How Do I Format A Wd External Hard Drive For My Mac?

  1. Wd External Hard Drive Problems

I am trying to reformat an external seagate harddrive for use on my windows 7 running PC. The drive used to be used on a mac so is probably in the wrong format so isn't automatically. How to Format an External Hard Drive. In this Article: On Windows On Mac Community Q&A This wikiHow teaches you how to change an external (USB) hard drive's format on Windows and Mac computers. I have a Lacie d2 Quadra 1tb External Hard Drive. I had it for years on a Mac. But unfortunately it bit the dust and I decided to get a PC. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may.

WD My Passport Compatible with Mac and PC? This requirement will be in addition to what you’re going to need for Time Machine and you will need additional hard drive space for that. An Example You want some space to copy and paste your photos to. You need 400 GB for that. You want to do regular backups and your internal drive is 1TB in size so you’re going to need 2TB for that. You want an area to swap files between your Mac and a Windows PC you have and you need 500 GB for that.

Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you don’t have to constantly back up and reformat each time. Linux is also supported, but you will need to install appropriate software to take full advantage of it. Unfortunately, exFAT didn’t inherit all of FAT32’s legacy in compatibility because it may not work with older devices, such as the PS3 and Xbox 360. It does work on the current-gen of gaming consoles, such as the PS4 and the Xbox One. Reformat While it’s 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 you’re not limited to your initial choice. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on Mac and Windows. DISCLAIMER: 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.

Click the Format drop-down menu. Select exFat (or MS-DOS FAT for a FAT32 format). Hit Apply, then click on Partition. Formatting Hard Drive (Windows) Image from 1. Right-Click on the Windows icon in the lower left-hand corner.

Hi All, I recently received an external hard drive for my bday and my friend loaded a ton of pictures and movies onto it for me. However, I can’t actually use the hard drive myself. For example I can’t add anything onto it.

Once you’ve decided all the details, simply click the Apply button. From the pop-up, select Partition. Disk Utility: Check out. What Do You Use It For?

When I bought the drive, I was surprised to see that it didn’t support OS X out of the box. Yes, it had some software specifically made for OS X on it, but even that didn’t help. Turns out, it just wasn’t in the right format. These hard drives are customized to run well on Windows (as you’d expect), and they don’t run well with OS X.

Identify the drive that needs to be partitioned and formatted, and make sure that all critical data on this drive has been backed up elsewhere. If there is already a partition on the drive, the bar above that drive will appear blue, which indicates the drive is already formatted and may contain data. If there is no critical data on the drive, or the data has been successfully backed up, right-click the bar and click Delete Volume. Important: If Disk Management shows the drive as Not Initialized, the drive will have to be initialized. For assistance initializing a hard drive, please see.

Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST! Windows Vista includes a built in utility known as Disk Management that can be used to partition and format a hard drive.

Many have vouched for its success, but others complain about bugs. The commercial solution, which will give you access to support and software updates, is. It's $20, offers Lion support, and you get a five-day trial to try before you buy. Option 2: Format to HFS+, and use HFS Explorer to read/write on PC.

Wd External Hard Drive Problems

• Now right-click on the unallocated space or the black bar to see a menu of available options, and click on New Simple Volume • The Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard will appear. Left-click on Next to proceed to the next screen • Choose the volume size and click Next. By default, the maximum disk space is already selected and it is recommended to leave it at the maximum disk space. Note: To create multiple partitions, select or type a specific number of megabytes (MB) for the first partition and continue to the next step. Once done with this process, the remaining space will display as unallocated space.

That it wasn’t as ridiculous as it first seemed. About us or send a friendly message. It's great to hear from people!

Important: If Disk Management shows the drive as Not Initialized, the drive will have to be initialized. For assistance initializing a hard drive, please see. If there is already a partition on the drive, the bar above that drive will appear blue. This indicates that the drive is already formatted and may contain data. Make sure that all critical data on this drive has been backed up elsewhere. When ready to proceed, right-click on the blue bar and choose Delete Volume. The bar should now be black.

Let me show you how in ten quick steps using words and pictures. There is a video at the end you can watch as an additional resource.

Please note that this will complete erase the drive. Any data you want to keep on that drive must be backed up elsewhere first.

• Depending on the size of the drive and the, one of two screens will appear. If the system is running Mac OSX, follow the instructions under the first choice below. If running Windows, however, follow the instructions based on the drive size: • When the scanning process comes to an end, there will be a drop down menu listing a WD external drive under Drive to format. This is the screen displayed when the drive is 2TB in size or less. Click on the drop down menu to view and/or select different external drives from the list, should there be additional drives connected to the system. When ready, click on Format Drive. • On a Windows system and if the drive is greater than 2TB, the screen below will be displayed.

Western Digital external hard drives are useful for storing and backing up files. However, you may have run into a problem trying to use your Western Digital hard drive with multiple operating systems.

WD My Passport Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 4. WD My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 5. Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive.

If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly. Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC? As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Let’s take a look at them: HFS+ Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine.

• Do not disconnect power while the utility is running. • The WD Quick Formatter will show the progress bar while the format is taking place. • Once the Format is completed, click on the Format Another Drive button to select another WD external drive to format, or click on the Exit button to exit the program.

• In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open. • Launch Disk Utility.

How to Format or Partition a Drive on Mac OSX 10.9.x (Mavericks) and 10.10.x (Yosemite) Partitioning a hard drive means preparing it to be used by the, creating a Volume for the OS to use. Formatting, however, deletes the content of a volume to clean it, and assigns a file system to it so that data can be moved into and out of the volume. Both processes are normally done together.

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For example are you thinking of • Storage of files • Using the drive as your Time Machine backup disk? • Do you plan to share files and inter connect Mac and a PC? Storage of files You can drag and drop, copy and paste files from your hard disk to your WD My Passport Drive. Remember though if your intension is to free up space on your Mac and the only copy of your files now live on the My Passport drive what will you do if something happens to that drive? You still should have a backup so seriously think about getting a second external hard drive to keep extra copies on. Just in case. My Passport as a Mac Time Machine Backup Drive Using your WD My Passport for Time Machine is perfectly fine.

This process is Data Destructive and cannot be undone. Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST! To reformat an external hard drive to the NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) file system, please follow the instructions below: • Download, unzip, install, and run the if running Windows, or if running Mac OSX 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, or 10.9 (Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks). Note: WD Quick Formatter for Mac is not supported on macOS Yosemite, El Capitan, or Sierra. It's best to use Disk Utility.

Hey there, MissKeys! First you need to backup the data from the external My Book to your PC. Reformatting it and changing the file system for Mac OS will erase all the data on the external, so just copy the data back to the PC and proceed with the re-formatting. If you want the WD My Book to be read/written by both Windows and Mac, you need to format the drive in FAT32 file system.

The video and directions below will guide you through the process, but before you format your HD to FAT32, beware of these drawbacks. • FAT32 offers no security, unlike NTFS, which allows you to set permissions. If your HD gets into the wrong hands, that person will be able to access your data. • The max size for any given file stored on a FAT32-formatted HD is 4GB. So, for example, if you want to store a 9GB movie, it will be impossible. • In general, FAT32 drives are more susceptible to disk errors. • It's not a huge issue, but FAT32 is less efficient at storing files.

For assistance initializing a hard drive, please see. If there is already a partition on the drive, the bar above that drive will appear blue. This indicates that the drive is already formatted and may contain data. Make sure that all critical data on this drive has been backed up elsewhere. When ready to proceed, right-click on the blue bar and choose Delete Volume.

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2) Open Disk Management. Gmail How to Format an External Drive in OS X 1) Connect your external hard drive to the Mac. 2) Open Disk Utility. You can do this quickly by pressing CMD and the spacebar at the same time. Then type in “Disk Utility”. 3) Select the drive you want to format. 4) Click the Partition tab.

Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST! Windows includes a built in utility known as Disk Management that can be used to partition and format a hard drive. To partition and format the drive with Disk Management, follow these steps: • Click on Start and right-click Computer. • Click on Manage. • A window called Computer Management will open, displaying two panes. On the left-side pane, under Storage, click on Disk Management.

6) Change the Partition Layout from Current to 1 Partition. 7) Click Options, Select Master Boot Record, and click OK.

2:55 If you've considered these issues and would still like to use FAT32, this video will guide you through the process of formatting your HD to FAT32 using a Windows or Mac PC: OK, what are my alternatives to using FAT32? The good news is, it's not FAT32 or nothing. The alternative solutions do require more tinkering, but if you do not want to risk FAT32's lack of security, choose from one of the following alternatives. Option 1: Format to NTFS, and use NTFS-3G to read/write on Mac. If you keep your hard drive's out-of-the-box NTFS format for all the reasons FAT32 displeases, there's a workaround that will allow your Mac to read and write files to the drive.

SuperSoph_WD Thank you so much SuperSoph_WD. Another question for you.I clicked the link you attached and I saw the recommended instructions for the Mac operating systems but the most current they have on their is mavericks and I have the upgrade Yosemite. Will this pose an issue or is it good across the board for all Mac OS's??

Once the WD Quick Formatter is finished reformatting the drive, the drive will only have one partition. This is necessary in order to optimize the performance of the drive. • The WD Quick Formatter is the recommended way to format WD external drives that use Advanced Format Drives (AFDs). • The instructions in the articles below are designed to help users reformat and repartition an external drive.

By default, the maximum disk space is already selected and it is recommended to leave it at the maximum disk space. Note: To create multiple partitions, select or type a specific number of megabytes (MB) for the first partition and continue to the next step. Once done with this process, the remaining space will display as unallocated space. Now, create another New Simple Volume in the remaining unallocated space for the next partition. For example, on a 2TB drive, set the volume size to 1000000 (1 TB) and continue to the next step. When done, begin the New Simple Volume process again and select the remaining capacity, the unallocated space, for another 1TB partition.

• Click on the Erase tab. Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive. • Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting. Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step. Format a drive using Windows • Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP).

This includes the way you name the drive and how you label it. One of my personal tricks is naming all drives after an actor. For instance, one project had several external drives, all of which were named after different characters — Mugatu, Megamind, Lord Business, and Ron Burgundy.

Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the Partition tab. Under Partition layout, select '2 Partitions.' Now, drag the boxes to adjust the size of each partition. For example, you might want more storage for your Mac than you do for your PC. Now, click on the top partition, name it 'Windows,' and change its format to MS-DOS.

If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB. If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit. ExFAT The exFAT file system eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32: the largest partition and file sizes it supports are virtually unlimited by today’s standards. Awesome, it’s perfect! Almost since exFAT is fairly new, it isn’t compatible with older Macs and PCs. Any Mac running 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) supports exFAT, while PCs running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows 7 are compatible.

Choose the drive listing that is farthest to the left for the drive that will be formatted. It is usually directly above the name of the drive.

Hi again, MissKeys! You shouldn't have any issues as kenrivers mentioned!

Quick background about the drive: I did purchase the drive through the Apple online store in early '08, and when I initially unpacked it, I saw no written info stating it was somehow a Mac-only version of that Iomega drive, nor was there anything stating that using it with a Mac would format it for Mac-only use. When I first connected it to the Mac, I was never prompted about formatting or anything else Mac-specific, in fact I was never even prompted regarding drivers. Upon plugging it in, it behaved just like the USB flash drive and the 40GB extrernal drive I have- a small orange icon would appear on the desktop, with the name of the drive and the USB symbol. So for two years I moved files between the drive and the Mac without any problems, until now when I try to use the drive with my current PC. So far it's been suggested to me that indeed the Mac *did* format the drive in a way that makes it Mac only, and I can't reformat because I have data I first need to get to move to the new computer.

Both processes are normally done together. Critical: The instructions in the article below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. This process is Data Destructive and cannot be undone.

How to partition and format A DRIVE ON macOS 10.13.x (High Sierra) Critical: The instructions in the article below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. This process is Data Destructive and cannot be undone. Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST!

• I am having problems formatting an external hard drive since upgrading to High Sierra. There have been quite a lot of discussions on various forums where users are having problems formatting hard drives since upgrading to Mac OS High Sierra.

I have an external seagate 2TB USB3 HDD, I used it for my Mac and when I used it on windows, I isn't there and i can't backup but the light was on. This is what you have to do: 1)just search format on the windows search option on start, open the program called 'create or partition hard disk partitions' 2) You will be able to see your drive in this application, right click on the unallocated space and there should be an option called format. 3)It should then format the drive to NTFS. 4)The drive will now appear in the start/computer menu. Hope this helps. P.S, I couldn't format it from my Mac as it only formatted it or wiped it to it's MAC OS Journaled thing.

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