File Systems HFS+ This is the principal file system of Mac OS X. It is a journalled, relatively modern file system that supports POSIX permissions, and features at least limited automatic defragmenting of files. Mac OS X is capable of mounting these volumes for reading and writing, and has full capabilities to utilize them. Mac OS X systems can also only boot from hard disks formatted in this system (as well as bootable optical media). Windows has no native support for this format, but third party tools such as MacDrive allow for limited read/write support on Windows systems. NTFS This is the current preferred file system of Windows (beginning predominance circa Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, and including Windows XP). Most Windows systems use principle partitions with this file system.
Aug 10, 2013 - I just purchased this 1 TB My Passport for Mac. My iMac (4 years old with USB 2 ports) recognizes the drive and lets me select it. I trying doing a. The 'for Mac' guise of the WD My Passport comes ready formatted as HFS+ (known on the Mac as Mac OS Extended (journaled) file system). A nice to have for those Mac users who really do not want to go to the trouble of formatting a drive no matter how easy it is.
This is a journalled file system with good support for large files. It should be noted that it does NOT support POSIX permissions or ownership. Mac OS X has read only support for this format.
It has no capabilities to write to an NTFS drive. Windows has complete read/write capabilities for this format. FAT32 FAT32 is a legacy file system in the Windows world. However, it is still widely used as almost all Flash-based drives use this format. Mac OS X supports this format for both reading and writing, as does Windows. It has notable limitations, including difficulties with files of size larger than 4 GB.
Also, as with NTFS, this file system does not support POSIX and permission / ownership errors could arise when files are moved back and forth between this file system and a POSIX-compliant file system. Ext2 Ext2 is a relatively modern filesystem that is used primarily in Linux environments. It features many of the same creature comforts as OS X, including a journal and the ability to use large files (e.g. Bigger than the 4 GB limit in FAT32). This file system is not natively supported in either OS X or Windows, but free extensions are available for both operating systems that allow basically full read/write utilization of this filesystem on both OS X and Windows. The Mac OS implementation is available at Sourceforge; the Windows implementation is available here. Comparison Another important distinction that should be noted is that all of the above is based on disks mounted under the given operating system.
Limitations can be bypassed by serving a disk from a server for which the format is native. For instance, a Windows client that is accessing a served HFS+ disk that is served from a Mac OS X computer (a 'shared' disk across the network) can write to that disk if the server has granted permission. Likewise, while a Mac OS computer cannot write to an NTFS volume it mounts itself, it can write to an NTFS volume being served by a Windows computer.
One important question that gets asked frequently at MacRumors is: how should I format my external device? Here are some suggestions, based on the above limitations of each filesystem. If the device will only be used on a Mac OS X computer, use HFS+. This will offer the most complete support for Mac OS X features. If the device will only be used in Windows, use NTFS, for the same rationale. If the device will be mounted on both Windows and Mac computers, and you will not be using very large files (all files.
Click to expand.Look, I have already formated my passport for mac using HFS+, NTFS and FAT32 but when I connect it on a Windows Vista notebook, it detects the drive, but the icon doesnt appear. Its like: 'There IS a hard drive here. But I will not show you, da da da daaa!' I looked up many threads here, but no success. I saw in another forum that I should use a cable that has 2 USB ends, because Windows requires more power to make the hard drive to work. I thought: 'Thats insane.
' Its getting hard to make this piece of. work. You can't format a hard drive as all three of those filesystems unless you partitioned the hard drive. And even if you did that, what you store in the partition that is formated as HFS+ will still not be visible to the Windows computer.
I'm not sure if a hard drive that big can be formated as FAT32, but that is the file system that you want to format the drive as to be able to read and write from both Mac OS X and Windows. The 'for Mac' part of the brand is only for marketing purposes really. Any hard drive will work, you have the same Passport as the non-for-Mac version, but its just formatted with HFS+ out of the box. Look, I have already formated my passport for mac using HFS+, NTFS and FAT32 but when I connect it on a Windows Vista notebook, it detects the drive, but the icon doesnt appear.
Its like: 'There IS a hard drive here. But I will not show you, da da da daaa!' I looked up many threads here, but no success. I saw in another forum that I should use a cable that has 2 USB ends, because Windows requires more power to make the hard drive to work.
I thought: 'Thats insane. ' Its getting hard to make this piece of. work. Look, I have already formated my passport for mac using HFS+, NTFS and FAT32 but when I connect it on a Windows Vista notebook, it detects the drive, but the icon doesnt appear. Its like: 'There IS a hard drive here.
But I will not show you, da da da daaa!' I looked up many threads here, but no success. I saw in another forum that I should use a cable that has 2 USB ends, because Windows requires more power to make the hard drive to work. I thought: 'Thats insane.
' Its getting hard to make this piece of. work. You can't format a hard drive as all three of those filesystems unless you partitioned the hard drive. And even if you did that, what you store in the partition that is formated as HFS+ will still not be visible to the Windows computer. I'm not sure if a hard drive that big can be formated as FAT32, but that is the file system that you want to format the drive as to be able to read and write from both Mac OS X and Windows. The 'for Mac' part of the brand is only for marketing purposes really. Any hard drive will work, you have the same Passport as the non-for-Mac version, but its just formatted with HFS+ out of the box.
With regards to the 2 USB cables question, some COMPUTERS cannot provide enough power to USB hard drives through one cable. This is not specifically a Windows problem.
I had the same issue a couple of years back with a Formac external drive. It looks like your Mac provides enough power which is why it's okay on the Mac but not on the PC. You need to use a cable with two ends: one for power, one for data. If the drive didn't come with that, you might need to buy one from elsewhere. Alternatively, if the drive has a separate AC power port you can supply power to it through that.
With regards to the 2 USB cables question, some COMPUTERS cannot provide enough power to USB hard drives through one cable. This is not specifically a Windows problem. I had the same issue a couple of years back with a Formac external drive. It looks like your Mac provides enough power which is why it's okay on the Mac but not on the PC. You need to use a cable with two ends: one for power, one for data. If the drive didn't come with that, you might need to buy one from elsewhere. Alternatively, if the drive has a separate AC power port you can supply power to it through that.
If the computer is not suplying enough power you'll know because the drive will make repeated clicking noises every few seconds. Also you will not feel the slight vibration of the disk spinning. These are two easy ways to confirm it's power and not configuration. I have the WD Passport Studio which has USB2 and FW800 and on my old PBG4 it could not deliver enough power to the drive on USB and it would click once every 1-2 seconds forever. That's why I bought the FW800 drive because I connect it on FW and have no power problems.
Power really should not be an issue on most computers, I think my PBG4 was in the minority that it could not power the drive via USB. Desktop computers especially they should have no difficulties powering the drive via USB. Are all the computers you connect laptops?
Thank you for the reply, I had tried to reinstall the drive but nothing is happening, i have tried all the software available in the WD website, i have even tried to format the hard disk, with the quick format software provided by them, Their is a software by name PP4R2-1-4-2, i have not tried it. I have tried the disk management system also, i dont want to format my hard, i have somany important files in it.so please let me know if their is any other way to solve my problem.and if format only is the option, i have tried to connect hard disk in other systems also, their was no use. I had tried to reinstall the drive but nothing is happening, I have tried all the software available in the WD website, I have even tried to format the hard disk, with the quick format software provided by them, Their is a software by name PP4R2-1-4-2, I have not tried it. I have tried the disk management system also, I dont want to format my hard, I have somany important files in it.so please let me know if their is any other way to solve my problem.and if format only is the option, I have tried to connect hard disk in other systems also, their was no use. I have tried all the option, and i think now i am left with the only option as stated by my frnd i.e. The three options, though the 3rd option is not an option for me as it is not in the warranty period and i dont want to loose my data, so i will try the 2nd option mostly.
Regarding the cable, as u have suspected it works with a cable, though it is not a SATA cable.and i have not tried any other cables, as i can see that my power supply is working well with the cable, as the hard disk has a LED, which blinks as normally as it used to. I have used the hard disk in my laptop(DELL VOSTRO) before, and i recently removed vista from it and installed windows 7 though not genuine.
Is this may be a problem? Though i would not think so, as it had worked in the 7 OS for about 2 days.
Recently the hard disk is giving some sounds from it. Here I am with the same problem as original poster. My problem happened today. Only, for about a week, I heard little clicking whirring sounds coming from the Passport.
I began to copy my photos from the drive to my C drive. The Passport was also my backup drive, and had the Windows image on this drive as well.
So I'm thinking about the options listed for recovery of the personal documents. It is not in warranty. I tried a new cable, I tried a new USB port, I tried connecting to a different computer. I connected a different/new Passport to the computer (Windows 7 Pro OS) and I got a message that it had installed the software and the drive was ready to run. I'm reluctant to use any Passport now, once burned is enough for me.
I recently purchased a 4TB WD MyBook to connect to the router for network backup, but now I have NO/ZERO confidence in Western Digital products. I may return it still in the box, and opt for an offsite cloud backup for all family computers. What exactly is a USB drive 'caddy' someone mentioned? Or, would it be best to take it intact to a place like Staples and get my files salvaged?
Better than personally dismantling the drive and inserting the guts in a caddy? This failure happened today.
What a bummer! I won't be choosing a cloud backup service using WD products! Any help going forward is appreciated.
Some skilled techs have figured out ways to access the drive long enough to retrieve data. I would not mess with your driver further, if you really need that data, unwil you find one of the experts. We have had good luck by replacing the electronics on the board attached to the hard drive. But it is not the sam on all Passports.
They apparently used drives of different brands. At least on the Passports I have seen, they used drives from a variety of manufacturers. We support the recommendations of others on this list. If you really need the data, look online for the companies that rescue data. Some charge as much as $400, while others will do it for $85, after a $50 lab analysis fee. Some skilled techs have figured out ways to access the drive long enough to retrieve data.
I would not mess with your driver further, if you really need that data, unwil you find one of the experts. We have had good luck by replacing the electronics on the board attached to the hard drive. But it is not the sam on all Passports. They apparently used drives of different brands. At least on the Passports I have seen, they used drives from a variety of manufacturers.
We support the recommendations of others on this list. If you really need the data, look online for the companies that rescue data. Some charge as much as $400, while others will do it for $85, after a $50 lab analysis fee. Click to expand.Raybay, thanks for the quick reply. I managed to move some files off there a week ago, when it first began clacking sounds. But it did not want to move massive blocks of them.
I have about 40g of photos and papers on the drive to rescue,about 10 years worth of personal pictures including documentation for insurance losses from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Don't need the old backups since new backup is running now. But will see what I can find.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125459744/898735101.jpg)
Have you heard whether the cost of salvage is proportionate to the quality of results.the bigger the charge, the better the results? Just curious if anyone has gone this route?
Thank you all. The costs are high, but they vary a lot. Some recovery technicians list by brand and model of drive what they will charge.
But in our experience, they can recover most of the data on the drive once they start. But you have to agree to a certain fee because once they start, they do not stop until done. Part of the reason is that they have to do the recovery the first time they get access. There are few second chances. There are technician shops that give their prices by brand of hard drive they are to work on. With Western Digital being best value.
But those drives that come unlabled in an external bay can be from an unknown manufacturer. And they can be more expensive. We do this work in our repair shops, but find the specialty shops are better and faster than what we can do. They will charge us about $55 to evaluate the drive and then contact us for an estimate for the recovery.
Often he companies that do this will finish the job for us for $140. But I have seen a lot of outfits (focused mainly on company hard drives that start at $400.) If you can figger out who made the drive, you can contact the manufacturer who has a list of recommended independent technicians. Those independent technicians can often tell you whether the drive is a good candidate for recoverying files.
Very often, it is the system board on the back of the drive that is bad, and once they replace it, the recover is simple and quick. What you want is an expert who works with a certain set of brands and models of hard drives that are found sealed in an enclosure. Just like anything else, if you find the folks who are familiar with the drive, and you are not a big corporation, and can give them three weeks to get it done, the cost can be very low.
Some drives are darned difficult, as the only way to get access is to remove the platters and that gets expensive to synchronise those platters. You should be fine. No name drives have no easily identifiable brand name when you open up the case. You might have to go online to thePassport folks (or other manufacturer) to find out how they identify the drive. A named drive would be Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, HMDI, Toshiba, etc. Where the drive has a stickeer, serial number, product ID, etc.
Many, but not all, of the Psssport units have Passpor on the case, etc, but when you open it up, there is no identificaiton on the hard drive. Freezer trick failed on my WD Passport 1Tbyte portable.
POS just gave up the ghost while I was calling back a backup restore. I don't even have 30 hours on this drive.
The USB interface still hooks to Vista or 7 with no problem but the integration from USB to drive seems to find the drive is 'nobody home'. Nice time for a drive failure. I'm guessing the chipset on the PCB is a bunch of floor sweepings from a low cost manufacturer producing the PCB out of house for WD.
I've had reasonable luck with Western Digital over the years, as moderate duty drives but this toy seems better off mounted in a cleanex box. There is even a rubber mount scheme inside the little plastic project box they build it in. Too much cost for 4 rubber sleeves or a condom to wrap it in?? Bad design from the git-go. I took very care my wd my passport eksternal hard drive, even though after using it for almost 2 years. Suddenly it just can't be detectable in windows explorer. I could be detected in BIOS and Device Manager.
I have tried connecting it to my laptop with same result. I brought it to data recovery service.
They have several charging fee rates depend on the damage level of the hard disk and the difficulty of recovery process. The cheapest one or level one is about $300 and the most expensive one is about more than $1.000. After they checking my hard disk, they just said it was not the level one (the level I was ready to pay) and before they continued the words, I rejected them. It was already too expensive for me to pay them. I am very upset with WD My Passport Eksternal Hard Drive because I have bought 3 WD My Passport 1 TB and 2 WD My Book 3 TB. They are still fine today.but who knows in near future?
I suggest, do not rely on this WD My Passport Eksternal Hard Drive to save your value data!