Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. Im having some trouble formatting my wd my passport in high sierra. Months later, ive forgotten my password and im prepared to lose all data by formatting the drive. Mar 15, 2017 plug the drive into pc and just delete the partition so you have the whole drive an unallocated space. External hard drives are key in a content creatoryoutubers life. 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. I saw a post about getting the wd app, and i did that, but it doesnt recognize my device, or at least it is not detecting it. On a windows computer, i can plug in any external hard drive i have here and slide over folders of info on to it, easy peazy. Physical description as shown in figure 2, the my passport drive has.
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. Sep 01, 2011 i show you how to format a western digital or any brand hard drive for use on any device be it a mac, pc, linux, ps3, xbox 360, etc. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. 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. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or. Mac doesnt recognize external hard drive anymore and why your mac is not mounting or wont detect specific popular brand drives including seagate, wd, toshiba, iomega, lacie, and exfat. Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac. I have 2 wdc 4tb usb drives that came as exfat, the packaging is marked as usable on both mac and windows. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive.
Ill pick it for new mac related purchases over the older model, but wont rush out to replace older drives. Dont worry, apply my task, im sure that you will get rid of on this issue. 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. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files. I acknowledge that the information above will be kept until i am. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. My wd passport for the mac is the best external hard drive anyone can buy for the mac computer. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed.
Do i need to format my external hard drive macrumors. After having confirmed that the wd my passport is formatted with ntfs, many people will choose to convert ntfs to apfs for macos catalina, mojave and high sierra or reformat the wd my passport hard drive to make the wd external hard drive compatible with mac. Wd external hard drive wont format what should i do. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. A windows pc cannot see, read, write to that file system. Wd my passport this time not untitled and then erase. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Now, the erase dialog box will appear on the screen. You need to format your wd my passport ultra by using low level format. This morning, wd my passport suddenly became inaccessible, couldnt be detected by my computer. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. Wd my passport external hard drive set up guide for mac. I am a college student and purchasing this was an absolute no brainer. Nov 26, 20 a partition is especially useful if you want to use the drive for 2 purposes, such as having a section for tm backups and a section that allows you to write to it from both windows and os x. To share that drive between a mac and windows pc you need software.
I was a windows guy, who moved over the mac but only recently started saving things to the mac file system on my macbook pro. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. Wd quick formatter, also known as wd advanced format drivers afds, is an external hard drive format utility for windows and mac, developed by western digital technologies, inc. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Tips to fix mac doesnt recognize external hard drive on. Wd data recovery external hard drive and software support. Just turn on your mac and when it boots up, plug in your my passport drive to your wd. Back up all important information on the drive before beginning. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. I have a wd ultra my passport external hard drive and had originally configured it to my macbook pro, but i just received the surface pro 4 as a gift and im trying to use the external hard drive with this device. Thats how i have my 2 gb wd my passport drive set up, 1. Launch easeus partition master, rightclick the partition on your external hard driveusbsd card which you want to format and choose. A partition is especially useful if you want to use the drive for 2 purposes, such as having a section for tm backups and a section that allows you to write to it from both windows and os x.
Wd passport wont format wd portable drives wd community. My passport for mac includes usbc and usba cables for universal compatibility with mac computers of yesterday and today. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. You can format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to. Unable to format wd passport external hard drive having a 1tb wd passport external hard drive with raw file system, i want to format it to exfat for using in mac and windows computer. I like the 2015 my passport ultras rounded corner case better but its very minor point for me. How to recover data from wd passport external hard drive. And use a wd my passport data recovery software to retrieve lost or deleted data from a corrupt, formatted and inaccessible wd drive. Aug 16, 2019 try selecting the wd at the hard drive level i. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac.
How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. I recently came into possession of a 500gb passport marked for macintosh, needed to be repartitioned and formatted for use on windows. As formatting will going to erase everything on your drive and thats why avoid formatting. Nov 02, 2016 this wd my passport mac model is an evolution over the 2015 my passport ultra. According to the solutions above, the easeus partition tool stands out for its convenience and easiness. Wd my passport for mac is made to be plug and play. Apr 16, 2020 step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive part 3. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing. Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. The western digital hard drive is one of the most extensively acclaimed, and the nonvolatile storage devices can be considered as the perfect option to save the digital data in a wellorganized manner.
Wd passport external hd not recognized on windows 10. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Apr 16, 2020 you can format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. Your wd my passport drive will appear as a rectangular, yellow icon on your desktop it looks just like the image below. How do i initialize my external usb hdd wd my passport.
While im connecting the wd passport to my mac, this is what my wd security looks like. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all the photos. Plug the external hard drive into your mac and use the drive. By clicking the notify me when available button below, i consent to the use of the information provided below by western digital, to notify me when this item is back in stock. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. The wd hard drive failed to show up on my pc and i couldnt access saved data either. Jul 31, 2019 unable to format wd passport external hard drive having a 1tb wd passport external hard drive with raw file system, i want to format it to exfat for using in mac and windows computer. Mypassport for macs seem to always be out of stock, so i bought the 4tb. I show you how to format a western digital or any brandhard drive for use on any device be it a mac, pc, linux, ps3, xbox 360, etc. Wd my passport format problem high sierr apple community. You were right, you did indeed have to select wd my passport screen shot 20170625 at 6. Western digitals passport external drive for mac isnt eternally bound to macos. Aug 02, 2018 mac doesnt recognize external hard drive anymore and why your mac is not mounting or wont detect specific popular brand drives including seagate, wd, toshiba, iomega, lacie, and exfat.
Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing up. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. This shopping feature will continue to load items when the. The other type of wd my passport hard drive comes in a for mac version. It is fast, simple set up, and the ease of use which makes it perfect. Mac os extended journaled file system is how its referred to on your mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
Disk drive format your my passport ssd drive is formatted as a single exfat partition for compatibility with updated windows and mac os x operating systems. I have a wd my passport ultra 1tb portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. Hard travel case for wd my passport easystore 1tb 2tb 3tb 4tb usb 3. To format a western digital my passport external hard drive in exfat or fat32 format, you. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. My passport external hard drive microsoft community. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32.
If you want to use the drive with a mac computer, see reformatting the drive and troubleshooting. If using on both mac and windows could use exfat formatting. Physical description as shown in figure 2, the my passport ssd drive has. Wd my passport troubleshooting mac format wd hard drive. Omg, i just realized that this cleared all the files that i had in my drive. Dec 27, 2016 i have a wd ultra my passport external hard drive and had originally configured it to my macbook pro, but i just received the surface pro 4 as a gift and im trying to use the external hard drive with this device. Using onboard disk management utilities to format your drive 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. Disk drive format your my passport drive is formatted as a single ntfs partition for compatibility with all updated windows operating systems. The information youll find here touches on formatting and reformatting wds my passport for your mac. Error message when formatting a new drive wd community. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and.
Because the file system on the wd passport for mac external hard drive is a mac os extended journaled 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. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Sep 12, 2019 i have a wd my passport ultra 1tb portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. I had a wd mac edition drive that was indeed formatted for mac but would not behave like any mac drive id ever used. Select that disk and click the erase button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. I have a 2tb wd passport portable drive for my mac os currently running on catalina 10. To use with other operating systems, see reformatting the drive and troubleshooting. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata.
Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac computer. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Enter a name for the drive in the name field, select the mac os extended journaled option from the format dropdown list, and choose the guid partition map option from the scheme. Is there a possible way that can help me to repair the. Enter a name for the drive in the name field, select the mac os extended journaled option from the format dropdown list, and choose the guid partition map option from the scheme dropdown menu.
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. Step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive part 3. Password protection with hardware encryption the my passport for mac drive s builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software helps keep your content private and safe. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. That was the reason for my proprietary formatting comment to the op. But i only got windows was unable to complete the format when i tried to format it form windows explorer. Receive an email notification when this product becomes available. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. What to do when your external hard drive wont show up. Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you dont have to constantly back up and reformat each time. Wd support how to low level format or write zeros full erase to a wd hard drive or solid state drive you need to use wd smartware or wd drive utility to format your external drive.
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