Western Digital Passport for Mac

[matt9013]

Anyone use one of these? Are they good and how is the password protection?

I know it say's it's for Mac's but can I use it on a surface pro 4 to save/move files/vids/pics between my iMac and SP4?

Thanks

 

[qCzar]

I can't answer to the password protection but as long as you format the drive in a filesystem that both W10/SP4 and macOS can read, you can use it between both systems.

 

[priitv8]

...as long as you format the drive in a filesystem that both W10/SP4 and macOS can read, you can use it between both systems.

That's why it doesn't make sense to pay $30 just for the different label on the cover. Macs use exact same USB drives as all other computers. So I've only bought the regular My Passport drives, without the "for Mac" suffix.

 

[matt9013]

I can't answer to the password protection but as long as you format the drive in a filesystem that both W10/SP4 and macOS can read, you can use it between both systems.

Cool, thanks.
[doublepost=1478455108][/doublepost]

That's why it doesn't make sense to pay $30 just for the different label on the cover. Macs use exact same USB drives as all other computers. So I've only bought the regular My Passport drives, without the "for Mac" suffix.

Do those work well and also have password protection? Also it says I have to reformat it for the Mac, doesn't that wipe all data so I can't transfer between my iMac and SP4?

 

[hallux]

Cool, thanks.
[doublepost=1478455108][/doublepost] Do those work well and also have password protection? Also it says I have to reformat it for the Mac, doesn't that wipe all data so I can't transfer between my iMac and SP4?

I'm not sure how the password works (I have one before that was a feature) but if you follow the advice below using either FAT32 or ExFAT you won't need to reformat when going between computers.

I can't answer to the password protection but as long as you format the drive in a filesystem that both W10/SP4 and macOS can read, you can use it between both systems.

 

[priitv8]

Do those work well and also have password protection? Also it says I have to reformat it for the Mac, doesn't that wipe all data so I can't transfer between my iMac and SP4?

They work as well as the "for Mac" versions. Internally, the drive should be the same anyway. The difference is in the software. But it is all freely available from WDC as well.

Although I have not used password protection on my drives, to the best of my understanding, it should work, if implemented via WDC software.
If you use the WD Security to password-protect your drive, then you should be able to use it on either environment (provided disk is formatted so that both Win and OSX can read it), as WDC provides the utility for both platforms. You will need to install it onto all machines that you plan to use the drive with.

As you can see, the FAQ and software provided, is the same for both "for Mac" and non-Mac versions:
https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=232&lang=en
https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=233&lang=en