I have used my WD - My Passport For PC (3 USB) for the past several years on both a former Sony Vaio Laptop and a Toshiba Laptop ~ both of which bit the dust. I am now the proud owner of Mac Pro Retina (Laptop). Is it possible to transfer all of my files that are available on my WD - My Passport on to my Mac Pro?? Any help would be appreciated.
It depends on how the files were copied into your WD Passport and the file system of your unit. If the files were copied using WD SmartWare then it will not be possible without manually extracting the backup folder and manually copying out the files.
However, if the files were copied manually, then you will only need to drag your files from your WD Passport into your desktop or the folder you’d like for your files to be.
I believe I just copied them manually. Is there any risk to attaching the My Passport to the USB port on my MAC and seeing what happens?? Any chance I would corrupt my Mac if I did this??
Thank you for your reply.
Well, as you can imagine, the differences between PCs and Macs are numerous, andregarding hard drives and the way they are formatted is quite different. It is not a good idea to connect a HD formatted for PC to Mac or vice versa. You just might end up having a disaster if you don’t know exactly what you are doing.
There are software programs that can be installed on one type of computer to make is safe to attach to the other and exchange common files (e.g. mp3 files play on either computer, but the HOW to get them from one to the other is the main point…
One such company has been making this sort of software for quite a few years , named Paragon. This is the link to their main site:
https://www.paragon-software.com/
Go here to see what you can learn about this, and which program you ought to install.
Another place to get good answers is at the Apple forums and Windows forums. This is where I would look, and not at a hard drive maker’s forums. The MAKE of an HD is not the issue, the issue is the type of format a drive is and how to get it to co-exist with another type of format for a different kind of computer.
Good luck.
Thank you Mike. I don’t think it is worth the risk. A better option may be to spring for an inexpensive netbook, import all the files to that, make a transfer to a Cloud and sort them out from there. Bonus being I can carry the netbook along to the coffee shops and leave my Mac safely at home.
Yes, there are better options to be sure, but I was sticking to the equipment you had at hand based upon your post…
By your having a PC beforehand, you may have made a Windows home network, and if you still have a PC you can attach the drive to, you just connect your Mac and PC together via the home network, and copy files from A to B through the network.
Mike, you are right on both accounts. I did have a Windows home network set up and was able to transfer my files that way from the Sony Vaio to the Toshiba Laptop back in the day. However when the Toshiba crashed I was glad that I had made a recent back up to the My Passport. It’s been a while now and I don’t have the foggiest how I would recreate the Windows Home Network in to the Mac. I’'m new to a Mac as it is and am still learning basic navigation around its use.
Thanks for your reply.
OK, by your being a previous Windows user, and now jumping over to the Apple platform, you do have a lot to learn, and I can’t be much help for you except to say if I were to do this, I would be digging in to find out what makes Apple OS tick, like I know Windows’ does, and the home network is one place I would start digging into.
From what little I know about the Apple platform, I first learned about it by using iTunes when it first appeared for Windows, and it is that the Apple OS has somewhat of a self-configuring home network called Bonjour. And, if this brief definition below of it I found for this post is mostly news to you, then there is plenty ahead for you to learn about Bonjour:
“Bonjour is Apple’s version of the Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) standard, a set of protocols that allows certain communication between network-connected devices, applications and services. Bonjour is often used in home networks to allow Windows and Apple devices to share printers.”
So, if you need more info on this, just Google for: “apple bonjour” to find out more. The point is, Apple has a home network protocol; just as Windows does, and once you understand this, getting data from a drive configured for a Windows device onto to a Mac ought to be real easy.
And, before I leave you off at this fork in the road, once again, I suggest you do not attach your Windows drive to a Mac until you know more of what you are doing. A good place to start is with Google searches and a visit to the Apple User Forum. Good luck.
Thank you Mike!!