Wd My Passport For Mac 4tb Review

Summary: Let's figure out how to format your WD Passport on macOS & Windows. In this blog post, we will walk you through the formatting process and share instructions to format an external drive on macOS & Windows.
But before you proceed, understand that formatting carries a risk of hard drive corruption and data loss. So, in case, if you had accidentally lost your data due to drive formatting or corruption, we also recommend a data recovery software that can rescue data from your HDD. Take a free trial to evaluate the software now.

• Wd Passport Mac Compatibility
• Western Digital 4tb My Passport

Professional Photographers and videographers have their hands laid upon various digital devices. Usually, their arsenal includes a cutting-edge Windows 10 desktop, the latest and the magnificent MacBook Pro, DSLR & SD-Cards of-course and the trusted & loved external drives such as the WD My Passport. The role of the WD My Passport drive is crucial since the individual will leverage the portable media to safely store their collection of pictures, videos, audio, and docs. But despite the best of the best device specifications; there remains one small glitch to rectify.

Friendly Review of the 2 TB Western Digital My Passport for Mac External Hard Drive (The setup, size, connector, fit and finish, uti. The My Passport for Mac portable drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. Its sleek style is fun and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you.

We know, Macs and Windows have their native file systems such as the new APFS or HFS and the NTFS. A WD My Passport formatted with Mac file system will be a dud on the Windows and vice-versa. Thankfully, MS-DOS FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a WD My Passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macOS and Windows OS.

To format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in ex-FAT or FAT32 format, you can bank on built-in applications of Mac & PC. However, while doing this, there are things you have to keep in mind and follow the correct steps. Here you will get to know about the process to format your 'My passport' portable drive in FAT32 and ex-FAT file system in both Windows and Mac platforms.

In Windows Platform:

1. Connect your Western Digital My Passport hard drive to your Windows PC through the USB cable. Wait till the Windows detects the external hard drive and configure it as an expansion drive automatically.

2. Now, click the Start button and select ‘This PC'. A new Windows Explorer window opens, on the left side of the screen; you will see a list of installed drives and their drive letters.

3. Locate the icon assigned to Western Digital My Passport drive and Right-click the connected drive icon and click ‘Format' in the pop-up menu.

4. Select the ‘File System' from the drop-down list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either ‘ex-FAT' or ‘FAT32'.

5. Enter a relevant name in the ‘Volume Label' field. This name will represent your drive when you connect it with Windows Explorer or Mac and will be mentioned above the drive letter for the My Passport drive. Therefore, enter a descriptive name.

6. Now, again select a ‘Quick Format' option, then click ‘Start' option, wait for a few minutes to get your drive reformatted with the FAT32 file system, so that you can use it. After successful formatting, you can directly save or move files to it like any other external hard drive.

In macOS / OS X Platform

1. Connect your Western Digital My Passport drive to Mac computer, and let the OS detect and mount the drive for use. Now, a new hard drive icon will appear on the desktop.
2. On macOS Dock, select Finder. When the Finder window opens, on the menu bar, select ‘Go' and then ‘Utilities.' After that, you will be able to see /Applications/Utilities folder in Finder. From the Utilities folder window, select ‘Disk Utility' application.
3. When the Disk Utility opens, choose the Western Digital hard drive icon from the sidebar.
4. Click ‘Erase' on the Disk Utility file menu. Now, the Erase dialogue window appears, here select the ‘Volume Format' drop-down list and choose ‘MS-DOS (FAT)' or ex-FAT File System.' Note: ex-FAT is a better choice for formatting WD My Passport on Mac.
5. Now, click the ‘Erase,' button and wait a few minutes and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format.
6. Once formatting is done, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.

Window's Disk Management and Mac's Disk Utility applications are secure platforms to erase your WD My Passport easily. You don't require any third-party software to format your WD My Passport with FAT or ex-FAT.

Caution: Avoid Formatting your WD My Passport without Backup

We can't rule out the possibilities of human errors resulting in the accidental formatting of the WD My Passport external drive. A silly man-made mistake will permanently remove all of the contained pictures, videos, audio files, and docs instantly from the WD My Passport. Hence, fasten your seat-belts and backup your WD My Passport before erasing. If you have already joined the data loss club unwillingly, then try running D-I-Y applications to recover data from Mac and Windows. Windows programme auf mac kostenlos.

Tips for Effective Formatting

1. Format your Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to FAT32 or ex-FAT format so to transfer the data between a Mac and Windows system conveniently.
2. There are specific third-party systems, like Digital Camcorders, and Sony PlayStation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either FAT32 or ex-FAT format to perform read from and write operation. Check it before selecting a file format.
3. Due to some limitations FAT32 format is not useful for every type of user, and also affects both Mac's and PC's performances. Therefore, it is better to choose ex-FAT instead.
4. Ex-FAT supports maximum volume size up to 128 PiB, and its supported maximum file size is 128 PiB.
5. Like FAT32, ex-FAT is not a very commonly used file system, due to which its support may vary among third-party devices.
6. The corruption chances of the external drive increases, if it is used on both Mac and PC systems regularly. Therefore, it is better to take backup of your important photos and videos before sharing them between both the computers.

Storage has never been so inexpensive and vast, and as you may well already know, the price of storage devices continues to plummet, and hard drive space and power expands as time moves forward.

Just consider the old AD for 'The Hard Disk You've Been Waiting For,' which cost a jaw-dropping $3398 and offered an astounding 10 MB of storage space. Textpad for mac os x download. Thank goodness, these days we can get terabytes of storage space for less than $100 and keep all the files you want.

The problem is, however, that we are inundated with portable drive models from which to choose if you need some external storage, and it's tough knowing if you're getting a good deal. There are multitudes of manufacturers, and due to some white labeling product shenanigans, sometimes multiple brands look different on the outside and go by different names, but still contain the exact same hardware on the inside.

Today we're going to compare two of Western Digitals most popular portable hard drive products: Easystore vs My Passport.

There are many similarities between these products, such as the ability to purchase them in 1, 2, 3, and 4 TB quantities, but which one is better? I'll break down the in's and out's of each product to help you make the most informed decision, but first, I did want to begin by explaining that these technologies are traditional hard drives, meaning they have moving parts and work by spinning platters and employing the use of read/write heads.

Said a different way, I want you to be aware that none of the products compared here are portable SSD (Solid State Drives), which transfer data at a much higher rate, though typically offer lower amounts of storage. With that said, let's get started with a pricing comparison.

Ultimately these two are VERY similar in terms of performance, BUT I give the advantage to My Passport due to it's additional layers of encryption features. UPDATE: It's also dropped a LOT in price for the new version (pictured)

WD Easystore vs My Passport Price

I was surprised to see how much space storage has dropped since the beginning of the year. If you need a terabyte of storage, which is pretty difficult for the average user to completely fill up (unless you're a media junkie and have hard disks packed with movies and music), you can get an Easystore 1 TB for only $50. My Passport's 1 TB is only $10 more expensive and costs $59.99.

The following outlines the cost of the storage Eaststore products:

• 1 TB Easystore – $49.99
• 2 TB Easystore – $79.99
• 3 TB Easystore – $99.99
• 4 TB Easystore – $119.99

The following outlines the cost of storage My Passport products:

• 1 TB My Passport – $59.99
• 2 TB – $79.99
• 3 TB – $99.99
• 4 TB – $119.99

As you can see, the pricing plans are the same for all models but the 1 TB version, which is only $10 cheaper with the Easystore product.

Given that the pricing models are nearly identical, I think the comparison can only come down to a determination of superior power features, though the products are similar with regards to their features too. To be fair, there are a few slight variations between the features offered with each product, but in all honesty, they are more or less the same. But before we dig in further, I did want to bring up something I found a little strange.

A Note Regarding Easystore 3 TB and The My Passport 2 TB

I did want to chime in and notify you of an oddity I found when searching for locations where the products are available. For some reason or another, I was not able to find the Easystore 3 TB available in the US. It is possible to purchase the My Passport products either directly from WD or through a reseller like Amazon, Best Buy, or Insight. But for some reason, I was only able to find the Easystore products exclusively through BestBuy.

Furthermore, the 3 TB model of the Easystore product wasn't available at all in the United States, and neither was the My Passport 2 TB. I imagine there is some corporate reason they are not available. Perhaps, for some reason or another, WD decided it could maximize sales for one product over the other by making it unavailable in certain regions. Whatever the reason may be, I was not able to find a place to purchase a new My Passport 2 TB or the Easystore 3 TB.

Hardware Specifications

The hardware specifications, again, are extremely similar. Essentially, they include a hard drive in an external case that is capable of USB 3.0 speeds, as well as backward compatibility with USB 2.0. The dimensions of the cases' length and height are identical too. However, though 1 and 2 TB models, for both products, are 0.54' thick (approximately half an inch), the 3 and 4 TB models are slightly thicker at 0.85'.

Personally, I don't think the minuscule increase in thickness would dissuade me from opting for the 4 TB drive, but everyone is different when it comes to an external drive taste. Some people love keeping everything small and compact, be it for work, travel, or simplicity.

Wd Passport Mac Compatibility

The following outlines the hardware specifications of the external storage Easystore product:

• 3.21' X 4.33'
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 capable
• Formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 using NTFS

The following outlines the hardware specifications of the My Passport product:

• 3.21' X 4.33'
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 capable
• Formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 using NTFS

Both external drives formatted with file systems that are ready for the latest Windows operating systems. If you're a Mac or Linux user, you'll have to first format the drive before you can use it, though it's a simple process and doesn't take too long.

Furthermore, note that the 4 TB versions are a little thicker than the other versions because the hard drive requires more platters to fit 4 TB worth of bits into the case. Nevertheless, the length and width of the case are still the same.

Features

Given that the products are so similar with regards to hardware and pricing, I was surprised to see that they vary significantly with regards to the features that come with the drive. As far as I can see, the three biggest differences between each product are the ability to customize its color, a 3-year warranty, and a security and encryption feature. Otherwise, it seems that everything else is the same.

They both come with the WD Discovery software and the WD Drive Utilities, which are, unsurprisingly, simple utilities that help you find, manage, and format your hard drive. I did like that both products come with built-in backup service because too many people have lost data because they simply forgot to manually back it up. The automatic backup feature allows you to 'set it and forget it' to alleviate the irritation and tedium of having to go through the manual process every time you log off your device.

The following outlines the features of the Easystore product:

• Automatic backup feature via the WD Backup software
• Drive Utilities
• WD Discovery

The following outlines the features of the My Passport product:

• 6 color customization options (black, red, white, blue, orange, or yellow)
• 3-year limited warranty
• Password protection with hardware encryption (AES-256 encryption)
• Ability to add a message to the password prompt (i.e., 'Return to ____ if found.')
• WD Security
• Drive Utilities
• WD Discovery

We know, Macs and Windows have their native file systems such as the new APFS or HFS and the NTFS. A WD My Passport formatted with Mac file system will be a dud on the Windows and vice-versa. Thankfully, MS-DOS FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a WD My Passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macOS and Windows OS.

To format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in ex-FAT or FAT32 format, you can bank on built-in applications of Mac & PC. However, while doing this, there are things you have to keep in mind and follow the correct steps. Here you will get to know about the process to format your 'My passport' portable drive in FAT32 and ex-FAT file system in both Windows and Mac platforms.

In Windows Platform:

1. Connect your Western Digital My Passport hard drive to your Windows PC through the USB cable. Wait till the Windows detects the external hard drive and configure it as an expansion drive automatically.

2. Now, click the Start button and select ‘This PC'. A new Windows Explorer window opens, on the left side of the screen; you will see a list of installed drives and their drive letters.

3. Locate the icon assigned to Western Digital My Passport drive and Right-click the connected drive icon and click ‘Format' in the pop-up menu.

4. Select the ‘File System' from the drop-down list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either ‘ex-FAT' or ‘FAT32'.

5. Enter a relevant name in the ‘Volume Label' field. This name will represent your drive when you connect it with Windows Explorer or Mac and will be mentioned above the drive letter for the My Passport drive. Therefore, enter a descriptive name.

6. Now, again select a ‘Quick Format' option, then click ‘Start' option, wait for a few minutes to get your drive reformatted with the FAT32 file system, so that you can use it. After successful formatting, you can directly save or move files to it like any other external hard drive.

In macOS / OS X Platform

1. Connect your Western Digital My Passport drive to Mac computer, and let the OS detect and mount the drive for use. Now, a new hard drive icon will appear on the desktop.
2. On macOS Dock, select Finder. When the Finder window opens, on the menu bar, select ‘Go' and then ‘Utilities.' After that, you will be able to see /Applications/Utilities folder in Finder. From the Utilities folder window, select ‘Disk Utility' application.
3. When the Disk Utility opens, choose the Western Digital hard drive icon from the sidebar.
4. Click ‘Erase' on the Disk Utility file menu. Now, the Erase dialogue window appears, here select the ‘Volume Format' drop-down list and choose ‘MS-DOS (FAT)' or ex-FAT File System.' Note: ex-FAT is a better choice for formatting WD My Passport on Mac.
5. Now, click the ‘Erase,' button and wait a few minutes and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format.
6. Once formatting is done, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.

Window's Disk Management and Mac's Disk Utility applications are secure platforms to erase your WD My Passport easily. You don't require any third-party software to format your WD My Passport with FAT or ex-FAT.

Caution: Avoid Formatting your WD My Passport without Backup

We can't rule out the possibilities of human errors resulting in the accidental formatting of the WD My Passport external drive. A silly man-made mistake will permanently remove all of the contained pictures, videos, audio files, and docs instantly from the WD My Passport. Hence, fasten your seat-belts and backup your WD My Passport before erasing. If you have already joined the data loss club unwillingly, then try running D-I-Y applications to recover data from Mac and Windows. Windows programme auf mac kostenlos.

Tips for Effective Formatting

1. Format your Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to FAT32 or ex-FAT format so to transfer the data between a Mac and Windows system conveniently.
2. There are specific third-party systems, like Digital Camcorders, and Sony PlayStation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either FAT32 or ex-FAT format to perform read from and write operation. Check it before selecting a file format.
3. Due to some limitations FAT32 format is not useful for every type of user, and also affects both Mac's and PC's performances. Therefore, it is better to choose ex-FAT instead.
4. Ex-FAT supports maximum volume size up to 128 PiB, and its supported maximum file size is 128 PiB.
5. Like FAT32, ex-FAT is not a very commonly used file system, due to which its support may vary among third-party devices.
6. The corruption chances of the external drive increases, if it is used on both Mac and PC systems regularly. Therefore, it is better to take backup of your important photos and videos before sharing them between both the computers.

Storage has never been so inexpensive and vast, and as you may well already know, the price of storage devices continues to plummet, and hard drive space and power expands as time moves forward.

Just consider the old AD for 'The Hard Disk You've Been Waiting For,' which cost a jaw-dropping $3398 and offered an astounding 10 MB of storage space. Textpad for mac os x download. Thank goodness, these days we can get terabytes of storage space for less than $100 and keep all the files you want.

The problem is, however, that we are inundated with portable drive models from which to choose if you need some external storage, and it's tough knowing if you're getting a good deal. There are multitudes of manufacturers, and due to some white labeling product shenanigans, sometimes multiple brands look different on the outside and go by different names, but still contain the exact same hardware on the inside.

Today we're going to compare two of Western Digitals most popular portable hard drive products: Easystore vs My Passport.

There are many similarities between these products, such as the ability to purchase them in 1, 2, 3, and 4 TB quantities, but which one is better? I'll break down the in's and out's of each product to help you make the most informed decision, but first, I did want to begin by explaining that these technologies are traditional hard drives, meaning they have moving parts and work by spinning platters and employing the use of read/write heads.

Said a different way, I want you to be aware that none of the products compared here are portable SSD (Solid State Drives), which transfer data at a much higher rate, though typically offer lower amounts of storage. With that said, let's get started with a pricing comparison.

Ultimately these two are VERY similar in terms of performance, BUT I give the advantage to My Passport due to it's additional layers of encryption features. UPDATE: It's also dropped a LOT in price for the new version (pictured)

WD Easystore vs My Passport Price

I was surprised to see how much space storage has dropped since the beginning of the year. If you need a terabyte of storage, which is pretty difficult for the average user to completely fill up (unless you're a media junkie and have hard disks packed with movies and music), you can get an Easystore 1 TB for only $50. My Passport's 1 TB is only $10 more expensive and costs $59.99.

The following outlines the cost of the storage Eaststore products:

• 1 TB Easystore – $49.99
• 2 TB Easystore – $79.99
• 3 TB Easystore – $99.99
• 4 TB Easystore – $119.99

The following outlines the cost of storage My Passport products:

• 1 TB My Passport – $59.99
• 2 TB – $79.99
• 3 TB – $99.99
• 4 TB – $119.99

As you can see, the pricing plans are the same for all models but the 1 TB version, which is only $10 cheaper with the Easystore product.

Given that the pricing models are nearly identical, I think the comparison can only come down to a determination of superior power features, though the products are similar with regards to their features too. To be fair, there are a few slight variations between the features offered with each product, but in all honesty, they are more or less the same. But before we dig in further, I did want to bring up something I found a little strange.

A Note Regarding Easystore 3 TB and The My Passport 2 TB

I did want to chime in and notify you of an oddity I found when searching for locations where the products are available. For some reason or another, I was not able to find the Easystore 3 TB available in the US. It is possible to purchase the My Passport products either directly from WD or through a reseller like Amazon, Best Buy, or Insight. But for some reason, I was only able to find the Easystore products exclusively through BestBuy.

Furthermore, the 3 TB model of the Easystore product wasn't available at all in the United States, and neither was the My Passport 2 TB. I imagine there is some corporate reason they are not available. Perhaps, for some reason or another, WD decided it could maximize sales for one product over the other by making it unavailable in certain regions. Whatever the reason may be, I was not able to find a place to purchase a new My Passport 2 TB or the Easystore 3 TB.

Hardware Specifications

The hardware specifications, again, are extremely similar. Essentially, they include a hard drive in an external case that is capable of USB 3.0 speeds, as well as backward compatibility with USB 2.0. The dimensions of the cases' length and height are identical too. However, though 1 and 2 TB models, for both products, are 0.54' thick (approximately half an inch), the 3 and 4 TB models are slightly thicker at 0.85'.

Personally, I don't think the minuscule increase in thickness would dissuade me from opting for the 4 TB drive, but everyone is different when it comes to an external drive taste. Some people love keeping everything small and compact, be it for work, travel, or simplicity.

Wd Passport Mac Compatibility

The following outlines the hardware specifications of the external storage Easystore product:

• 3.21' X 4.33'
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 capable
• Formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 using NTFS

The following outlines the hardware specifications of the My Passport product:

• 3.21' X 4.33'
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 capable
• Formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 using NTFS

Both external drives formatted with file systems that are ready for the latest Windows operating systems. If you're a Mac or Linux user, you'll have to first format the drive before you can use it, though it's a simple process and doesn't take too long.

Furthermore, note that the 4 TB versions are a little thicker than the other versions because the hard drive requires more platters to fit 4 TB worth of bits into the case. Nevertheless, the length and width of the case are still the same.

Features

Given that the products are so similar with regards to hardware and pricing, I was surprised to see that they vary significantly with regards to the features that come with the drive. As far as I can see, the three biggest differences between each product are the ability to customize its color, a 3-year warranty, and a security and encryption feature. Otherwise, it seems that everything else is the same.

They both come with the WD Discovery software and the WD Drive Utilities, which are, unsurprisingly, simple utilities that help you find, manage, and format your hard drive. I did like that both products come with built-in backup service because too many people have lost data because they simply forgot to manually back it up. The automatic backup feature allows you to 'set it and forget it' to alleviate the irritation and tedium of having to go through the manual process every time you log off your device.

The following outlines the features of the Easystore product:

• Automatic backup feature via the WD Backup software
• Drive Utilities
• WD Discovery

The following outlines the features of the My Passport product:

• 6 color customization options (black, red, white, blue, orange, or yellow)
• 3-year limited warranty
• Password protection with hardware encryption (AES-256 encryption)
• Ability to add a message to the password prompt (i.e., 'Return to ____ if found.')
• WD Security
• Drive Utilities
• WD Discovery

As you can see, My Passport product has more features, and I know some people love the fact you can customize its color. The real added benefit is password protection and hardware encryption using AES-256.

Final Thoughts: My Passport or WD Easystore?

Even though these products are extremely similar, it seems that the Easystore product was designed to be sold through resellers, while My Passport product is sold through resellers and direct from WD. Clearly, these products are very similar, but the My Passport product line has a slight advantage due to encryption features.

Western Digital 4tb My Passport

If you really wanted to save $10, you could opt for the Easystore HDD, though only the 1 TB version. Otherwise, you might as well opt for the My Passport product because it has better features and cost the exact same. I wasn't altogether impressed with the watered down and uniform Easystore products.

Furthermore, while it isn't important to me at all (I prefer to be pragmatic), I am fully aware that some people will love that they can customize the color of the My Passport case. For me, the only thing that matters is how well the hard drive functions, how long it lasts, and how much storage space it offers. But some people will want a different color than black, which is the only color the Easystore product offers. Altogether, I think that My Passport is a superior product.

Ultimately these two are VERY similar in terms of performance, BUT I give the advantage to My Passport due to it's additional layers of encryption features. UPDATE: It's also dropped a LOT in price for the new version (pictured)

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