My Passport Wireless exFAT format. Should I reformat to HFS+J?

WD External Drives My Passport Wireless
1

I have just purchased a My Passport Wireless. The drive is preformatted using exFAT. Mac can read and write to thie drive OK. However, the WD disk utilitues cannot see the drive. So I cannot run a test.

Is there a way round this?
Should I reformat the HFS+J? Are there any issues in reformatting?

2

If you are using a wireless connection from the router to the Passport Wireless, try using a wireless connection from the Mac to the Passport Wireless directly and see if the Utility finds it.

3

The My Passport Wireless was directly connected to my Mac using USB.

I looks like the WD Disk Utilities for Mac do not support exFAT. Probably only HFS.

So there seems no way with WD tools to test an exFAT formatted drive.

Does anyone know a way to do a full check of a exFAT formatted drive on a Mac? 

DiskWarrior recognizes the drive and identifies the format, but only works on HFS.

If I reformat to HFS+J then I can do a full test of the drive, but does it affect the practical use? It would seem the main reason for using exFAT is that Windows and Mac can read and wriet to the drive over USB. I only use Mac so that is not so important. But if I format the drive using HFS+J can w Windows PC read and write over wifi? 

In ofher words does the My Passport Wireless act like a NAS drive over wifi, and as attached storage over USB.

I will be using the My Passport Wireless as a DLNA server to my TV over wifi. If I reformat to HFS+J will this still work? It woul seem that the drive looks like NAS and just streams the video file to any DLNA device regardless of the format. Is this correct?

Thanks for your thoughts.

4

As you pointed out it is formatted as ExFat for a reason – so it works out of the box with WIndows and Macs. I would keep it that way until you deem it not necessary.  I suggest you be sure to save ALL files and folders on it so you can reinstall them after you reformat.