Questions & Answers for WD 3TB My Book for Mac Hard Drive

This is a USB Hard Drive. If you have an Intel Mac you can install the system on it and boot up from it. It won't boot if you only back up the system files on it. The System must be installed or cloned to the USB drive. By cloned, I mean some utilities will copy your system over and set themselves up to work from an external drive in order to repair your hard drive.
To make the USB drive into a startup disk...
From Apple:
* The USB drive has been formatted with a GUID partition type
* The USB drive contains an installation of Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later, or Mac OS X 10.5 or later, which is compatible with (or shipped with) the Mac that the USB device is connected to. Note: You should not use a version of Mac OS X that is earlier ("older") than the version your Mac shipped with.

To start from a USB storage device that meets the above requirements, connect the device, then select it in Startup Disk preferences. Or, connect the device, restart, and immediately press and hold the Option key to access Startup Manager. Then select the USB drive and click OK.

• Answered by Jon M from Palm Springs
• May 28, 2010
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Not very portable- it requires a power cord to operate. If portability is a priority, I would recommend a WD Essential for Mac(firewire connection).

• Answered by Eric K from Chandler
• Feb 20, 2010
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I bought this drive specific to use with my Apple TV via iTunes to stream my movies. I have had it for over 20 days now without any hiccup what-so-ever. The only thing that I have noticed (and I am not complaining) is that it may take around 30 secs to wake when initially starting a movie. Besides that it seems to be working great. It is a bit more noisy than other brands of external HD's I own, I can hear it accessing from time to time.

• Answered by Jason M from Toronto
• Dec 26, 2009
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Yes, definitely. It works seamlessly with both.

• Answered by Matthew M from Minneapolis
• Jan 22, 2010
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Yes, as long as there is a USB port

• Answered by Bryce K from Ewa Beach
• Jun 15, 2012
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Yes, but it can only be plugged into one at a time. You can plug it into one laptop, back it up with Time Machine, then plug it into the other and back that one up with Time Machine; the two machines' backups will be in different files on the drive and won't overwrite each other.

• Answered by Matt H from Reston
• Dec 17, 2009
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I do two different things... and in no specific order or anything...

1) If I don't happen to have my portable hard drive with me (ex. if I bring it to a cafe, friend's house, or library), I would just save my files regularly onto my MacBook (ex. in my Documents, Pictures, Desktop, etc.). Later, when I get a chance to get my hard drive, I connect it to my MacBook and use the TimeMachine to transfer the files onto the hard drive.

2) If my hard drive is connected with my MacBook already (ex. if I am at home), then I would save my files and pictures and such directly onto the hard drive.

So, to me, saving files and data for easy retrieval is via the hard drive...
as for saving email on your hard drive,
~ if you are talking about Microsoft Entourage, I am not positive if you can save them or not.
~ if you are talking about your email via the internet/Safari, you cannot save that onto a hard drive. All of that stays on the web! However, I'm 90% sure that you can save your Cookies, Favorites, Top Sites, etc. on the hard drive as well.

Good Luck! ^_^

• Answered by Laila M
• Mar 28, 2010
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