Data on WD external My Passport Ultra Drive

I have data on 2 separate WD external My Passport Ultra Drive. One drive is accessible on my new MacBook Pro and I can add folders, move & delete files. However, the second drive allows me to see the contents and copy it over but I can't seem to delete the content from the drive or add a new folder and manipulate to organize the files. I think that the tech person where I work may have formatted this drive differently. After reading previous comments, I think it may have to do with the formatting of the drive "WD drive is most likely formatted with the NTFS file system which is the default for Windows. OS X can read from an NTFS drive but can't write to it." Someone had mentioned that there are several add on drivers that can give OS X the ability to write to NTFS drives. In addition they stated One of them is


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/ntfs3g.html


I turned in all my PCs since I'm retiring and I'm wondering if the utility above would work to read & write on my Passport drive that isn't allowing it currently. I do not want to reformat the drive since I have data on it. I only want to be able to open files and either leave them or throw them in the trash for deletion. I'd also like to be able to add folders and move files to organize them. Will the utility linked above allow me to manipulate things off the Passport hard drive? I did not want to download the utility if it would not work. Thank you.




MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 14, 2021 11:55 PM

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3 replies

Dec 15, 2021 2:06 AM in response to Mz_Frizzle

Others in this forum might have different suggestions but I'd copy the files to your Mac or another external drive, reformat the NTFS drive to the Macintosh format (APFS) then once the drive is ready copy the files back onto it.

*You didn't mention the size of your external drive and the capacity required to park your files while this is being done.


There doesn't seem to be much virtue in keeping the NTFS format on the drive if you are not using it to work with a Windows computer.


I found this guide to various options at TechRadar which will give you some ideas, including a third-party software called Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon, but why spend about US$25 when you can do the work yourself for nothing, and then have a much more useful external drive to work with your Mac for the future?


One other idea - if you are new to Macs instead of the above I'd suggest you buy another external drive. Format it for APFS and move your files to this drive. Then when you are satisfied that all your migrated files are fit for purpose reformat the NTFS drive to APFS and use it for Time Machine backups of your Mac. In this way you will not only fix your dilemma about the NTFS drive but provide yourself with a drive for your backup regime.

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Data on WD external My Passport Ultra Drive

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