You’ve just bought a WD drive for your MacBook Pro. Or just about to for your Mac. And you’ve seen that the drive comes with WD Drive Utilities and WD Security.
You’re wondering what are wd drive utilities? And the associated files of WD Security?
Are they for you and your Mac?
With those questions rattling around in your brain. You’ll find this article will help clear them up for you.
By the way. You’ll find the software installer for Drive Utilities. And Security on WD’s popular drives. Like WD Passport SSD, WD My Passport drive and WD Elements.
Though the installer on the My Passport drive and WD Elements are for Windows PC. You can download the for Mac versions for those drives direct from Western Digital’s site.
What Is WD Drive Utilities Mac?
WD Drive Utilities is software made by Western Digital Technologies to run on a Mac computer. This disk management software gives your Mac a graphical user interface. And through that interface you can manage your WD external hard drive.
WD Drive Utility on Mac lets you run diagnostics on your external drive. To find out if you have a problem with your drive or external SSD and it could fail.
You can use this software to erase your WD drive. Format your drive or reformat your external Western Digital hard drive.
You can register your WD storage from your Mac with Western Digital for warranty.
And for a Western Digital external hard drive that support these features. You can configure and manage on your Mac your RAID config. And set your drive’s sleep timer.
How Can You Get WD Drive Utilities For Your Mac?
You can download WD Drive Utilities to your Mac using the WD Discovery software. If it’s installed on your Mac.
Or you can download the WD Drive Utilities direct from Western Digital’s support site.
WD Drive Utilities needs your Mac to have the WD Discovery software already installed to run.
WD Discovery software ships on several Western Digital drives made for Mac computers. You can run the Western Digital Discovery .DMG installer file from your WD drive. Install WD Discovery and then WD Drive Utilities software on your Mac.
Do You Need To Run WD Drive Utilities On Your Mac?
No, almost all of the services provided by WD Drive Utilities are in your standard Mac operating system. And most of the issues that drive owners have using their WD drives are because of this software.
With the software conflicting with other applications they run on their Mac. Bugs in the WD Drive Utilities software causing problems on their Mac. And often the need to wait for quite a while for compatible versions of the WD Drive Utilities. To come out for the latest versions of Mac OS.
Though after a wait it is now available for MacOS Big Sur and Monterey.
Mac users can use Disk Utility to configure the type of file system formatting they want on the drive. To format their WD drives for Mac.
Or run First Aid within Disk Utility to check on their WD hard drive’s health.
Plus, you can go directly onto the Western Digital’s site. And register your external drive for warranty at this link here.
What is WD Security Mac?
It’s Western Digital security software for Mac computers. It’s a part of the WD Drive Utility disk management software set. You can use the WD Drive Utilities app to download WD Security onto your Mac.
Or you can download the Mac version of the WD Security zip files directly from WD’s support site.
You install the security software on your Mac. And use it to manage your WD external drive’s 256-bit AES hardware encryption.
WD Security needs the Western Digital Discovery. And WD Drive Utilities installed on your Mac computer to work.
What Does WD Security Do On A Mac?
As a Mac user. You can enable WD Security on your Western Digital drive.
And password protect your stored files on your WD external drive.
You can unlock your drive. Then freely download your data from your Mac to your drive. Or access the information stored on your drive.
You can then lock your external hard disk and enable your drive’s hardware encryption. Preventing access to your data should you lose your drive.
Do You Need To Run WD Security On Your Mac?
No. There are standard features in the Mac operating system to password protect your WD external drive.
Disk Utility lets you password protect your external storage on formatting the drive. Plus, your Mac’s Apple Time Machine backup software lets you encrypt. And password protect your backup.
Mac users often report problems using WD Security on Mac. And there’s the usual issue. – Making sure you have a compatible version of WD Security for the Mac OS X version you’re running.
And the hope it doesn’t clash with other software on your Mac. Using the inbuilt encryption and password protection of MacOS stops those worries.
In Closing
So now that you know what the WD Drive Utilities do. And what WD Security does on a Mac.
You can this information to your advantage as you use your WD external drive.
It’s important to back your computer up, but it’s also important to keep your data safe.
The best way to do both is to use a reliable external disk drive. Like a drive from WD, to store your files.
This way, you’ll always have a copy of your work. And your data will be safe from hackers, computer glitches, and other problems.
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