drives are designed to be a networked storsge device over ethernet, and yes - they are not advertised as Mac compatible.

You may be able to access it through USB, try seeing if anybody else has managed it, otherwise take it back and get a standard external hard drive (USB2 or Firewire)
 

chscag

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Your Western Digital Passport Elite is very clearly advertised by WD as being Mac compatible. I haven't run across a modern drive that wasn't compatible for both PCs and Macs. :)

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=408

What format did the drive use? If it was FAT-32 or NTFS, your Mac should have been able to at least read the drive. (R/W for FAT-32)

Anyway, you should be able to use Disk Utility to erase the drive, create a partition, and then format it as HFS+ or FAT-32.

If none of that works, take it back to Costco. They accept returns with no questions asked. Look on their shelves and choose another drive.

Regards.
 
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I was sure a similar post in the past pointed to a drive that was not Mac compatible

Thanks for pointing out the fact that I was wrong chsag
 

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