WD My Passport vs WD My Passport "for Mac"

[PsychoCenobite]

I'm looking at getting a new external hard drive for Time Machine backups - I currently use a 3TB WD My Passport "for Mac" but I need a larger 4TB size but I'm not sure if I need to get "for Mac"?

There seems to a be a price differences between the two, with "for Mac" being more expensive but I'm not sure if that is justified.

Can I get a standard WD My Passport and use it straight out of the box with my Mac for Time Machine and can I install the WD Security (password) software on it - either with the software it comes with or downloaded from WD's website?

Many thanks.

 

[PieTunes]

No hardware difference, the "for Mac" one just comes pre-formatted for macOS. Get the more affordable one for reformat it in Disk Utility to use it for Time Machine.

 

[NoBoMac]

1) get the "plain" drive: paying extra for WD to pre-format the drive as HFS+

2) "plain" will work out-of-the box with Time Machine: Time Machine will format the drive accordingly (depending on OS, but most likely APFS)

3) skip the WD Security software. Just asking for trouble with that (read: software breaks, becomes incompatible with later OSes). Just setup Time Machine to be encrypted. And if adding other partitions to the drive, just make them encrypted as well.

 

[PsychoCenobite]

Thanks for the replies. I thought that might be the case but just wanted to double check first.

Many thanks! 👍

 

[Boyd01]

Have not looked at these for awhile, but just check the specs to make sure they are USB 3.0. I have several old Passports that are USB 2.0 (~35MB/sec) and a couple of the newer drives, called Passport Ultra that are USB 3.0 (~100MB/sec). Hopefully they no longer sell the old version, but you never know.

 

[HDFan]

Be aware of the confounding USB specifications. From an archived Apple support article with outdated information removed. Note that USB-C is the connector type which is not related to features supported.

USB specifications​

USB specifications are important primarily when you want the most speed and power for your USB device, or your device needs more power or is using too much power. Every USB port supports a particular USBspecification, which determines the port's maximum data-transfer rate (speed) and power delivery when used with a USB cable and device that meets or exceeds that specification.

USB specifications on Mac	Data transfer	Power
USB 3.1 Gen 2 Also known as USB 3.2 Gen 2	Up to 10 Gbps	Up to 15W at 5V
USB 3.1 Gen 1 Also known as USB 3.2 Gen 1 or USB 3	Up to 5 Gbps	Up to 900 mA at 5V
USB 2.0	Up to 480 Mbps	Up to 500 mA at 5V
USB 1.1	Up to 12 Mbps	Up to 500 mA at 5V

• Check the System Information app for more details, including about USB devices connected to USBports on your Mac. Select USB in the sidebar, then select a USB bus on the right.

 

[bladerunner88]

Just FYI I was given a WD Ext "For Mac" and it INSISTED on installing all kinds of microsot/WD Proprietry Software, which i disabled and trashed could not get the drive to format or erase in Disk Utilities not matter what I tried.
Also it was not letting me copy over GB's of work which was the whole point of getting drive.

i was able to Partition it using Disk Utility, and finally it began to act like a regular Mac Ext. Drive.
so frustrating and time consuming As I was supposed to hand the drive over to a Producer and wanted it to be a seamless experience as they had gone on a trip specifically to get me a drive and didn't have to want to explain that my Fancy MBP could not read the Drive that they had given me......

 

[Fishrrman]

blade wrote:
"I was given a WD Ext "For Mac" and it INSISTED on installing all kinds of microsot/WD Proprietry Software, which i disabled and trashed could not get the drive to format or erase in Disk Utilities not matter what I tried."

It's possible that the drive had some kind of "protected partition" on it that ordinary disk formatting utilities (such as disk utility) could not "destroy".

In such cases, it's usually possible to remove such a partition using the actual (WD) proprietary software.
Once removed, THEN you can completely erase the drive with disk utility.

 

[bladerunner88]

blade wrote:
"I was given a WD Ext "For Mac" and it INSISTED on installing all kinds of microsot/WD Proprietry Software, which i disabled and trashed could not get the drive to format or erase in Disk Utilities not matter what I tried."

It's possible that the drive had some kind of "protected partition" on it that ordinary disk formatting utilities (such as disk utility) could not "destroy".

In such cases, it's usually possible to remove such a partition using the actual (WD) proprietary software.
Once removed, THEN you can completely erase the drive with disk utility.

Aha Thanks, yeah i was up against a deadline so was not thinking rationally just saw it tryinchg to install a buch of stuf I was not interested in installing.