Format a western digital hard drive for mac

How to format a western digital external hard drive for a mac. Nov 20, 20 on their website,seagate states it works with both windows and mac without feformatting is it the same with western digital external drives. Cannot access wd my passport external hard drive wd repair. Just install it, and mac drives will show up like any other drive. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. This software allows you to check the disk health and you can format to hfs using that software. Easily format wd western digital portable hard drive on mac. Our datacentric solutions are comprised of the western digital, gtechnology, sandisk, upthere and wd brands. You can have problems with your mac refusing to format your elements drive if its not picked at the right level. Doubleclick on the mac s main hard drive to open its window on the desktop. Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. Nov 14, 2019 get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac.

Well show you everything you need to know about the. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. This is a great external hard drive for your mac if. The yellow arrow in the internalexternal picture above shows you where to click. Now, a new hard drive icon will appear on the desktop. When the finder window opens, on the menu bar, select go and then utilities. Wd 2tb black my passport for mac portable external hard. How to format external hard drive on mac compatible.

Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. May 09, 2019 the best external hard drives for mac in 2020. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. In past seven or eight years, ive owned at least six external hard drives from western digital and have never once had a problem with any of them. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Using western digital hard drive on pc an apple community. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac.

This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Fortunately, there are some mac hard drive format software or smart disk formatting applications can help you securely and easily format, reformat, or erase hard drive under mac os. Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your mac s external drives list. Plug the cable attached to the wd external hard drive to the appropriate port on the mac, for example, the usb port. My problems is that i cannot even see the wd hard drive on the mac finder nor on the pcs file explorer the hard drive simply disappeared from both after i had reformatted it to exfat using the pc to do this having gone into the properties of the wd hard drive. Feb 08, 2020 rightclick on the icon for your external drive on mac desktop, then select get info. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Macbook external hard drive not recognized how to reformat. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. I usually use a firewire that connects into the hard drive in two places. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.

How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Aomei partition assistant standard is professional and easytouse hard drive formatting software that can do you a big favor. When you are a mac user the chances of reformat get higher and when digital external hard drive it arises much more. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since macs treat them the same way as. I just bought a western digital 1 tb portable hard drive. 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. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. 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. Western digital my book mac edition user manual pdf. The my passport for mac drive s builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password protection helps keep your digital. Wd 2tb black my passport for mac portable external hard drive. I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. Hope this tutorial can help to fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac.

My book wdh1u0, my book wdh1u0an, my book wdh1u15000, my book wdh1u20000. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. 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. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.

However, if you want to use part of the drive for os xs time machine backups, you should do this from the mac, since theres an extra step to make the drive compatible for time machine. Simply plug this external hard drive for mac and windows into a computer via the included usb 3. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. It shouldnt be such a pain to format a drive for a mac. A budget option for a mac compatible hard drive that is extremely portable. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Apr 15, 2020 this is a great external hard drive for your mac if you are concerned about keeping your data safe and secure. Hi, i am trying to access my wd hard drive which i have been using on my mac from my pc. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system.

Download the wd discovery software for mac from the western digital site. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. Western digital my passport 4tb external hard drive. When trying to save large files in final cut pro, the hard drive would save numerous. The my passport for mac drive s builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password protection helps keep your digital lifes contents secure.

Ive owned at least six external hard drives from western digital and. 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. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Using wd 4 tb my passport for both mac and pc external. Only at best buy store data safely on this 2tb western digital hard drive. Dec 29, 2015 follow these instructions if you plan to share an external hard drive between pc and mac computers.

However, in file explorer, if you right click partition on the wd hard drive and choose format, youll find that there is no exfat option. Wd 2tb black my passport for mac portable external hard drive usb 3. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. I received a replacement 750gb external hard drive from western digital. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Accessing mac formatted wd hard drive from pc wd community. The western digital drive i bought is windows ntfs formatted and not mac friendly so the first thing i did was try to simply format it. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Wd my passport this time not untitled and then erase.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how i partition the hard drive to work on both operating systems. Oct 02, 2010 i just bought a western digital 1 tb portable hard drive. Oct 25, 2018 to format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice. Feb 11, 2019 the western digital drive i bought is windows ntfs formatted and not mac friendly so the first thing i did was try to simply format it. However, while doing this, there are things you have to keep in mind and follow the correct steps.

Most of the windows users know how to format western digital external hard drive on a pc. Top 10 external hard drives for mac external hard drives. Western digital provides data storage solutions, including systems, hdd, flash ssd, memory and personal data solutions to help customers capture and preserve their most valued data. But keep in mind that you will be in need of software and proper knowledge of the process. Doubleclick on the macs main hard drive to open its window on the desktop. Read speeds up to 2000mbs to decrease load times and get you into the game faster.

At this time, you can format wd hard drive to exfat via diskpart. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Te lights are on on the wd and i can unmount it, but cannot find it anywhere where i can access and copy files over. Jun 18, 2019 thank you for your response monicabang much appreciated. However, if youre having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect. The my passport for mac drive includes usbc and usba cables, so you can save tomorrows content with the mac computers of both today and yesterday. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. I show you how to format a western digital or any brand hard drive for use on any device be it a mac, pc, linux, ps3, xbox 360, etc. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. The 8 best external hard drives and ssds for mac and pc users.

I am looking to use the hard drive on my mac at home, and pc at school. It came formatted for mac os and i need to format it under ntfs. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. Even though mac computers are capable of reading hard drives that are formatted for windows, if you intend on using your external hdd as a bootable disk or want to use it to backup files with your mac s time machine, you must format it to be entirely mac compatible. To format western digital external hard drive fat32, you actually have a better choice.

How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Use a mac with an older release of mac os to format your wd passport drive. Trying to access from pc via usb cable with only one access point in wd hard drive, but it doesnt show up on the pc. I am having a huge dilemma with my new western digital 4tb hard drive. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. When finished, you can mount your wd external hard drive on mac and use it again. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. There are other options which are more complex if the above has not worked for you. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. You can find out how to format your wd elements external hard drive for mac and pc using my article here. Accessing mac formatted wd hard drive from pc external. Inside, enter the applications folder and then the utilities folder.

View and download western digital my book mac edition user manual online. 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. When shipped to you your western digital elements drive is in a format called ntfs. Be sure to choose your wd elements drive at the top level.

The first tool occurs to your mind to format wd hard drive might be file explorer. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use. Amazons choice for western digital external hard drive mac wd 4tb my passport for mac portable external hard drive, usbcusba wdbp6a0040bbkwese 4. Vishal updated on april 21, 2020 mac hard drive recovery 15 comments 6 min read. How to access an external drive thats not recognized on a mac. The previous defunct hd was also fat32, which i did not realize upon receiving and using. Western digital my passport ultra features cloud storage and 256aes encryption.

This portable external hard drive features a minimalist brushed metal enclosure, and is a stylish usb drive. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. To make your western digital hard drive work on both mac and windows computers, you need to format the drive with the fat32 file system. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Western digital my book external hard drive users manual. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. The my passport for mac drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password protection helps keep your digital lifes contents secure. Two easy ways to format wd portable hard drive on mac. Western digital offers an expansive portfolio of technologies, storage devices, systems and solutions for businesses and consumers alike. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on mac and windows computers, providing you format using exfat.