Use My Passport to Transfer Files from MAC to PC

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
1

Hello Everyone,

Thank you in advance for any help. I appreciate it. I recently purchased a My Passport 2TB back up drive. I would like to take the files from my MacBook Pro and transfer them to a PC permanently. I will no longer be using the MacBook Pro. Once I have the files transferred, I would like to use the back up drive as a permanent back up for the PC. I am a supreme novice when it comes to stuff like this especially the Mac part which is why I’m going back to PC. I tried to search this in the forums and found PC to Mac but nothing the other way around. Sorry is this is a repetitive question. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
LeAnn

2

Hello,

My personal recommendation on this is to do it manually. First, you need to reformat the drive to make it compatible with both systems.
See if this helps.

Once you do that, copy the files manually and then paste those files on the Windows PC.

3

Mac’s default formats (APFS / Mac OS Extended) are completely unrecognized by Windows systems. If a hard drive is formatted in APFS or Mac OS Extended, plugging it into a PC will result in errors or make the files completely unreadable.

To permanently move your files from Mac to PC, the safest method is using your external hard drive. Since you will only use the PC going forward, the key secret is formatting the drive to ExFAT, which can be read and written by both Mac and PC. ( Also read: How to choose a drive format for Mac and PC )

Here are the 4 simple steps to get it done:

1. Format the drive on your PC (Safest for a brand-new drive)

  • Plug your My Passport drive into your PC and open “This PC”.

  • Right-click the hard drive icon and choose “Format…”.

  • Select ExFAT under “File system”, and click “Start”.

2. Copy files on your Mac

  • Unplug the drive from the PC and plug it into your MacBook Pro.

  • Open “Finder” on your Mac, then directly drag and drop (or copy and paste) all the files you want to keep (documents, photos, videos, etc.) into the external drive.

  • Note: Do not use Mac’s “Time Machine” feature if prompted. Just copy the files manually. Safely eject the drive when finished.

3. Import files to your PC

  • Plug the drive back into your PC.

  • Open the drive, then copy and paste all the files into your PC’s local storage (such as your C drive, D drive, or Desktop). Your files are now successfully transferred.

4. Turn it into your permanent PC backup drive

  • Reformat: Now that your files are safely on your PC, right-click the drive on your PC and select “Format…” once more.

  • This time, choose NTFS as the file system (the native Windows format, which is the most stable and fastest for PC).

  • You can now use the built-in Windows Backup tool or simply copy your important PC files into this drive regularly.