iamacellist

I'm looking for a drive to use with a recent purchase (a refurb march 2015 macbook pro). I'm looking at the WD My Passport (4tb) drive. It says reformatting is required to use with Mac. Should I move on and look at something else? I have never used an external drive, but it seems to me that if you have to reformat something to use it, it might not really be the best choice? Thoughts? Confirmations and/or other recommendations great appreciated. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge and experience!

wbchinook Loc: Everson WA

I use two passports on my I Mac. They were easy to format and are working fine. I use two incase of failure.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I have a 4 TB WD drive but I use it with a PC. I wouldn't worry about reformatting it for use with a Mac but maybe another Mac user will chime in...

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I wouldn't worry about the reformatting, I'd worry about the WD Passport. Specifically, the Passport is probably factory formatted with the NTFS file system (Macs can read, but not write to NTFS) which is not Mac compatible. Formatting is no big deal - you can pick either HFS+ for Mac or FAT32/exFAT if you want to be able to access and write files from either Mac or PC platforms. My concern would be the HD in the passport. Traditionally (and I haven't checked today), WD has not specified which of its drives are used in the passport. I would prefer to pick my drive (HGST or WD Black or RE) and an enclosure with fan cooling as opposed to the prepackaged passport.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

What I've recommended to others is to get a drive case and use either a WD Black or WD RE drive - these drives are their premium, 5 yr warranty drives. The Black is pretty fast, and popular among gamers, and the RE is marketed as a datacenter drive, certified for RAID use - both are solid performers and should last a while.

Most of the retail packaged drives are junk. You can tell by the price difference and the warranty. Another good drive is a Hitachi (HSGT) Ultrastar - also popular for datacenter and RAID use. LaCie is basically a Seagate version of the cheap WD externals, but for a higher price.

There is nothing inherently "special" about a drive for a Mac. It uses the same hardware and firmware as a PC - you just have to format the drive for Mac OS, which is no big deal. They come formatted and ready to go for PCs because there is a 9/10 chance the buyer is on a PC.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

External drives are det up with NTFS formatting for Windows PCs. Mac's being "special" you have to reformat them. Don't worry about it.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

No big deal. Format it and name it. I'm looking at my eight external drives right now – 23TB.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Reformatting took only a few minutes. Painless. Your suspicions are unwarranted, relax. These drives are very well thought of. They are also sort of hard to find. I tried to buy an extra one from WD in Dec and it was on back order! Use them with both my Mac Books and do not have any problems. 4tb hold a lot of RAW images. No power pack to include in your bag. Small enough to lose in your shirt pocket. Great team-mate for a laptop. Enjoy.

whitewolfowner

The WD My Passport drive is an excellent external drive to use. It comes ready for mac if you buy the model formatted for mac. Adorama sells it, here's the link:




20% Off
WD My Passport 4TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive for Mac, Black
SKU: WDBP6A040BBK MFR: WDBP6A0040BBK-WESN

edhjr Loc: Needham, MA

Well said, I have used them for 15 years without a failure but still always used in pairs with all pictures downloaded daily to both drives!

NKshooter Loc: S. WI

I spent Christmas in AZ and wanting to reduce weight bought a WD 2TB wireless pro to use with my iPad. That along with the Nex 7 kit I put together really reduced my carry on to the size (or smaller) then most purses on the flight. After the set up it worked fantastic! I was able to download directly to the drive via the SD slot and upload to Lightroom on the iPad for PP and really couldn't be happier with that small system. Can't replace a desktop or large monitor but for travel or field work it's great. Plus I didn't have to lug my laptop around or borrow my sisters computer. WD makes fine, trustworthy drives IMHO

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

I have owned WD 4TB Passport Pro for 2 1/2 years. It was/is pre-formatted for HFS +J. I recently had a problem with file recognition when using with Capture 1. Instead of waiting for the drive to 'pass out', I contacted WD for support under the 3 year warranty. They ultimately replaced it. So, whether you get the Pro or regular drive, the company stands behind their warranty. Now to what is really important.
If you are just looking for cheap backup (quantity), then this is a good solution. I did this for just that reason 2 1/2 years ago. I use a MB Air and will ultimately switch to the Pro, however, that does not change the fact that working with large RAW files is slow. Or should I say slower than I would prefer. The new Mac (your selection is great) will help. But the real issue is that hard drive discs will fail. Even though we all have backup upon backup, it does not change this fact. So, I decided to go for an SSD. Yes, it is expensive; but my pictures and editing are priceless; to me. I purchased the Samsung 2TB Portable SSD T3. I did this for a few reasons: it is a much faster r/w; it is not only smaller and lighter, but is 'shock resistant' due to the nature of the SSD drive. No spinning disks. No excessive heat build up. And much less chance of drive failure (especially when considering the 4TB Passport has 2 spinning HD).
I now use my 4TB Passport Pro as my first direct backup.
Why did I settle for 2TB when I had 4TB? In actual use, I am only using two years of files. Actually my current year, and look back to the previous year as a convenience. This decision became more important as my workflow became more intensive with 45MB Raw files. Why do I need to have the last 10 years of digital files on a drive that I am constantly using (and not intentionally abusing)? So, my complete DSLR history is on one 4TB portable drive, Drobo 5N for piece of mind, and archived with video files from 1980 to 2015 on multiple WD and Seagate portable drives. These are all identical copies with instructions for my kids on how to use them should they ever want to have these for their children and future. My 'Home' photos are all about this. My work photos are handled separately and much more simply.
There is one more thing you should keep in mind about backing up files. Do you back up your editing program's 'catalog' or 'library' on these drives as well? Of course you want to have the primary library on your desktop as the response time is much faster; however, if you do not have this routinely backed up with your files, you could lose your edits to the files. Most programs today do not modify the original file, but have the edits reside in the separate library file.
So, after all of this, I am thrilled with my SSD. The transfer/backup to my multiple devices is as fast as the slowest routine will allow. My transfer to my Drobo 5N via hub to ethernet for large folders of files is easy, clean, and speedy. And my current throughput to my MBookAir is much easier and gives me a much better peace of mind.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Buy a good drive and call Apple to get the best format. I use 2 1 1/2 TB small drives and carry at least one of them with me all the time. They set me up to use them in my Mac or my windows machines. It takes 2 minutes

Dan Mc Loc: NM

Take a good look at the Toshiba externals.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

Like everyone else said, just reformat it and use it. I actually reformat drives occasionally. Reformatting locks out any potential bad sectors and tests everything thoroughly.

I know that many people here have had bad experiences with Seagate. I have not. I've been using Seagate drives for over 25 years without a failure. That said, the mean lifespan of all drives is about two years. (Google and two other companies have done historic analysis.) so don't trust any drive completely. For, what I presume are legal liability reasons, Google did not specify the best brands. But another company did and HGST topped the list. But Seagate and WD were neck and neck.