Updated OS to 10.10.2; reformat My Passport?

Upgraded my MacBookPro to 10.10.2,  I’m assuming I need to reformat My Passport Ultra T1…

Can somebody point me to how to do it?  The Mac is at least six years old, if that’s important to know.

Many thanks for any help.

Sally

it depends on the existing format of the “My Passport Ultra T1” and if you want to keep what is on the drive or not.

if it was working with your old OS (I assume it was Leopard (10.5.x) or Snow Leopard (10.6.x) then it should work fine with 10.10.x

If it was not working or you need a fresh start, then re-formatting (or just a quick erase in the case of the fresh start) can be the go!

to re-format (THIS WILL DELETE ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE),

  1. open Disk Utility (applications>utilities or spotlight search for “disk utility”)

  2. locate the My Passport Ultra T1 on the left side column (it will likely say “500GB WD external media” or something like that). it’s usually an orange icon (DO NOT SELECT THE GREY “Macintosh HD” icon!!!)

  3. you’ll notice that there are 2 entries for the drive the top one with the name mentioned above and the lower one that will have the name as it appears when you plug the drive in. if we’re formatting cause the drive isn’t working, select the upper of the 2 entries, if you’re just erasing for a fresh start, it won’t matter what you select.

4a. (drive not working) select partition page, in partition layout dropdown choose “1 partition” then click “options” at the bottom left of that area. Next choose “GUID Partition table” in the options screen and click ok, then choose “Mac OS extended (journaled)” as the format, then click apply and agree to the warnings… TA DA, drive re-fromatted.

4b. (quick erase) select erase page, in format choose “Mac OS extended (journaled)” click erase and agree to all warnings.

good luck and I hope this helps!! (feel free to ask clarifying questions)

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