Transferring old passport in Windows to new passport for MAC

Got it 👍 — you want to transfer data from your old WD My Passport (formatted for Windows) to a new WD My Passport for Mac.

Let’s walk through it clearly and safely 👇

🧩 STEP 1: Check the File System Formats

Windows My Passport → usually NTFS

Mac My Passport → usually HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) or APFS

macOS can read NTFS drives but cannot write to them by default.

So, you’ll be able to copy files from the old drive, but not to it unless you use a third-party NTFS driver.

🧰 STEP 2: Connect Both Drives to the Mac

Plug in your old My Passport (Windows) and new My Passport (Mac) drives.

Open Finder → Locations and make sure both appear.

Open each one in separate Finder windows for convenience.

📂 STEP 3: Copy the Data

You can now transfer files using one of these methods:

🖱️ Option 1: Finder Drag-and-Drop

Simply drag files/folders from the old drive to the new one.

Wait for the transfer to complete (may take hours depending on size).

💻 Option 2: Use Terminal (for faster copy)

If you prefer the command line:

cp -R /Volumes/OldPassport/* /Volumes/NewPassport/

Replace OldPassport and NewPassport with the actual volume names (you can check them in Finder).

⚙️ STEP 4: Optional – Reformat the Old Drive for Mac

After confirming all data has safely copied:

Open Disk Utility.

Select the old My Passport.

Click Erase.

Choose format:

APFS → for SSD or macOS 10.13+

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) → for compatibility with older Macs

Name it and click Erase.

Now it’s ready for Mac use too.

💡 BONUS TIP

If you plan to use both drives between Windows and Mac, format the new drive as exFAT:

Compatible with both OSes

Handles large files (>4GB)

Slightly slower than native formats