To format western digital my passport for mac or windows, you can rely on inbuilt applications of your system to format your wd my passport in exfat or fat32 format. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Not sure what extended format is and if its suitable. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc.
How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wifi menu in the menu bar. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. Feb 03, 2020 disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. If your wd external drive isnt in this new format, you wont be able to use it if your mac has been updated to macos high sierra. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. For earlier releases of mac os, you find that the steps are the same. Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. I just upgraded my ps3s internal hdd from the stock seagate 60 gb to a wd 500 gb. Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air. Format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility iclarified. How to convert wd external drive to apple file systemapfs.
The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. After successful formatting, you can directly save or move files to it like any other external hard drive. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. You have to set it up correctly before getting starting.
How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. It is similar to exfat which can be read by both windows and mac, but it can store more than 4gb files. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use. How to quickly format external hard drive for mac and pc without losing data. This answer explains how to format a wd drive for use on windows and macos. Your disk utility program lives within a folder called utilities. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default.
Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use with your mac in just a few minutes. Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your. Step one if your hard drive is an external drive, connect it to the computer. Whats more, you can share digital files between mac and windows system easily. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux.
If you own a wd elements drive in ntfs, it will be only readable. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file system with the help of the professional format tool easeus partition master or other solutions. Wd my passport ultra 2tb setup and driver installation. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. My passport for mac portable storage is ready right out. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. If you are wondering how to wipe a hard drive or format disk terminal mac you are just at the right place.
Used your guide to format an external 250 gb drive to back up the ps3 before installing the new one, and restored all the information from it to the new drive. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. Click the wd drive download for mac and install it on your system once the download process is complete. 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. Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for as far back as mac os x 10.
What you should know that formatting will erase all data on the drive. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Jan 17, 2020 although we mentioned this method in our article, we still dont recommend it because it is the least tested. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. It is recommended to choose the compatible format that the system lists. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. Although the erasure process is a bit difficult, the tool to format the hard drives is builtinto the macos. Do i use disc utilities fat32 or is there some other format. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and 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. Ntfs is a modern format system and windows also uses this format for itself and for other nonremovable drives by default. The western digital ultra portable 2tb external hard drive is a small and portable hard drive that can securely store your files offline.
How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Wd my passport ultra 1tb setup and troubleshooting guide. When finished, you can mount your wd external hard drive on mac and use it again. The easiest way to format the drive to fat32 or exfat is by using macoss builtin disk utility for fat32 or.
My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. Although we mentioned this method in our article, we still dont recommend it because it is the least tested. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. 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. And they will never cause any damage to your hard drive or shorten the service life of the hard drivessdusb flash drive, etc. Dec 22, 2008 would just like to thank you again for this thread. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system answer id 291 a western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Look for your wd my passport drive on your desktop.
I mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac. This format is also compatible with all versions of windows but limited to none windows os as fat32. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Select your external hard drive or usb flash drive from the list on the left. It is just for educational purposes, and it is available on mac os 10. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx.
Enter a name for the external hard drive in the name field. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected os x extended journaled as the format, and. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. I had to install wd utilities and then erasereformat the drive in that application. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. However, the new macs are shipped with the latest mac os version, macos high sierra which supports the apple file system or apfs. The wd my passport ultra comes with the software which can be easily installed on your windowsmac computer.
Dont worry, the top 5 disk formatting tools bellow are 100% safe disk formatting tool for windows or mac os. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. I think the mac os doesnt know what to do with it in the windows format. Disk utility is a useful application inside your mac system.
Then, ill introduce you to workable and easy ways to format wd passport external hard drive, wd elements external hard drive and other external hard drives. Jan 08, 2020 dont fret you can change the formatting. Your screens menus may look a bit different so bear that in mind. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system.
When i open disk utility pertaining to the new hd i see 698. How to format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Formatting your easy store hard drive to mac wd community. How to format external hd for ps3 macrumors forums.
Two effective ways to format wd passport for windows. For mac, the mac os extension is the file system included in mac os 10. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all the photos. In the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. Disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. How to format a hard drive for both 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.
The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Setting up and using wd security and wd drive utilities. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. After installing the software, connect your wd drive to the system and start using it. 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.
How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a wd my passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macos and windows os. 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 extended. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. Feb 10, 2012 tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x.
These are instructions on how to format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility. The my passport for mac drive s builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password protection helps keep your digital lifes contents secure. Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Hope this tutorial can help to fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next. Its easy to use only if you know the right way to do it.
From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended. To download the driver for your mac system, specify the mac os version in the correct textbox. Just activate password protection and set your own personalized password using wd discovery. And apfs takes the advantages of strong encryption, space sharing, disk snapshots and is compatible with ssd on new mac. They will efficiently format hard drive or external device under windows or mac os. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. Jan 15, 2020 macos recovery makes it easy to reinstall the mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. I click on each one of these, then click erase, choose mac os extended for the volume format, name it, or can i leave it untitled as is. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility.
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