How to tell if My Passport for PC or Mac? And then how to switch?

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Hi everyone,

I know this sounds like a lame question but I haven’t used my My Passport in months and now need to use it to transfer files (8000pics)  from one mac to another.  I don’t think I realized when I bought it that it had to be specific for mac or PC.  

I’ve only used it once and it was for transferring pictures from my son’s school PC to my mac at home.  Did I set it then for PC??  If so, is there a way I can change it?    

It says I can not delete a folder because “I do not have the sufficient privileges.”  I also cannot move files into the drive because it says that “My passport cannot be modified.”

I checked to see if it’s locked, but it’s not.

If you can help me, please use really, really basic terms.  When I tried to do a search for answers, I couldn’t understand what most of the replies/acronyms meant.  Sorry to ask you to dumb it down but I’d really appreciate it!!!

Thank you!

2

I just read a really  useful post

http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/WD-drive-as-a-back-up-for-Windows-7-and-MAC-OS-locked-files/m-p/84753#M1830

but can’t figure out how to reformat the drive to FAT32.  I don’t need anymore of the information on the drive so I don’t mind wiping it all out.  

Thx again!

3

I think if you use the second method installing software on Mac you should be able to use the drive on either. I don’t know about formatting a Mac.

1 Like
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Thanks for your suggestion!

Now that it’s a little quieter in my house, I’ve been able to search a little more.  Here’s what I found in case other people are interested:

This is how to format to FAT32 so the drive can used by both PC and mac:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=291&p_created=1023897270&p_sid=JXCSuygk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTQxLDE0MSZwX3Byb2RzPTIyOCwxOTUsMzEyJnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0zLjMxMiZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ!!&p_li=&p_topview=1

How to format for a mac if the drive will only be used on macs:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3865&p_sid=JXCSuygk&p_lva=1287&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTQxLDE0MSZwX3Byb2RzPTIyOCwxOTUsMzEyJnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0zLjMxMiZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ%21%21&p_li=

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Don’t forget the max file size for FAT32 is 4 gig if it’s bigger it won’t write.