WD My Passport Essential NTFS on Mac

Question

Level 1

12 points

WD My Passport Essential NTFS on Mac

I recently bought a 13" MacBook Air, but I used to use a desktop PC as my only computer, and a WesternDigital My Passport Essential 500GB as my portable HD, so it is formated in NTFS because my PC as Windows for OS.
As I have a lot of data on the HD and I can use it to use that data on my Mac, I wasn't thinking of reformating it (so far I didn't needed to wirte data on the HD with my Mac), but I use WD's SmartWare software on my desktop so I can better manage the HD's health and other usefull data. After searching in the user's manual of the HD, I read that by installing SmartWare on the Mac the HD's performance is improved, but it doesn't reffer if that appens only if the HD is formated for Mac or if does work on a NTFS formated HD.
Has anyone already tried to use SmartWare on a NTFS drive? If so, did you noticed any improments in performance? If not, do you think it will work?Al

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Alexivia, PT

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Aug 16, 2014 7:37 AM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Aug 16, 2014 7:44 AM in response to Alexivia

Perhaps you should read all the reports of data loss, poor performance, inability to mount etc that many users have suffered after using WD's SmartWare, some were affected so badly that WD had to supply free data recovery software, which worked in some cases.

Leave the software in the box.

You should re-format the drive for use with a Mac.

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Answer 2

Jeff

Level 6

12,316 points

Aug 16, 2014 5:39 PM in response to Alexivia

"As I have a lot of data on the HD and I can use it to use that data on my Mac, I wasn't thinking of reformatting it..."

Depending on how many files you have, you could burn them to DVD disks, which would facilitate the transfer to your MacBook. The easiest solution would be to purchase another WD Passport drive for use with your Mac and format it accordingly. A WD 500 GB drive is often sale-priced at $60. Some of the hard drive manufacturers market a "Mac version" of their PC drive, but it costs a little more. You can easily reformat a (FAT or NTFS-formatted) "PC version" using Disk Utility.

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Answer 3

Alexivia Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 18, 2014 2:23 AM in response to Alexivia

First of all, thak you for your awnsers!

Ok, so as for the WD's SmartWare it would be a poor ideia, but what about their "Turbo Drivers"? Would they also be bad?

And what is the file system you recomend if I reformat the drive? Will I still be able to use it with windows normally? Because I need to be able to use "Dir Sync Pro", for synchronizing folders as of a Backup utility, in turn of the WD's, because it was a paine in the a** to get that one working and it would not work as I wanted...

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Answer 4

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Aug 18, 2014 3:46 AM in response to Alexivia

DO NOT install any of WD's crap.

Either buy a copy of Paragon NTFS for Mac or reformat the drive to MSDOS (Fat32) or (if you have single files larger than 4GB) ExFat.

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Answer 5

dwb

Level 7

33,226 points

Aug 18, 2014 4:15 AM in response to Alexivia

WD Mac software is less reliable than a $300 used car. Don't use it. WD external drives use proprietary chipsets which have caused some major hassles (not to mention reliability issues) for Mac owners. I strongly suggest that when you purchase an external drive for your Mac you look to another vendor.

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Answer 6

Alexivia Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 25, 2014 3:47 AM in response to Csound1

I have reformated the drive to exFAT, and now the write speeds to the HDD dropped significantly, the used space increased (I read that NTFS has better space management than FAT systems) and when I plug it to the Mac the activity LED on the drive does not stop blinking... So, for now it brought me a lot of problems.... Any suggestions?

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Answer 7

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Aug 25, 2014 3:48 AM in response to Alexivia

One suggestion

Go and buy a drive that is not made by WD.

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