Vishal updated on february 25, 2020 mac hard drive recovery 14 comments 5 min read. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. How do i reformat my western digital wd external hard. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Windows formated drive doesnt work on mac and vice versa. I had to install wd utilities and then erasereformat the drive in that application. Now, click the erase, button and wait a few minutes and let the macos erase data on the drive and reformat it by fat32 or exfat format.
Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Not sure what extended format is and if its suitable. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. Buy wd 2tb silver my passport for mac portable external hard drive usb 3. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Step 5 thereafter, click on the erase button and let the system erase everything on the drive and reformat wd elements for mac by exfat or fat32 format. Store data safely on this 2tb western digital hard drive. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use with your mac in just a. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community.
I think the mac os doesnt know what to do with it in the windows format. You can format external drive to use on mac and pc. Also is it ok to erase all the present files on the disc. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. How to reformat a wd external hard drive it still works. You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on mac. I then tried reformatting it by erasing and setting the format from windows nt file system ntfs to mac os extended journaled for my macos sierra version 10. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your backup files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. After doing so, i was still unable to utilize the drive unable to create new folders, dragdrop anything. And instead get some software so that you can use on your.
How do i reformat my western digital wd external hard drive on my windows vista os. Product firmware product if your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Everything else free delivery possible on eligible purchases. If you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. Wd drive utilities is the software provided by wd which allows users to register the drive, set drive timer, run diagnostics as well as perform a drive erase. Wd discovery can also manage your drive through wd drive utilities. You can get to know how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc from this post, if you need to use a western digital external hard drive, like wd elements both under mac and pc. Steps on how to format the drive are provided on the following link.
Need to reformat wd drive without losing data macrumors. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. However, all of the solutions can be divided into two types. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually come formatted for windows using fat32. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you dont have to constantly back up and reformat each time. In this guide i will show you how you can properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. If you want to use your wd elements drive without any special software on your mac. Click back to start to close the unreadable wd smartware drive. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used.
Back up all important information on the drive before beginning. I came home to set it up and backup my computer a 2015 macbook pro running. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos.
Youre mad as hell because your new wd my passport drive is read only on your mac. This is because you must format the drive with a specific file system before using it with a computer, and windows and mac computers run on different file systems. You want to quickly and permanently erase all content from your mac and restore it to factory settings, such as when youre selling, giving away, or trading in your mac youre changing the format of a disk, such as from a pc format fat, exfat, or ntfs to a mac format apfs or mac os extended. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. Two easy methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Connect your western digital my passport drive to mac computer, and let the os detect and mount the drive for use. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting.
I have approx 100gb of 300gb used and i do not want to lose it. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. We reformat a hard drive if we are switching from one platform to another windows to mac and vice verse back to the main topic, below is a step by step instruction on how to format reformat a hard drive for mac os. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Formatting a hard drive for windows will be discussed in another article.
Do i use disc utilities fat32 or is there some other format. Learn to format hard drive that compatible in windows and macos. And in 10 quick steps ill tell you how to format wd passport for mac. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Connect it, power it up, go to disk utility in applicationsutilities, select the wd disk on the left, go to the erase tab, and choose mac os. Follow the tutorial below, youll get everything covered. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Reformatting a western digital my passport hard drive to function well on windows and macintosh systems is neither timeconsuming nor technologically demanding.
Now, a new hard drive icon will appear on the desktop. Well show you everything you need to know about the. I had to install wd utilities and then erase reformat the drive in that application. Buy wd 2tb my passport for mac portable external hard drive blue, usbcusba wdba2d0020bblwesn. You can reformat a western digital external drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac and pc, when you want to use it under mac. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file system with the. The exfat file system is a better option when it comes to formatting wd my passport on mac. Learn how to erase a wd external hard drive with wd drive utilities below.
If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Formatting and reformatting a drive erases everything. Of course, there are more than two methods that can help you format a wd my passport portable hard drive under mac os. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use with your mac in just a few minutes.
How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10 i have a lacie d2 quadra 1tb external hard drive. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. If your wd external drive isnt in this new format, you wont be able to use it if your mac has been updated to macos high sierra. How to erase wd my passport external hard drive in windows. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. I attached a macformatted lacie 320gb ruggedized drive to the pc and opened computer. However, the mac os does not allow you to write data to the drive. This tutorial will show you how to fix wd my passport not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on macos catalina 10. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on.
I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. However, the new macs are shipped with the latest mac os version, macos high sierra which supports the apple file system or apfs. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. How to convert wd external drive to apple file systemapfs. And yes if you want to use your wd elements drive for a time machine backup. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a wd my passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macos and windows os. If you own a wd elements drive in ntfs, it will be only readable. Hi, when i first plugged in my new wd easystore 2 tb portable drive, i installed the necessary software off the drive. Yo just got a new external hard drive and want to use it on your mac. Its wd backup software automatically saves files on a preset schedule, and it has a sleek but durable design for portability without sacrificing security. You can erase a disk or volume at any time, including in circumstances such as these. A quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive.
Then yes you need to put the wd elements drive in a format your mac can read and write to. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
External hard drives free delivery possible on eligible purchases. Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file system with the help of the professional format tool easeus partition master or other solutions. I have a wd passport drive which i have been using on my pc. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. In such cases, you need to simply convert your wd external drive to apfs format. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows 8, 7, vista, xp and mac osx. Or if youre desperate to know how to reformat wd my passport.
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