I had the same problem - going the usual Disk Utilty route didn't work for me. So, I opened the My Passport icon that pops up on your desktop and there were a number of folders, one being My Passport for Mac. You open that and download the app in that folder. Save it to your Applications (or wherever) and find 'WD Drive Utilities' A window pops up with Diagnostics, Sleep Timer, Drive Erase and Registration. You click Drive Erase, choose the format (exFAT) and hit 'Erase Drive' Done-zo.
This worked for me. My new WD My Passport Ultra 2TB drive was giving me many problems. I originally tried to reformat it with two partitions using Apple's Disk Utility. I had all sorts of problems and the instructions that came with the drive seemed to suggest that the drive would not support multiple partitions. So I reformatted it with a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition using Apple's Disk Utility. It seemed to work okay. I only use this drive for backups and only connect it to my MacBook Pro (early 2013) running OS 10.8.5 once every day or two.
Included WD Discovery™ software lets you connect to popular social media and cloud storage services like Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox and Google Drive™ so you can import your photos, videos and docs to the My Passport for Mac drive to help preserve your online life. How to Recover Data From Formatted WD My Passport. These portable hard drives are shipped in preformatted or in the NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) format. In order to use the same drive on both the platforms, you need to format or reformat it using exFAT or FAT32 (DOS) format.
I decided to use this new external drive for Time Machine backups only. Then I discovered that every day I plugged it into the computer the backup would start but not complete.
After trying many things I used Apple's disk utility to verify and repair the drive. It found various problems but was unable to correct them so I was required to reformat the drive and start from scratch with Time Machine. After the third time doing this Disk Utility couldn't even repair the disk anymore because it 'Could not dismount the disk'. I was ready to declare the disk defective when I found your post. I then used the WD Drive Utilities.app furnished with the drive.
It was able to reformat the drive with HFS+J format. Since then the drive has been working great for several days now. The strange thing is that now when I use the WD disk utility to test/verify the disk it fails the tests but gives me no feedback as to why. When I use the Apple disk utility to 'verify' the disk it passes all the tests. I have the WD My Passport Ultra 1TB and basically having the same problem, but now the disk icon won't even show on my desktop. It will only show in disk utility.
In disk utility when verifying, in red it says 'Incorrect number of thread records' and 'The volume was found corrupt and needs to be repaired'. When trying to repair it says 'Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up.format the disk and restore your backed-up files'. I tried to reformat, eject, erase, restore using disk utility but says I need to make sure that all applications and files are closed on the disk. Closed and shutdown everything and still won't work.
![How To Set Up Wd Passport Ultra For Mac And Pc How To Set Up Wd Passport Ultra For Mac And Pc](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125510349/361190707.png)
Have a feeling this is time machine related. To TheWoman & Dan562, I went through a variety of issues and symptoms as I noted above along with several other very strange problems. I started to believe the drive had platters that were failing in a way that just kept causing different symptoms. Then I stopped using Apples disk utility on this drive. I used the WD disk utility app that is included when you purchase the disk. I used the WD utility to reformat the drive to HFS+J format and so far, after several days and instances of using it to back up using Time Machine, I've had NO further problems or unusual behavior. TheWoman, I'm not an expert on this but I'm just trying to relay my experience.
What I did was completely erase/reformat my drive with the WD utility and then just start using it as a Time Machine backup drive. Since doing that it has worked perfectly. I've been using Apples exclusively since 1984 and I've used Apple's disk utility on a variety of drives over the years but I've never encountered anything like this. My experience would indicate that there is something about this WD drive that is incompatible with the Apple disk utility.
I have 3 other smaller WD passport drives that I still use and have no problem with and I DO use Apple's disk utility on those drives. There just seems to be something about this new 2TB drive that is very different. I also found that I was not able to partition this drive the way I have done with my other WD drives. Apple Footer. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums.
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When it comes to backups, software is only part of the equation. There are on the market, but having a dependable hard drive on the receiving end as important, too. Purchasing the “best” hard drive is all about what you need out of it. So we have two suggestions: Our favorite external desktop hard drive The best external desktop drive is the This drive connects directly to your Mac through USB. If you’re running a newer computer, you’ll see a huge speed increase thanks to USB 3.0. The WD My Book is ready to go with or without any hassle.
You just plug it in and can begin using it immediately. Our favorite portable hard drive If you need an external drive that’s small and easy to fit in your bag and go, the is the one to get. The bus-powered USB 3.0-compatible drive is fast, quiet, and rather rugged.
While I wouldn’t drop it off a bridge, the exterior case isn’t flimsy in any way. We’ve used several of these drives for a couple of years without a single hiccup. It’s small enough to fit in your hand (a little bigger than a deck of cards), and being bus-powered means it doesn’t need a separate power source — you just plug it into your computer’s USB port and you’re good to go. Formatting a new drive The only downside to these drives is that they are not formatted for macOS out of the box.
Gives easy instructions on how to erase and format the drive to work with OS X (for use as a TimeMachine drive, or simply for use as extra storage):. Open Disk Utility (located in the Utilities folder). Connect the disk if it isn’t already attached. In the left side of the Disk Utility window, select the disk you want to use with Time Machine. Optional: If you want to partition the disk, click the Partition tab and select a layout.
Make sure “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected in the Format menu for the partition that will be used for backups. Click the Erase tab. Optional: If you want to securely erase the disk, click Security Options to configure, then click OK.
Click Erase. After erasing, open Time Machine preferences in System Preferences and configure as described in the section above. We have a whole section of our site dedicated to doing easy backups of your computer. For more information on backups,.