Do I need to format?

[astrogirl]

Hi, I have just been given a WD external drive by my father to put our family history/photos on. He has a windows computer, and I have an iMac. I'm pretty sure it was plugged into my sisters windows machine briefly before he brought it to me, but I'm not 100% sure. When I open the drive I see some .exe files and some folders like "autorun" and "WDSync" but no photos or any other sign of use.

Do I need to format it for Mac before I can copy files over? and if I do have to, can someone else later be able to add to it on their windows computer or will we need a seperate device?

Sorry, bit confused about it all. Never used one before!

[thanarath]

Hello,

Which model is it?

WD My Book (Essential, Elite, Studio) or WD My Passport (Essential, Elite, Studio) drive.

thanarath

[astrogirl]

Hi, Its a WD My Passport Essential. The model number is "WD5000ME - 01".

[thanarath]

I assume this WD My Passport Essential was formatted from one of your family's windows machine.

If your Mac computer can see the files on WD Passport Essential drive, Go ahead copy some files to it, it should work without needing to format it.

[astrogirl]

thankyou, much appreciated.