How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. Wd portable hard drive reformatting software for windowsmac. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. The method youll learn uses your mac to format your wd passport for mac and windows.
Well show you everything you need to know about the. Use the file system dropdown menu, and select ntfs recommended. Try wd advanced format utility alternative easeus external hard drive formatter to format disk while wd external drive format failed with wd quick formatter tool. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system.
Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file. Readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. First to format your wd elements external drive to mac os extended journaled file system. Wd my passport for mac portable external hard drive. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. How to switch a wd passport from a mac to pc small business. When i try to copy the files from the mac to the windows drive, the computer does not allow as the files do not move.
Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Download this wd portable hard drive reformatting software here. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. 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. Its modern metal design complements your mac, and out of the box, its formatted for macos and time machine compatibility.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. And with up to 5tb1 of storage and a 3year limited warranty, you get storage to rely on for years to come. Overwrite exfat format of 8tb external drive with ntfs. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to.
Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. As formatting will going to erase everything on your drive and thats why avoid formatting. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. Im a mac user and do not plan on using my gtechnology drive with the windows os nor do i plan to share my drive with a windows os user.
Should i just wait until i get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Unable to format wd my passport for mac external hard. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive. I recommend doing it this way, as macs can be choosy about what formats their hard drives. I use time machine for backups with this drive and i have not explored the included software. What you should know that formatting will erase all data on the drive. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. Failsafe operability across compatible hardware and software systems for both generalpurpose and specialized applications.
Two effective ways to format wd passport for windows. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Before you get the answer, you must figure out what kind of file system can work well on both the macos and the windows system.
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. If you want to use the drive with a windows computer, see reformatting the drive and troubleshooting. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. I show you how to format a western digital or any brandhard drive for use on any device be it a mac, pc, linux, ps3, xbox 360, etc. Wd support how to low level format or write zeros full erase to a wd hard drive or solid state drive you need to use wd smartware or wd drive utility to format your external drive. Windows on the other hand cannot read mac formatted drives period. I then plugged the hard drive in my work laptop which i normally do to exchange work docs and same thing, my laptop couldnt detect it. Plugged it back into my mac, time machine doesnt recognize it, and the mac only shows the wd unlocker on the desktop instead of it being a separate hd or disc.
How to make wd passport compatible with mac and windows. Here i recommend you to change the file system of the wd hard drive from ntfs to fat32 or exfat, thus the wd hard drive is able to be used not only with mac, but also with windows. In order to reformat wd portable hard drive and permanently erase the data on the wd portable hard drive, we strongly recommend you to use this tool super eraser to help you reformat the wd portable hard drive. Wd passport external hd not recognized on windows 10. Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows 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 well. Windows only formatted drives are ntfs and they are readonly on a mac. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. 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.
It seems the system does not recognize the windows gdrive. Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community. Check the box labeled perform a quick format and click next. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. And throw up issues when you format the external hard drive on a windows pc and then you use on your mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. And if there is large file beyond 4gb in file size, exfat file system will be the better choice as fat32 is with file size limit. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Fantom drives 2tb external hard drive 7200rpm usb 3. To format western digital my passport for mac or windows, you can rely on inbuilt applications of your system to format your wd my passport in exfat or fat32 format. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external. Next is the file system, which controls how the data is read and written. Format your wd elements drive for both your home mac and work windows pc makes your life easier.
Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. If youve got a wd external drive for mac platforms and you want it to work on a windows 10 pc, exfat format is your best bet. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format to perform read from and. 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 wd external drive for mac apple community. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. 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. The volume label field can be customized in order to give the volume a desired name, such as my book or wd black 1. How to format wd external drive for mac more less apple footer this site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Unable to format wd my passport for mac external hard drive in windows 10. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs.
If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Yes i tried all the ports, i used the hard drive cable to connect my phone to the laptop and windows explorer detected my phone immediately. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. You can use this format if you share the drive between mac os x and windows computers and have no files larger than 4gb. I forgot my password which is why i need to reformat it, but like i said, i got a mac so now i want it for this too.
To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. To access the disk management tool, click the windows icon and type disk management. Then, ill introduce you to workable and easy ways to format wd passport external hard drive, wd elements external hard drive and other external hard drives. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. How to format an external hard drive on windows 10. Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios.
Some hard drives may also include drivers, firmware, or format wizards so be sure to check the user manual before formatting the hard drive. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. Equipped with usbc technology, the my passport ultra for mac portable drive offers an easy way to expand your storage. Rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. You need to format your wd my passport ultra by using low level format. Apple mac machines support a different file system. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. Is it safe to convert usb drive format from fat32 to ntfs in drivers and hardware is it safe to convert usb drive format from fat32 to ntfs.
Set the file system to ntfs, which is the default windows file system, and leave the allocation unit size to default. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows pc. In order to use the drive on both systems you can just format it exfat and it will be readwrite on both systems. 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. For windows computers, go to the start menu and select windows update. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
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