Hey Geoff, Both of your examples will work fine with a Mac. The non-Mac version is NTFS and will need to be formatted as HFS+ or whatever format you want. The Mac version does come with some mac backup software, and there's mention of disk encryption, but if it's just going to be used to house time machine backups etc either drive will work fine. If you still wanted to try the WD mac software, maybe you would have an option to download it from western digital's site after the fact. Just a thought.
Interestingly, on Amazon the Mac-specific version seems to only be available in silver while the non-Mac version comes in Silver, Black, Metallic Blue and Metallic Red, and prices for the last three range from $112 to $120 US. I guess the black NTFS version is the bargain of this particular bunch. FYI in case you weren't already aware of this -- If you're searching Amazon and want to be able to check prices and availability of an item that happens to be available in various sizes, colors, etc, such as clothing or hard drives, you might want to try Amazon's accessible site at www.amazon.com/access. Amazon's regular website must use javascript or something like that to present the different size, color and price options within an item description, and I have a heck of a time trying to navigate that with VO. I find that the accessible site makes it much easier to select from the various options to find out about pricing and availability. HTH, Bryan On Mar 27, 2011, at 5:44 PM, Geoff Waaler wrote: > Recently a friend found a 500 GB Passport at the Apple store for twice what I > paid for my 1TB drive last year. It said that it was for MacOS, but since my > MBP has no trouble finding or reading my drive, I didn't see this deal as a > bargin exactly. > > This afternoon I searched the US Amazon site for the string: "passport tb" > and noticed that the prices for the "mac" drives are consistently higher than > their "windows" counterparts. Two examples follow: > > Western Digital My Passport SE for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard > Drive (Silver) $117.27 > vs: > Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 3.0/2.0 Ultra Portable > External Hard Drive (Black) (Windows) $89.99 > > I'm not certain whether these products are identical. The color varies, as > does the fact that the more expensive drive's description emits the word > "essential", and does not support USB 3.0 (which may not be applicable for > MACOS yet anyway). > > My older drive came with software that I never use -- is this the only > difference between the two drive models? If so, would I care about the > software in the MacOS platform? I assume I could se either drive with > timeMachine and to store files? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
