WD My Passport Backup App Missing

Hi there ballsofhair,

It sounds like you are looking to use your WD Passport without the WD SmartWare software. For all intents and purposes it is an external hard drive so you shouldn't need the software installed to be able to simply store data manually on it. I confirmed this by taking a look at the support site for Western Digital, and found this support article:

Using a WD external drive without using WD SmartWare​

• The Virtual CD (VCD) included on these drives can only be disabled and cannot be removed from the drive. For assistance disabling the VCD please see Answer ID 3835: How to disable (hide) the Virtual CD (VCD) for Windows or Mac OSX on a My Book or My Passport drive .
• WD SmartWare is required in order to use the label included on some drives such as the My Book Elite. Please see Answer ID 3826: How to change the Label Name on a WD My Book (+ WD SmartWare) external drive for assistance using the label. Once the label is set you can uninstall WD SmartWare.
• If WD SmartWare is already installed and you would like to remove it, please see Answer ID 5373: How to uninstall WD SmartWare from Windows (7, Vista, or XP) and Mac OSX (10.4, 10.5, and 10.6).

There are several different ways you can use the drive without WD SmartWare:

1. You can use the drive without any backup software. Both Windows and Mac OSX allow you to move files to and from the drive without any special software installed. Please see Answer ID 1198: How to move or copy files from one hard drive to another in Windows or Answer ID 1199: How to move files or folders to a different hard drive on a Mac for assistance using the drive in this manner.
2. You can use the drive with Windows Backup (on Windows) or Time Machine (on a Mac). If you are having trouble using Windows Backup please see Answer ID 5354: Windows Backup or Windows Live One Care does not recognize a WD hard drive. Please see Answer ID 1694: How to backup data using Mac OS 10.5.x and Time Machine for assistance using Time Machine.
3. Your WD drive should work with most third-party backup applications. Please contact the manufacturer of the software you would like to use prior to purchase to ensure it is compatible with your model drive. Western Digital does not keep a list of compatible backup software and would not be able to confirm compatibility with any specific third party backup software. When using these applications be sure to point your backup to the actual external drive and not the Virtual CD (VCD). If your drive is locked, third party applications will not see the drive until the password is entered.

Before you manually copy your library to the external drive however, I would verify that the library is set to store the files in the library, rather than using referenced files.

Back up your Photos library

Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy.

If you have more than one photo library, be sure to back them all up.

Important: If any of your image files are stored outside your photo library, those files (known as referenced files) aren’t backed up when you back up your library. Be sure to back up these files separately. To make it easier to back up all your image files at once, you can consolidate referenced files into your library. For more information, see Change where Photos stores your files.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Thanks for the update. If you're still looking, here is the process for erasing an external drive and formatting it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for use with the Mac OS from the Disk Utility Help site:

Erase a volume - Disk Utility Help

You can erase disks or volumes. Erasing a disk deletes all its volumes and files. Erasing a volume deletes all the files on that volume, but does not affect other volumes.

Important: If you have any files you want to save, be sure to copy them to another disk before you erase the disk they are on.

1. Select the disk or volume in the sidebar, then click the Erase button .

2. Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a volume format.

   
   

   OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): Uses the Mac format, is case sensitive to folder names, requires a password, and encrypts the partition.

3. Enter a name for the disk or volume.

4. To prevent the erased files from being recovered, click Security Options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click OK.

   Writing over the data three times meets the U.S. Department of Energy standard for securely erasing magnetic media. Writing over the data seven times meets the U.S. Department of Defense 5220-22-M standard.

5. Click Erase, then click Done.