Dec 07, 2009 this isnt really mac related but, is it beneficial to reformat an external hard drive. If your external hard drive is readonly on your mac due to its ntfs file system, you can easily fix it by reformatting the device to a mac compatible format with the builtin disk utility on mac. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. External usb hard drives are lightweight, portable and inexpensive. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your.
Typically, when you buy an external hard drive it will be formatted out of the box. Wd discovery software can also be used to manage your drive settings like reformatting, led control and more. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external. Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. First of all, as i said before, reformating will erase all your data that stored on the hard drive permanently. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Reformatting an external hard drive for mac step 1. If a wd hard drive wont work normally on a mac due to bad sectors or other parameter errors, you can use wd drive utilities for mac to have a diagnosis what happens to your hard drive. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014.
You can have problems with your mac refusing to format your elements drive if its not picked at the right level. Easytouse auto backup software easystore desktop storage comes equipped with wd backup software. When it comes to external hard drives, many users choose wd my passport because of the rapid transfer rates and compact appearance design. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Select the unrecognized wd hard drive from the sidebar. Reformatting external hard drive without apple community. Remember, once the data is gone, theres no way to recover it. Looking for an external mac hard drive that i can use on mac version 10. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
Plug in the external hard drive into mac and open the finder 2. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system. Wd portable hard drive reformatting software for windows mac. Portable drives such as wd elements are available in a variety of speeds and storage capacities. The wd 2tb external hard drive setup is lightweight, compact, where you can store movies, music, pictures, office documents and take it with you wherever you go. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. 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. Depending on a number of factors, however, your drive may be labeled not initialized. How to format an external hard drive for a mac youtube. I just got a 1tb internal drive and now i want to use the external for my ps3.
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. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. How to reformat an external hard drive for a mac techwalla.
If they are important make sure you have them backed up safely and that they can be accessd on another drive s, cds, dvds or memory sticks if they are very small. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. It is usually used to repair corrupted hard disk when it is unrecognized or inaccessible, fix format issues when windows was unable to complete the format, change file system or optimize the performance of the drive. Reformatting an external hard drive no, not unless you back them up to another location first.
Nov 14, 2019 get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. How to reformat wd external hard drive using wd quick formatter. 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. 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. In order to reformat wd portable hard drive and permanently erase the data on the wd portable hard drive, we strongly recommend you to use this tool super eraser to help you reformat. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. 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. How to format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. Wd my passport 1tb portable external hard drive black. How to reformat my hard drive using my macbook air quora. Its because wd drive utilities is a specialized utility for wd hard drives to check for potential drive failures, slow disk performance, and bad sectors. Besides, wd my passport hard drives are built in with backup and encryption software which helps to ensure your data safety.
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. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. This small compact ssd drive from samsung comes with both a usbc to usbc cable and a usbc to usba, meaning its perfect to use with your macbook or mac. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Select the format tab at the top of the new window that appears.
If you dont want to worry about losing all your data on the chance your external hard drive becomes corrupted, you should keep multiple backups of the data in different places. Wd my passport for mac portable external hard drive. You are ready to go in a few quick measures, so you can transfer your backup data to the hard disk, keep your documents safe so give you peace of mind. Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. I want to back up both on one external hard drive and have had a hard time finding one that works on both versions. Ive been using my 500gb wd my book for a couple years as storage for media. You would have to copy the data on your hard drive to your mac, then reformat it with the disk utility application.
Plug your western digital external hard drive into your computer using the usb cable that came with drive. This latest hard drive well, its not very aesthetically pleasing. This reduced power draw helps preserve the battery life of the mac you plug the drive into. Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows external. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Wd my passport portable hard drive and auto backup software the my passport portable hard drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. Jan 08, 2020 you can only read your elements external hard drive. Wd used to be in my view the leaders in storage solutions. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. The prior generation mac wd hdd was much nicer in a silverish sleek enclosure. Name the wd external hard drive in the name text field at the top of the window. How to erase wd my passport external hard drive in windows.
Select a format type from the format type dropdown menu on the window, for example, ntfs or fat32. 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. How to fix wd hard drive not recognized on mac without losing. How to format a wd external hard drive in fat32 to use in.
How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc set up guidehow to use hdhow to use hd duration. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. How to reformat to mac without losing files external drives. Reformatting an external hard drive macrumors forums. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pc mac, or to cloud storage service. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. After a longtime use, you may want to erase a wd passport external hard drive for. Wait while first aid verifying and fixing possible errors of the wd hard drive.
Click on your wd elements drive choose your wd elements external hard drive on your macs external drives list. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. Please see the link below for instructions on how to format the drive on a windows computer. Then the wd portable hard drive is able to securely be reused, resold, recycled or donated to other people. How to fixrepair corrupted external hard drives on mac. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup hd and external drive problems. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. Reformatting is a destructive process, so if you want the drive in a different format such as mac os extended you will need to copy the files off to another location temporarily and then bring them back once the drive is reformatted. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
They produced fantastic looking external hard drive enclosures and each year i would get a new one in their range. 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. Since the mac can read the old drive, an external drive formatted mac os extended could be attached as well. If you are able to fix the hard drive or ssd in your mac or an external drive using disk utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.
How to reformat a wd external hard drive it still works. 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. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Should i just wait until i get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it. Even though it sounds foolish, it could troubleshoot your corrupted external hard drive. Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pc mac hard drive. Hope this formatreformat a hard drive for mac guide helped. Wd 2tb external hard drive setup and driver download. If first aid cant repair the wd hard drive, or disk utility doesnt recognize the volumes of the drive, probably, the.
The prior generation mac wd hdd was much nicer in a. 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. Simply plug your external hard drive slowly or quickly into the usb port and see if you can access this drive. Launch easeus partition master, rightclick the partition on your external hard driveusbsd card which you want to format and choose. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows computer. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Or if you wish to be able to transfer back and forth pc to mac or mac to pc, select the fat32 format. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Desktop external hard drives usually run at 7200 rpm to offer all the speed they can. Reformatting is the best way to reset the western digital wd portable hard drive to factory status. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Click on the erase tab, choose your external hard drive and select mac os extended journaled and then click erase then simply drag and drop your data onto your newly formatted disk. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. How to reformat to mac without losing files external. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. Today, we will introduce an easy, secure and efficient way to reformat wd portable hard drive. You can only read your elements external hard drive. 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. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. If i do reformat, i guess this is done through the erase tab in the disk utility. By default, the 4tb hard drive uses the ntfs format for windows pcs, but theres a help file included on the drive that provides information for mac users so that you can reformat the drive and.
Well show you everything you need to know about the. Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Available in an array of vibrant, fun colors, the sleek style fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you can easily take your treasured content everywhere you go.
This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Included wd discovery software makes it easy to back up your photos, videos and documents to the easystore desktop drive. For example, keep a backup on your local devices, and store backup copies with a cloud storage provider as well. Wd external hard drives are an excellent way to store and transport all your music, videos, pictures, and other important files. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it.
It is not as complicated to reformat an external hard drive for use with mac os x as it may look. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. How to repair corrupted external hard drive without losing. Before that, remember to back up your external hard drive quickly with a highlyefficient data backup software since the formatting will erase all. I understand that the mac can readwrite this format. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. To make your western digital hard drive work on both mac and windows. They are great for backing up data, creating extra storage space on your computer and transferring large amounts of data between two or more computers. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Reformatting an external hard drive dell community. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Plug the cable attached to the wd external hard drive to the appropriate port on the mac, for example, the usb port.
Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Oct 15, 2015 click on the erase tab, choose your external hard drive and select mac os extended journaled and then click erase then simply drag and drop your data onto your newly formatted disk. Below are some recommended internal hard drive and external hard drives that you might like. How to fix wd hard drive not recognized on mac without. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. Its fast 540 mbs read and write speeds are more than enough to transfer any file. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them.
How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Hope this format reformat a hard drive for mac guide helped. How to write to an external hard drive on mac os x. Staples carries quality external hard drives that come with useful features and in various colors. Nov 14, 2017 i recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The system requirements can be formatted ntfs for windows 7,8,10 and mac os x. 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.
Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. First, lets see how to format an external hard drive or usb drive in macos which works with both mac and pc platforms, first plugin your drive in macos machine. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. 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. Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin.
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