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Can an external HD be used as my primary HD?

Can I reformat my WD Passport external HD to work for a Mac if it was used for a PC first?

  • I used it with my old PC but now I need to use it for my Mac and it won't open when I plug it in. Any fixes?

  • Answer:

    After you plug it in and the Mac recognizes it open up Disk Utility, located under Applications/Utilities on your hard drive. Click on it's icon and go to Erase. Be sure to indicate Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It will take a while, but that will set your drive up to be used on the Mac. Also, in the Disk Utility folder is an operation called Repair Permissions. If you haven't been doing so, you should run that about once a month. You should also run it before you install System Upgrades and then again afterward. This keeps everything in it's proper place and avoids a lot of possible conflicts. After you erase the drive, you can run a program called Carbon Copy Cloner ( available from versiontracker.com) and make an exact duplicate of your hard drive that is bootable in an emergency. For new Mac users, you might check to see if there is a local user group in your area. They usually have people who can answer any questions you may have.

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It can work, but you don't state what happens when you plug it in and it 'won't open'. You can reformat the drive with a file system that Mac can read. You can also format it as FAT32. Then Windows and Mac can read the data on there. When you plug it in to the computer, does it power on? Does the computer recognize that it's there? If it doesn't, you may have a hardware problem. In which case, you'd either have to return it (if it's still under warranty and you have a receipt), or you'd just have to buy a new one. Regards, Brandon

El BrandO

Connect it to your Mac and launch Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities. If the external drive is listed on the left side of the window, choose it by clicking on it once. In the Erase tab choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click on the Erase button.

Elbert

try to just plug it into mac if its the correct file system it will appear and be accesible also if it doesnt a popup will apper asking what u want to do (format it) fat 32 will only allow 32 gb to be availible ie. dont do it

john

Yes, format it into Fat32 format and both systems can access it.... Note, It probably NFTS and the mac can't read it.... Doing so will loose your file level security....

Ti_Cool_Tech

you can use it with your mac but you have to format it as a mac drive first

chowpowchingchang

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