No matter what motivation you have, the question, how to reformat a hard drive, is much more important now. Mac os x, mountain lion, lion, snow leopard, leopard windows xp, windows vista or windows 7 requires reformatting package contents. The wd 2tb external hard drive setup is compatible with windows operating system and needs a reformatting if utilized on a mac operating system. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. The samsung t5 is good for a macbook, whereas the western digital my book is probably better for an imac. An external hard drive is an excellent way to keep your priceless data safe, and western digital wd has been in the business of making toptier external storage devices since 2006.
Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows. Reformatting a western digital my passport hard drive to function well on windows and macintosh systems is neither timeconsuming nor technologically demanding. Western digital external hard drive model wdbgja0010bbknesn. How to format an external hard drive for a mac youtube. Formatting a hard drive for windows will be discussed in another article. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. Back up all important information on the drive before beginning. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Recover formatted wd external hdd western digital recovery. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the chances of file corruption, so make.
Just like seagate external hard drive not recognized on mac, western digital hard drive not recognized on mac is another frequently asked question in apple related forums. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. When formatting is complete, the progress bar disappears. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. A western digital external hard drive meant for backing up and holding large files. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Jul 02, 2015 a western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. 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. A budget option for a maccompatible hard drive that is extremely portable. In order to avoid data loss, you have to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drive as soon as possible. Western digital yesterday refreshed its popular portable and desktop hard drive range with a more colorful lineup and increased capacities as part of a reimagined design that wd says better. Plug in the 1tb western digital drive to power outlet and usb port. Wd 2tb external hard drive setup and driver download. 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. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. When shipped to you your western digital elements drive is in a format called. How to reformat western digital element 1 tb solved.
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 on the other hand has the mybook ultra, which has automatic cloud backup that doesnt work on a mac, and turbo drivers of which everybody who had installed them wasnt too fond of. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. Dec 29, 2015 your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. When you take into account price, ease of use, and portability, the seagate backup plus slim is the most reliable hard drive you can carry around with you at all times. Dec 29, 2014 wd external hard drive set up guide how to use on mac. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Keep in mind that a mac can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance. Macbook external hard drive not recognized how to reformat. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac. Western digital 2tb my passport ultra portable external hard drive.
A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. In this guide i will show you how you can properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your backup files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. To save important data on the hard drive, please backup disk beforehand. 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.
Fix the unrecognized wd hard drive by reformatting. Open time machine and choose the new my essentials book as the drive to backup as a time machine drive. Western digital easystore hard drive unboxing and installation. However, you need to reformat external hard drive or internal ssdhdd if it was partitioned before. Wd external hard drive set up guide how to use on mac. I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive.
For years, millions of people worldwide have trusted their data to wd hard drives. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Oct 15, 2015 reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows. Wd data recovery external hard drive and software support. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. And have your wd elements for mac and lose your issues. In this situation, the only solution is to reformat the wd external hard drive. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system os to move files between the two environments. How can i make the unrecognized wd hard drive work on mac again. Which is the external hard disk that can be used for both. Wd my passport for mac 1tb portable external hard drive storage usb 3. Included instructions for setting the hard drive up with a mac computer can be confusing to new users.
Western digital is known for its safe and reliable. Its slim and professional looking, and it looks good when sitting on the desktop. After some searching i found the latest disk utility from western digital, acronis true image wd edition. Shop newegg for fast and free shipping on western digital mac hard drives with the best prices and awardwinning customer service. The western digital 2tb my passport ultra portable device is designed with usbctm technology. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems. Reformatting the hard drive can be difficult on mac computers using disk utility. There are a wide range of external hard drives in the wd family of devices, making it difficult to know just which model would be right for your data preservation. Should i just wait until i get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. The 4tb wd my passport pro thunderbolt portable drive is great for mac users. 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. In this range, youll find quality external drives that hold 500gb to 1tb of storage for mac computers. How to fix wd hard drive not recognized on mac without.
Wdeasystore external hard drive set up guide for mac 2019. 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. Designed to fit in the palm of your hand, theres plenty of space to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. Please see the link below for instructions on how to format the drive on a windows computer. Wd 1tb silver my passport for mac portable external hard. The my passport for mac drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password protection helps keep your digital lifes contents secure. The price of hard drives has really come down since you got the one you have. Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Built with wd reliability wd quality inside and out. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. You can find out how to format your wd elements external hard drive for mac and pc using my article. How to fix wd hard drive not recognized on mac without losing. Sep 12, 2019 however, you need to reformat external hard drive or internal ssdhdd if it was partitioned before. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book. How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc.
The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. You can discover other articles on the site all about your wd elements drive. Once you format your western digital external hard drive, entire data resided over it get lost. And the utilities folder lives in your applications. Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows computer. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the. My passport for mac is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually come formatted for windows using fat32.
How to reformat western digital element 1 tb solvedclosed report. 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. The drive was not recognized by my dell laptop running windows xp. Its a desktop external hard drive, meaning it comes inside a. Wd my passport for mac portable external hard drive. The software immediately recognized the drive and i was able to run a ntfs format that completed in less than a minute. Universal connectivity with this drive, you get connectivity with usb 3. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. The reason is perhaps that seagate external hard drive has been well known for a long time as one of the most reliable drives for storing data. Recover lost data from unmountable wd external hard drive on mac. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. However, while doing this, there are things you have to keep in mind and follow the correct steps. While portability is not the western digital my books strong suit and it needs a.
Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use. The my passport for mac drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password. 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. Vishal updated on april 21, 2020 mac hard drive recovery 15 comments 6 min read. 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. The western digital drive is the most popular drive that can be used for three significant advantages like convenience, capacity as it enables you to carry terabytes of data everywhere you go, and data transfer as it is simple and fast to share the files among the devices. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Not recognized how to reformat western digital hard drive for mac.
If you have not yet embarked on this project, consider this. 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. Jan 26, 2008 the easiest way to reformat a western digital hard drive for the mac is to. Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive. Compatible with usbc and usba devices, my passport for mac comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. Your disk utility program lives within a folder called utilities.
How to erase my passport and reformat wd portable drives. Western digital my passport ultra 2tb portable hard drive. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Overall storage space will typically play the main role in the final price youll pay for an external hard drive. Jan 08, 2020 you can only read your elements external hard drive. Western digital announces redesigned my passport portable. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting.
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