Most of the windows users know how to format western digital external hard drive on a pc. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. 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. 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. Read speeds up to 2000mbs to decrease load times and get you into the game faster. I need to reformated my wd 1tb external hard drive and was wondering what is the best file format to use ms dos fat32, mac os extended journalled etc all i store on it are all my videos, tv shows, and backups of all my work, documents etc, but i dont use it with time machine. Your disk utility program lives within a folder called utilities. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and. In the sidebar, select the not mounting wd my passport for mac hard drive. Disk utility is builtin on your mac and is commonly used to erase, format or manage internal disks and external storage. Enter a name for the drive in the name field, select the mac os extended journaled option from the format dropdown list, and choose the guid partition map option from the scheme.
Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your. Best format for an external hard disk apple community. It has been the standard format for hard drives and floppy disks so to maximize the compatibility across modern systems including mac, linux, and windows. 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. Now, click the erase, button and wait a few minutes and let the macos. Two easy ways to format wd portable hard drive on mac. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Otherwise, this wd my passport drive has been corrupted. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Format to ntfs, and use ntfs3g to readwrite on mac.
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. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. Here, we will show you three ways to format usb flash drive, external hard drive, etc on macos catalina. Double leftclick on the mac hd, the internal mac hard drive visible on the topright corner of the desktop screen. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether. Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. The maximum size of the file you can store in the hard drive with fat32 is 4 gb along with 8tb maximum partition size.
To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. 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. To use it with a mac device, you have to format wd easystore and install the wd backup software. Wd my passport troubleshooting mac format wd hard drive. When you use a hard disk drive, time machine will take a while to back up your mac. At this time, you can format wd hard drive to exfat via diskpart. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac by reformatting. 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. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. 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 best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows pc. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Wd external hard drive wont format what should i do. You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel.
In order to get started and use disk utility to format wd my passport on your mac, follow the simple instructions below. 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. 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. 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. Disk utility is a very beneficial tool, that will make your life much easier. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Well show you everything you need to know about the. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. However, to use it on windows you can hfs explorer read only. Wd black 5tb p10 game drive portable external hard drive compatible with ps4 xbox one pc and mac wdba3a0050bbkwesn 4.
Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. 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. If however, you only need to use this drive on os x, then simply choose mac os extended journaled. The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. 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.
Hi, i am trying to access my wd hard drive which i have been using on my mac from my pc. With builtin quick format feature or thirdparty disk partition tool, it is very easy to format wd portable hard drive under windows operating system. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. This mac propriety file system and is used in ios and mac. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Can i use a wd elements external hard drive on my 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. There are many tools can help you format usb flash drive, portable hard drive, memory card or other storage device on macos catalina. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux.
How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. If disk utility reports that the wd my passport for mac hard drive appears to be ok or has been repaired, youre done. 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. Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Lacie mobile drive 5tb external hard drive portable hdd moon silver usbc usb 3. Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology.
If wd external hard drive wont format problem is not related with write protection, you can clean it and create new partition. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. 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 a hard drive for both windows and mac. Accessing mac formatted wd hard drive from pc external.
If you keep your hard drives outofthebox ntfs format for all the reasons fat32 displeases, theres a workaround that will allow. Easily format wd western digital portable hard drive on mac. Macbook external hard drive not recognized how to reformat. 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. To partition and format the drive with disk utility, follow these steps.
Hi, yesterday i bought a new 8tb wd external hard drive, it came formatted as exfat, i tried to format it to hfs but after a few seconds it failed and i got the message drive failed to unmount, then the driver dissapeared, disk utility would display it as disk5s1 but every attempt at formatting the disk would fail, took it to a pc and formatted again but my imac wound. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. 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 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. The wd easystore external drive is compatible with both mac and windows operating systems. First to format your wd elements external drive to mac os extended journaled file system. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Select the wd my passport hard drive on the left panel of the disk utility and click the erase tab at the top. 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. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. Hi, if you wish to use the disk between a pc and a os x, then choose exfat as the format.
How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. High sierra wont format new drives macrumors forums. Now, the erase dialog box will appear on the screen. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc.
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