Problems getting started

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

I have just purchased a 500GB My Passport Essential and plugged in as per user manual. When I clicked on the Smartware icon as instructed I get a message stating that there is no writable smartware  partition on this drive. It then suggests that I check it is formatted for my operating system (Mac OS X on a macbook) and unlock the drive. The drive is unlocked.

How do I either reformat the drive for Mac OS (it was supposedly preformatted for Mac) or repartition the drive?

Many Thanks

Steve D

2

Steve,

My Passport Essential was formatted with FAT32 file system.

It will allow you to drag and drop files to it from both PC and Mac computers.

You can share files to both PC and Mac users.

FYI: To use the Smartware under Mac OS, the drive has to re-format with Mac file system.

        That is the reason why Smartware couldn’t see the drive, it was formatted with FAT32.

         If you want to use the Smartware and not sharing file with PC then go ahead format it.

Here is the instruction:

Click on the link below for step by step, It will show windows instruction first,

then  you need to click the Mac OS to see Mac instruction.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3865&p_created=1258601352&p_sid=Wi*OOfYj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=1550&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NDYsNDYmcF9wcm9kcz0yMjgsMTk1LDMzMCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PTMuMzMwJnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9aG93IHRvIGZvcm1hdCBmb3IgTUFj&p_li=&p_topview=1

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