About a week ago after start-up, my Mac started showing a message. I have a WD 1TB MyBook (approx 18 months old) and a 2.4GHz. Hi, I think it boils down to mostly a marketing benefit for WD, as one of the things the installer does is to make sure the drive icon is customized with WD icon. Not using the WD driver removes something that AppleCare can blame if one experiences Wi-Fi issues, keyboard lock-ups, etc. Were it I, I wouldn't bother installing the WD driver in deference to keeping my MacBook close to a factory software configuration. MacWold tested a WD My Passport, and found the real world performance was only improved about 6% with the tweaked driver. So what's the deal? Hi, I think it boils down to mostly a marketing benefit for WD, as one of the things the installer does is to make sure the drive icon is customized with WD icon. Though I know you do not need a driver in order to operate it on a Mac, does anyone know what (if any) advantages there are to using this Mac driver? I tested out the connect time for the external hard drive to connect to my MacBook, and it was slower when running the driver (1 minute 29 seconds with Driver, 1 minute 6 seconds without Driver). I purchased a My Book Essential Edition 640 GB external during Black Friday ($70, what a steal!), and have been running it with a Mac driver that is available on the Western Digital website.
