Formatting a wd external hard drive for mac

Aomei partition assistant is such a great simple tool for formatting external hard drive for mac and windows. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. When the disk utility recognizes it the drive is read only. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. In the format partition section, select the file system. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. Cross compatibility rests on the os itself and additional plugins. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. Oct 15, 2015 hi, if you wish to use the disk between a pc and a os x, then choose exfat as the format.

To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop.

A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. Aug 16, 2019 try selecting the wd at the hard drive level i. Wd my passport for mac portable external hard drive. Instead, save them to your mac hard drive first, then transfer them back to your external drive later. Usb drives and external hard drives on macos catalina are used for storing and backing up important data such as photos, videos, audios, images, notes, messages, music files, pdf files, word documents, among other files. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. How to format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. Dec, 2019 now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase.

I am having problem formatting a wd external hard drive to my mac. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms. Though formatting a hard disk is a nobrainer, getting one that was specifically prepared for my mac was great. Wd my passport this time not untitled and then erase. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. But sometimes, the units themselves, which carry proprietary firmware for. 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.

However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. For example, you plan to backup dvds to mac hard drive or store other files and need to format an external hard drive for macos to extend storage space you are selling your mac computer and formatting mac startup disk drive to make it clean and new without. The disk utility gives no options for formatting under the erase.

To set up your wd elements drive to work on your mac youll need to format it for mac. Oct 20, 2019 youtube video showing the format of wd my passport for mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. What to do if formatting mac hard drive takes too long. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution. Sep 19, 2014 she has a mac mini and a wd passport external hard drive. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.

There may be occasions when you need to format mac hard drive. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. This video from acquevara shows you the formatting on a mac using mac os sierra. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.

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. Many users are experiencing slow hard drive formatting on mac, try the possible solutions to slow mac hard drive formatting process. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Besides, you can use it to manage your hard drive partitions such as resize partition, delete partition, split partition, merge partitions, etc.

Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive before formatting it. Youtube video showing the format of wd my passport for mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. You were right, you did indeed have to select wd my passport screen shot 20170625 at 6. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Aug 30, 2019 select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. 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 a file system both oss can read. Formatting a 3tb external hard drive microsoft community. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. You can watch the video along side using my notes above for extra help. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows.

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. Wd used to be in my view the leaders in storage solutions. Trouble formatting external hard drive macrumors forums. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community.

Youll find my article on how you format the wd elements hard drive here. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Nov 14, 2019 get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. You should create multiple partitions on your external hard drive, in order to have enhanced file organization. External hard drives are key in a content creatoryoutubers life. The disk is quiet, fast and i have not experienced any heating at all. Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase.

How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. 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. How to format wd my passport in windows system just like disk utility on mac, there is an inbuilt tool known as disk management in windows. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive.

Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. If the above software doesnt work to rescue your data, you can send your external hard drive to a recovery company for data rescue services. Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it using a compatible file system. Dec 25, 2016 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 a file system both oss can read. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. You can now edit, read, and write files, as you wish.

Launch easeus partition master, rightclick the partition on your external hard driveusbsd card which you want to format and choose. You can have problems with your mac refusing to format your elements drive if its not picked at the right level. I have a mac and downloaded and formatted my 3tb hard drive to ntfs3g, but when i plug it into my xbox it wont even recognize it. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. I purchased it about a month ago and i down loaded thousands of pictures onto iti tried to retrieve a picture today and it keeps saying i need to format my drivei look on disk manager on my computer and it shows there is date on the drive but it keeps telling me i have to format my drive. Wd 1tb black my passport for mac portable external hard. Connect the impaired external hard drive to the pc. After that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine.

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. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. When i did this, it partioned the drive into two drives 2tb and 700gb, and it will only allow me to format the 2tb partition. Step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive. 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. Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your mac s external drives list. 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. Repair corrupted external hard drive with partition manager. Wd 1tb black my passport for mac portable external hard drive. She has a mac mini and a wd passport external hard drive.

This latest hard drive well, its not very aesthetically pleasing. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. They produced fantastic looking external hard drive enclosures and each year i would get a new one in their range. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility. I am trying to format my new 3tb harddrive for my mac computer. The hard drive is already formatted in mac os extended.

How to repair corrupted external hard drive without losing. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. 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. Apr 16, 2020 step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and. How to format an external hard drive for a mac youtube. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Wd 1tb black my passport for mac portable external hard drive usb 3. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with 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. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. If however, you only need to use this drive on os x, then simply choose mac os extended journaled. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also. 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 reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. How to recover data from a formatted external hard drive. Sep 26, 2018 after that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine. 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. Mypassport for macs seem to always be out of stock, so i bought the 4tb. I will definitely go for a larger capacity one as soon as i. Click over and in a few minutes youll have the formatting all done.

Be sure to choose your wd elements drive at the top level. I hope you have retrieved all your lost data due to reformatting the external drive. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. Quick fix corrupted external hard drive by formatting. Wd 2tb my passport ultra for mac silver portable external hard drive, usbc wdbkyj0020bslwesn wd 2tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.