I did restart the computer as you suggested, but again received the message the. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. In this guide i will show you how you can properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. Apr 16, 2020 step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive part 3. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. I tried formatting the 2tb to ntfs, but when it does format it with no problems, it becomes read only. However, ntfs is not fully compatible with mac computers. Options for having an external hard drive for mac and pc without formatting. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing up. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
If you need to erase your disk before installing high sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose mac os extended journaled. Of course, there are more than two methods that can help you format a wd my passport portable hard drive under mac os. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Dec, 2007 ive an external hard drive that ive used on mac.
Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you dont have to constantly back up and reformat each time. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Hi, i have a 2tb wd my passport portable hard drive and a macbook pro. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file. I have tried several data recovery programs, but they failed to search all lost files and couldnt perform the hard drive recovery. To share that drive between a mac and windows pc you need software. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. By formatting the passport as an exfat or fat32 drive, you can use it with windows computers, too. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the.
My passport for mac portable hard drive rapid transit for your digital life. Whats more, you can share digital files between mac and windows system easily. Now, im trying to format it so that i can use it on pc instead of mac. It interprets what is on the external hard drive so that your mac or pc can read and write to the drive. To format a western digital my passport external hard drive in exfat or fat32 format, you. 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. Your backup plus desktop is formatted as ntfs for compatibility with windows out of the box. I know mac operating system doesnt fully supports ntfs formatted drive. I have macfuse and ntfs3g and ntfs for mac os installed. Its sleek style is fun and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you can easily take your treasured content everywhere you go. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc.
Let me teach you in 10 steps how to partition wd my passport for mac. Western digital manufactures two types of the wd my passport hard drive. Click on the drive in the list of drives in the lefthand side of the window. Guides to fix mac files wont copy to external hard drive. 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.
Based on your specific needs and select a proper way to achieve your goal. When your disk become unmountable on mac, you should not go straight to reformat this external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Therefore, some user needs western digital fat32 formatting utility because he wants to connect his ntfsformatted my passport ultra to mac os. Jul 26, 2019 as the cost per gb of hard drive space falls, it becomes practical to buy a larger external hard drive and use it for several purposes. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. 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. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. Yes, im trying to format it on a mac sorry, i thought i had posted in the mac section.
I just connected it to my mac for the first time and was planning to go to disc utility to format the drive, which of course includes erasing any of the existing contents. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Therfore, you can connect backup plus desktop to a windows pc without formatting the hard drive. Apr 16, 2020 can i use wd hard drive on mac and pc. 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. First, back up the data on the macformatted drive if you have anything important on it. Error message when formatting a new drive external drives. If the builtin disk came apfsformatted, dont change it to mac os extended. It is obviously that you can use seagate external hard drive or flash drive with mac and windows computer as long as you format seagate drive for mac and pc. And that is exactly what partitioning up splitting using the mac operating system software allows you to do. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac.
Also is it ok to erase all the present files on the disc. Before you go further, there are some tips that deserve your attention. If you know youre going to use a drive on both mac and windows, you should use the exfat file system, which is compatible with both. Aug 16, 2019 hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. I think the mac os doesnt know what to do with it in the windows. Mac files wont copy to external hard drive how to fix. Nov 14, 2017 i recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco.
Wd my passport for mac portable external hard drive. Error message when formatting a new drive external. 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. Basic suggestions on external hard drive not mounting problem. Hi everyone, i purchased a 1 tb wd my passport hd to use with my macbook pro. Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. Step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive part 3.
Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. In the new window, set the partition label, file system ntfsfat32ext2ext3exfat, and cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click ok. Wd passport hard drive care is not so hard if you know the right steps to take. Are you about to install macos high sierra or later on the disk. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. Replug your external hard drive to another port or try another usb cable. Mypassport for macs seem to always be out of stock, so i bought the 4tb. Are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac.
Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your mac s external drives list. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Run easeus partition master, rightclick the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose format. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected.
Wd my passport for mac 500gb portable external hard drive. If you are having a similar problem on your wd my passport ultra hard drive or other brands of external hard drive or devices, dont worry. If you have a mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a mac and back up the files. Instead, well just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. Dec 29, 2015 your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. Well show you everything you need to know about the. In case you miss anything necessary, you can also have some basic checks as following when you are unable to mount an external hard drive on your mac computer. List of all wd firmware and software available for download. The yellow arrow in the internalexternal picture above shows you where to click. Oct 25, 2018 therefore, some user needs western digital fat32 formatting utility because he wants to connect his ntfsformatted my passport ultra to mac os. Partition wd my passport for mac, teach yourself in 10 steps. Do i use disc utilities fat32 or is there some other format. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc.
Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial choice. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the chances of file corruption, so make. 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. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Oct 20, 2019 formatting your wd my passport for your mac. If he switches his wd drive between windows os and mac os frequently like dual boot os on a pc, he needs to format the drive to a file system which works well in both operating systems. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. Use a software solution you get a piece of software that sits on your mac. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. I had to install wd utilities and then erasereformat the drive in that application. 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.
Mac os extended journaled file system is how its referred to on your mac. In this article, well show you how to recover data from a. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing. Accidentally format wd my passport external hard drive. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments.
I have another external hard drive thats formatted as ntfs and files stay the way i arrange them. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. The hard drive will primarily be used on my macbook pro and occasionally on a pc. Sep 12, 2019 the wd hard drive failed to show up on my pc and i couldnt access saved data either. The wd hard drive failed to show up on my pc and i couldnt access saved data either. Formatting and reformatting a hard drive or hard disk is an easy task if you know how.
How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. The other type of wd my passport hard drive comes in a for mac version. 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. Mar 15, 2018 if you know youre going to use a drive on both mac and windows, you should use the exfat file system, which is compatible with both. The my passport for mac portable hard drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. Formatting, however, deletes the content of a volume to clean it. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable.
External hard drive formatting options apple community. Apr 14, 2020 why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. I have a 2tb external drive called wd my passport for mac its been over a year since i last used it on my imac. I am looking for a solution to format the wd my passport portable. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. If you want to get on with formatting your wd my passport on your mac, youll find the step by step walk through just below. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on. If you worry about losing data from this hard drive, you can recover lost data with iboysoft mac data recovery at first. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. 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. Because the file system on the wd passport for mac external hard drive is a mac os extended journaled file system. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Tips for fixing external hard drive not mounting issue. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive.
How to recover data from a formatted external hard drive. In this article, well show you how to recover data from a formatted external hard drive, step by step. Advice youll find useful ahead of formatting your my passport drive on your mac. The only difference between the mac and pc versions is the initial formatting and pre. This sleek, portable drive is designed for photographers, graphics professionals and roadwarriors who want to. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Feb 03, 2020 are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac. Not sure what extended format is and if its suitable. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. This sleek, portable drive is designed for photographers, graphics professionals and roadwarriors who want to take their digital life with them. 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.
The drive does not appear on the desktop or the finder. This process wont actually convert the file system. A windows pc cannot see, read, write to that file system. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Thats the moment when data disaster strikes you formatted an external hard drive, only to find that you still have some valuable data stored on the drivewhat a bummer. I did restart the computer as you suggested, but again received the message the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. A new windows explorer window opens, on the left side.
Oct 25, 2018 want to use seagate hard drive with both mac and pc i have purchased a 1tb portable external seagate hard drive and i would like to use it with both my mac and windows computer. Two easy methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. However, all of the solutions can be divided into two types. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system.
Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Be sure to choose your wd elements drive at the top level. Click the finder, open the applications folder, open the utilities folder and choose disk utility. This article analyzes why the wd my passport for mac hard drive is not mounting on mac and how to fix this issue. 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. External hard drive compatible with mac and pc without. How to fix external hard drive not mounting on mac computer. Wd my passport this time not untitled and then erase. But if you didnt foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with apples hfs plus, which windows cant read by default. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. The other type is ntfs formatted and is simply called wd my passport no for mac after the title.
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