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WD Hard Drive for Mac compatible with PC?


kentikins

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Sure thing man, It'll be compatible with Windows once you format it to NTFS. If you're using Windows XP, you're going to need to change the volume type from GPT to MBR. That can get kinda tricky, if I recall correctly...

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Does it have any data on it that you need to remove, or is it new?

 

The only think that makes it mac specific is that it comes pre-formatted for HFS+ instead if exFat/Fat32/NTFS other than that it is just a generic USB 3.0 external HDD (USB 3.0 drives will work on USB 2.0 at reduced speed)

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Does it have any data on it that you need to remove, or is it new?

 

The only think that makes it mac specific is that it comes pre-formatted for HFS+ instead if exFat/Fat32/NTFS other than that it is just a generic USB 3.0 external HDD (USB 3.0 drives will work on USB 2.0 at reduced speed)

 

Sure thing man, It'll be compatible with Windows once you format it to NTFS. If you're using Windows XP, you're going to need to change the volume type from GPT to MBR. That can get kinda tricky, if I recall correctly...

 

Should of explained things a bit clearer.

The hard drive is brand new and I use it to backup my mac. As I'm going to Uni, I just wanted to know as the hard drive is password protected will I be able to unlock it and transfer items from the hard drive on to a PC and vice versa. I don't currently have access to a PC so I can't test my hard drive. 

 

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Should of explained things a bit clearer.

The hard drive is brand new and I use it to backup my mac. As I'm going to Uni, I just wanted to know as the hard drive is password protected will I be able to unlock it and transfer items from the hard drive on to a PC and vice versa. I don't currently have access to a PC so I can't test my hard drive. 

 

 

The password protected bit is completely irrelevant as it will be formatted for Mac file systems which windows doesn't handle without additional software. Do you have any software that you have install to use the password protection?

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The password protected bit is completely irrelevant as it will be formatted for Mac file systems which windows doesn't handle without additional software. Do you have any software that you have install to use the password protection?

Nope, the password programme does not need to be installed onto the computer, just appears as a disc:

post-8333-0-73371100-1379256392.png

 

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Okay, either way as the drive is currently formatted for a Apple/Mac filesystem it won't work for windows. However you could move all the data across to your mac format the drive as NTFS then move the data back on to the external hard drive. This may mean you lose the ability to use the password protection but it will allow you to use it between a mac and pc/windows freely

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