WD Passport Essential External HD Help

No Space No Access!!!!

I just attached my Passport Essential to my mac and discover it's got 0 gigs left. Don't know how that happened as it backs up automatically.

I'm running a MacBook. I can't access any of my files on the Passport Essential. All diagnostics in WD SmartWare are greyed out.

How do I get in and delete files? There is nothing in the manual on this. I have to access my data! Yikes!!!!!!

Thank you!

"I just attached my Passport Essential to my mac and discover it's got 0 gigs left. Don't know how that happened as it backs up automatically.
I'm running a MacBook. I can't access any of my files on the Passport Essential. All diagnostics in WD SmartWare are greyed out."

Important question:
What software are you _using_ to do the backups?

Is it Time Machine, or perhaps some of the WD-supplied software?

My recommendation is that you get rid of _both_ of them, and use CarbonCopyCloner to do your backups in the future.

You can see what has happened with the "so easy that you don't have to do anything" types of backup software -- they eat up the disk space.

Yes, with CCC, you will need to exercise a bit more control about backing up. But I doubt you'll get into the situation you're in now.

Just my thoughts. YMMV.

re full hard drive

Thanks for the suggestion. Any idea how to get the data off the hard drive now that it is non-responsive?

Okay, so following the instructions in this thread (thank you guys for the help!) I am about to use CCC to clone my hard drive onto my external backup drive. I noticed that it said that mac os wasn't installed on the external.

Do I need to install it in order to boot from it, say after my iMac's hard drive crashes? Do I have to dig out the disks I got with my iMac all those years ago? (that will probably take a few days to find after this long) I'm not sure if I can install the os on anything I want though?

Worst case scenario I'll have to buy a new os if I can't find my disks right? (if the hard drive crashes)

Disk Utility won't recognise external hard drive

I am trying to partition a WD Essential Passport and follow the instructions to the Disk Utility but it won't bring up the passport in the list? I have tried plugging in to a PC and it is recognised there so can't be the equipment - any ideas?

Sue Hansen said:

I am trying to partition a WD Essential Passport and follow the instructions to the Disk Utility but it won't bring up the passport in the list? I have tried plugging in to a PC and it is recognised there so can't be the equipment - any ideas?

Click to expand...

What kind of computer and which USB port are you trying to use? The WD may be trying to use more power than the port can supply (for example, the keyboard USB ports will not normally work).

Thanks guys! This thread was super helpful for me. I do have one question though... If I set the option to GUID, does that mean my hard drive will be incompatible with a PC? I'm not overly worried because I only use my MacBook Pro, but what if I want to share files with a PC user? I will not be using this hard drive for back up with TimeMachine (I purchased a larger hard drive for back up purposes). With the options set to Master Boot Record, I can access the drives (read/write) but iTunes won't recognise it. Thanks!

Sorry, also have another question about my other external drive, the one I'm using for back ups. It is 1.5TB and my internal drive is 500GB. On the Mac support site it says, "Time Machine works best if you use your backup disk only for Time Machine backups. If you keep separate files on your backup disk, Time Machine won’t back up those files, and the space available for Time Machine backups will be reduced." As my internal is only 500GB, I decided to create 2 partitions. One is 650GB and dedicated to Time Machine backups, the other is 850GB for miscellaneous files. Any thoughts? Thanks!

backing up my passport se external drive with time machine

hi! i have a my passport essential SE 1tb and im backing up mu computer with it. i backed it up with time machine also but it stops backing up after a few minutes and unmounts by itself. what should i do? pls help me! thank u!

WD and Mac/PC compatibility

skittles82 said:

...If I set the option to GUID, does that mean my hard drive will be incompatible with a PC? I'm not overly worried because I only use my MacBook Pro, but what if I want to share files with a PC user? I will not be using this hard drive for back up with TimeMachine ...Thanks! ...

Click to expand...

I have this question too... I don't see that it was answered. Anyone out there help please? I can't copy or move files to my new WD Passport. I can reformat, but want to use the drive between home and work (PC and Mac).

Anyone out there that can help me please.

jenniw333 said:

I have this question too... I don't see that it was answered. Anyone out there help please? I can't copy or move files to my new WD Passport. I can reformat, but want to use the drive between home and work (PC and Mac).

Anyone out there that can help me please.

Click to expand...

This thread contains a table with formatting options compiled by GGJstudios:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=14053155#post14053155

Anyone out there that can help me please.

Click to expand...

In that case use the MS-DOS(FAT) option which will format it as FAT 32. However, the biggest file size that this will store is 4Gb.