WD makes very good bare drives but the enclosures into which they put them to make an external drive are not very good and not particually Mac-Friendly. To get such a drive going again, you need one of two workabouts:ġ) a powered USB hub (has its own power supply to make up the shortfall) that goes between the external drive and the computer.Ģ) use a 'Y' USB cable to get power from two USB ports simultaneously (such as )Īlso, WD uses an odd proprietary formatting scheme that is of itself a problem area. Not the best solution for a desktop computer. The Passport is bus-powered, getting all its power from a USB port. Historically, the problem has been that many USB-powered drives can't get enough power from a USB port after they begin to age.
