Reformat wd drive for mac

How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. See the above section for more details on which one to pick. It will not shorten the service life of the wd portable hard drive even the wd portable hard drive is erased 35 times by this software. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32.

Click the finder, open the applications folder, open the utilities folder and choose disk. Fat32 will let you directly plug the drive into both windows and mac. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. 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. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. It appears the issue has since been fixed and disks. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system.

Nov 14, 2017 i recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. However, do you know how to reformat wd portable hard drive. Now, i am trying to use it on my macbook pro, and it lights up, its also recognized by my mac, i can see it on disk utility, but i cant open it. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Super eraser will reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase all data on the wd portable hard drive.

How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac computer. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. Select your drive in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase tab. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Today, we will introduce an easy, secure and efficient way to reformat wd portable hard drive. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant.

Hi everyone, i just bought the easy store 1tb hard drive and i am trying to format is to my mac. One is by using the indigenous file format option in the windows os powered computers and other is through the similar tools found in the mac os. Mar 23, 2020 how to format reformat wd elements for mac depending on the system that you are using, there are 2 ways to format you hard disk into a mac supported format. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.

How to reformat my hard drive using my macbook air quora. Select your wd my passport for mac drive from the left sidebar and click the mount button on the top of disk utility window. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. In this guide i will show you how you can properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. External usb hard drives are lightweight, portable and inexpensive. Your disk utility program lives within a folder called utilities.

To use a wd my passport on mac, you need to know how to reformat it. Deborah, if you plan to use drive for quicken backup only, the drive needs no special formatting. Oct 11, 2018 want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only. 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. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt.

Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. You cannot reformat a volume when you are currently booted to an operating system on. Wd portable hard drive reformatting software for windowsmac. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it.

Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. Click show all devices in view option at the left corner of disk utility. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. Then, you can use the drive in macos or os x as a regular hard drive.

At the time of the original posting in 2011, there were some problems getting a mac formatted exfat drive working with windows, it had trouble recognizing those drives. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether. After having confirmed that the wd my passport is formatted with ntfs, many people will choose to convert ntfs to apfs for macos catalina, mojave and high sierra or reformat the wd my passport hard drive to make the wd external hard drive compatible with mac. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. Steps on how to format the drive are provided on the following link. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. What is important is if you are using a pc you use a pc formatted drive, but if you are using a mac you should use a preformatted for mac drive, it. Fix wd my passport for mac not showing upnot working on mac. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.

If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Mar 15, 2018 to use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your. It is possible to reformat the drive and keep your files by formatting your drive and then using a data recovery tool to restore your information. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac.

Mypassport for macs seem to always be out of stock, so i bought the 4tb. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. I have a wd my passport edge for mac 500gb external drive that i have been using for years on a macbook air, without glitches. 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. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. How to reformat a wd external hard drive it still works. Nov 26, 20 fat32 will let you directly plug the drive into both windows and mac. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. If you know youre going to use a drive on both mac and windows, you. Reformatting an external hard drive for mac step 1. Windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. To format the drive to work with both platforms you will need use a windows computer to format the disk as exfat.

Click the file menu and select load file system from device. Under the format menu, choose the file system you want to use. What is important is if you are using a pc you use a pc formatted drive, but if you are using a mac you should use a preformatted for mac drive, it will make your life easier. Wait for the process to complete and let the macos erase data on the drive and reformat it by fat32 or exfat format. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. In this guide i will show you how you can properly format reformat a hard drive for mac os. How to format an external hard drive for a mac youtube. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. You should then a see it mount on the desktop, and b automatically get a prompt to use the drive for time machine if not, you can go into the time machine menu top right of the screen, go to tm preferences, and select it. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well.

The exfat file system is a better option when it comes to formatting wd my passport on mac. Instead, you can also click on the mount icon beside the drive to mount it immediately. 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. Apr 29, 2020 follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp.

Formatting a hard drive for windows will be discussed in another article. Connect the western digital my passport hard drive to the computer. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. Although both operating systems can format your drive with the fat32 system, windows 7 limits the partition size to just 32gb, but you can format up to 1tb drives. Have tried disk utility and terminal diskutil but the hard drive keeps showing at the wrong size.

How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. They are great for backing up data, creating extra storage space on your computer and transferring large amounts of data between two or more computers. I have a 3tb hard drive that i removed from a nas that is only showing as 800mb on my mac. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. External hard drives are key in a content creatoryoutubers life. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.

Jan 27, 2019 to format the drive to work with both platforms you will need use a windows computer to format the disk as exfat. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition.

How to partition and format a wd drive on windows 8, 7, vista, xp and mac osx. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. There may be lots of methods to reformat a wd portable hard drive on pc or mac. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. How to erase my passport and reformat wd portable drives. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Benefits of wd my passport the simple fact is, youll be very happy with the shape, weight, look and even feel of the wd my passport drive. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. 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 formatreformat wd elements for mac depending on the system that you are using, there are 2 ways to format you hard disk into a mac supported format. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. 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. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. There is only one rule that you need to keep in mind when reformatting a drive. The same goes for using any kind of wd drive on mac. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac 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.