My Book for Mac - to reformat or pay for the Mac ready version?

Portable Drives My Passport
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Hello there,

I’m not hugely techy so would really appreciate some advice please.

Having done my research, I want to go with a WD My Book for external storage/back up. However, I don’t know if it’s better to buy a regular My Book and reformat it to use with my Mac, or to buy the more expensive Mac ready product. Basically, I want to know if I will lose out on any software/functionality if I go for reformatting.

If I reformat a regular My Book, will I still be able to use the WD SmartWare Pro, Acronis, and the password protection and hardware encryption software that comes with it? Or is that stuff not compatible with Mac/will it get lost with reformatting?

Would a reformatted My Book work with Apple Time Machine in the same way a My Book for Mac would?

Thank you so much!

       
       
 
2

Welcome to the Community.

The hard drive itself will work as instructed by the file system when formatted. It will work with Windows, Mac OS, or Linux once formatted, and can be formatted as many times as needed (Data is erased every thing). Software on the hand is independent from the hard drive. WD SmartWare Pro and Acronis True Image WD Edition are Windows-only applications regardless of hard drive model for file system. Encryption software however (WD Drive Utilities) is available for both Windows and Mac OS, and Time Machine will work with a Windows-ready WD USB drive once it’s formatted for Mac OS. 

1 Like
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Thank you so much!

4

Any time.