My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. At this time, you can format wd hard drive to exfat via diskpart. Can i use a wd elements external hard drive on my mac. Click over and in a few minutes youll have the formatting all done.
Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. The great news is it does not matter which brand you buy. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Apr 15, 2020 if you want to make use of your mac s thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. This way will erase all data on wd external hard drive. 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. Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities.
Jan 25, 2019 wd easystore external portable hard drive manual for macbook pro, imac, mac mini, mac pro, macbook air, and others. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Select a format from the format dropdown menu beneath the name text field, for example, mac os x extended journaled or msdos fat. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Do i need to format my external hard drive macrumors. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32. However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required.
The prior generation mac wd hdd was much nicer in a silverish sleek enclosure. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. Wd my passport for mac portable external hard drive. They produced fantastic looking external hard drive enclosures and each year i would get a new one in their range. Now in this interface, you will see a format option.
When finished, you can mount your wd external hard drive on mac and use it again. Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. It is not only very helpful in settling wd external hard drive wont format issue, but also in c drive full, file is too big to copy to external hard drive problem and etc. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. Mar 31, 2020 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. How to format a hard drive for both windows and 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. 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. Your disk utility program lives within a folder called utilities.
Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
Wdeasystore external hard drive set up guide for mac 2019. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Wdeasystore external hard drive set up guide for mac.
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. Wd used to be in my view the leaders in storage solutions. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. To set up your wd elements drive to work on your mac youll need to format it for mac.
Lacie mobile drive 5tb external hard drive portable hdd moon silver usbc usb 3. Select the drive, click erase, choose the name and format of the drive, and click erase. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Click the go menu and navigate to your home folder. Whether youre selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a hard drive. So youre shopping for a new hard drive for your mac but you noticed a few things on the box. Well show you everything you need to know about the.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. 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. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup hd and external drive problems. Name the wd external hard drive in the name text field that appears beneath the erase tab. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows pc. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format a wd external hard drive in fat32 to use in.
Wd my passport format problem high sierr apple community. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. When i open disk utility pertaining to the new hd i see 698. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Mar 10, 2019 connect an external drive to your mac via usb, usbc, or thunderbolt. Oct 15, 2015 hi all, i recently received an external hard drive for my bday and my friend loaded a ton of pictures and movies onto it for me. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Aug 16, 2019 try selecting the wd at the hard drive level i. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. Nov 14, 2019 it helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup hd and external drive problems. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag.
How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Hi all, i recently received an external hard drive for my bday and my friend loaded a ton of pictures and movies onto it for me. Wd my passport this time not untitled and then erase. To make your western digital hard drive work on both mac and windows. Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your. 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. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac.
You were right, you did indeed have to select wd my passport screen shot 20170625 at 6. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. Im having some trouble formatting my wd my passport in high sierra. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. How to format an external hard drive for a mac youtube. Jul 31, 2019 it is not only very helpful in settling wd external hard drive wont format issue, but also in c drive full, file is too big to copy to external hard drive problem and etc. Nov 03, 2017 im having some trouble formatting my wd my passport in high sierra. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. In the format partition section, select the file system.
Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Dec 29, 2015 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. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. Setup time machine and setup to work in windows pc and mac.
Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. I was a windows guy, who moved over the mac but only recently started saving things to the mac file system on my macbook pro. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. First, lets see how to format an external hard drive or usb drive in macos which works with both mac and pc platforms, first plugin your drive in macos machine. 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. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility.
Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Lacie rugged mini 4tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3. However, i cant actually use the hard drive myself. I did a little search through these dorums and it seems like i ned to format the hard drive to fat32 in order to add things to it. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Hope this tutorial can help to fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac. Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. Aug 30, 2019 plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac.
On a windows computer, i can plug in any external hard drive i have here and slide over folders of info on to it, easy peazy. This latest hard drive well, its not very aesthetically pleasing. How to backup mac to an external hard drive 5 steps. Dont close your previous window open to your external drive, as youll need it shortly. If you are able to fix the hard drive or ssd in your mac or an external drive using disk utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Wd external hard drive wont format what should i do. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. 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. How to use photos for mac with an external hard drive imore. Mar 25, 2019 format any external hard drive for an apple mac tutorial with images.
Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. The prior generation mac wd hdd was much nicer in a. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. 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 videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Youll find my article on how you format the wd elements hard drive here. The ones that say apple compatible are sometimes more expensive. Format any external hard drive for an apple mac tutorial. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex.
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