Fix wd external hard drive not recognizedworking with light. It will not shorten the service life of the wd portable hard drive even the wd portable hard drive is erased 35 times by this software. The wd elements portable hard drive is another good choice for tvs. Unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting. If you want to format your external hard drive to fat32 in a mac you can use the mac utilities to format it. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Aside from the 4tb, you can also buy a 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, or 5tb hard drive. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.
It doesnt matter whether you have an imac, macbook pro or macbook air you can. Feb 10, 2012 tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. However, when i connect it to my macbook pro, it says the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer and time machine doesnt recognize it. Step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive. You can only read your elements external hard drive.
Select the wd portable hard drive you want to erase. 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. Plug in the 1tb western digital drive to power outlet and usb port. Apr 16, 2020 step 5 thereafter, click on the erase button and let the system erase everything on the drive and reformat wd elements for mac by exfat or fat32 format. Copy and backup important data from your wd hard drive to another storage device.
Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Desktop external hard drives usually run at 7200 rpm to offer all the speed they can. Dec 03, 2011 ext2,3,4 are formats compatible with linux. When i opened disk utility to try to reformat it, it shows up as read only so i cant make any changes. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Its rectangular shape gives it a clean, sleek look, and you can carry it around discreetly seeing that it measures 4. For the hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Then, click on the erase drive button below to begin erasing the drive. If the wd elements to be formatted contains a gpt partition, disk utility.
Windowsmac reformat works with windowsmac reformat. When you suffer from wd external drive format failed on mac, you. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. Steps on how to format the drive are provided on the following link. Super eraser will reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase all data on the wd portable hard drive. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing up. I just bought a wd elements 1tb external drive, and would like to use it with time machine. Wd 2 t external hard drive info stated it was also for a mac. Here are two ways offered and you can choose on based on your own situation. Jun 07, 2010 unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting for mac.
Read the warning message and check the i understand checkbox. Wd elements is preconfigured for usage on a windows pc. After erasing my passport drive, the instructions are to partition the drive. How to reformat western digital element 1 tb solved ccm. Similarly to the elements, it comes in 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, and 4tb. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Digital wd elements 1tb terabytes external hard drive usb 2. 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. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on 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.
The software should run automatically once you finished the installation process. I followed these directions, and it was effortless. The most notable upgrades with this line are an increase in maximum capacity 3tb, customization options, improved backup capabilities, and a line of models designed specifically for use with mac os. Wd 1 tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. How to reformat western digital hard drive for mac. Heavy and requires external power, but thats to be expected of a 3. With sizes from 1 to 4 tb and plugnplay functionality, youll start with your feet on the ground. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Before doing that, make sure to copy any files you have in your hard drive to a folder in your mac. Create a name and choose mac os extended journaled assuming you have a current vision of osx. Unboxing western digital wd elements 1tb terabytes external hard drive usb 2. Wd 2tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3.
How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. If you have been using this drive on windows and didnt reformat it it is already ntfs try the second solution ntfs3g on the mac and it wont have any affect on the data on the drive now. You are able to format a 500gb, 1tb, 2tb wd elements external drive to fat32. Jan 08, 2020 you can only read your elements external hard drive. Im not very computer savvy, so if someone could run me through this step by step it would be much appreciated.
On macbook pro with high sierra os, i want to reformat my mypassport to exfat so i can place files there from my mac and from my windows 10. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. Unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting for mac. May 12, 2020 the wd elements portable hard drive is another good choice for tvs. Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your mac s external drives list. This particular model has a nice black case with a small white led notification light, so you can tell when the hard drive is in use. You can choose from a wide range of sizes, all the way up to 5 tb. Click on erase button to permanently erase all data on the western digital portable hard drive. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Western digital 1tb elements portable external hard drive. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. How to reformat mac external harddrive for pc march 2014. Drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute rpm, based on how fast the drive can spin.
A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Mac cant read wd elements external drives for mac wd. I know i am supposed to format it for mac via disk utility before i can use it. Store data safely on this 2tb western digital hard drive. Format 1 tb elements external drives for mac wd community. However, i found that i had to reformat the hard drive so that i could use it with my mac running 10. Western digital elements 1tb portable hard drive usb 3. Jun 15, 2015 wd has released a seventh generation of their popular my passport line of external hard drives. 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.
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. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. The most notable upgrades with this line are an increase in maximum capacity 3tb, customization options, improved backup capabilities, and a. You can have problems with your mac refusing to format your elements drive if its not picked at the right level. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Its wd backup software automatically saves files on a preset schedule, and it has a sleek but durable design for portability without sacrificing security. Step 5 thereafter, click on the erase button and let the system erase everything on the drive and reformat wd elements for mac by exfat or fat32 format.
How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Im wondering how i reformat the hard drive, which comes from the factory formatted for pcs. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear. Can i use a wd elements external hard drive on my mac. Click yes to erase the drive and use it for time machine. Hello, i just bought a western digital wd elements 1. I have a wd elements 1tb which works perfectly when i use it with. Nov 14, 2019 get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Relocate files to your portable hard drive wd elements, create space on your internal hard drive and bring your laptop back on track. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. Be sure to choose your wd elements drive at the top level. Once wd drive utilities is running, click on the drive erase option.
Converting a wd hard drive from pc to mac external drives. Best external drives for mac and pc interchangeable 2020. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. I retired it from use as a main drive recently, but i still use it for portable external storage.
Format wd hard drive or external hard drive to ntfs for saving data again. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. Wd 1tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. How to erase wd my passport external hard drive in windows. Open time machine and choose the new my essentials book as the drive to backup as a time machine drive. If youre an avid pc user, this hdd drive from western digital has you covered. Now, go to your applications folder on your mac hard disk. How to format wd elements 1tb for time ma apple community. The hard drive is incredibly light, weighing only grams. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing. Reformatting my passport 1tb to exfat external drives.
If the wd hard drive still doesnt show up or cannot be detected, some physical errors may have occurred to your device. I found the instructions and am trying to follow them. For a larger capacity, the hard drive becomes a fraction bigger in size and logically more expensive. I am supposed to reformat the external hard disk as ntfs is not suitable for mac. A notification will be displayed when the process has finished. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows 8, 7, vista, xp and mac osx. Wd has released a seventh generation of their popular my passport line of external hard drives.
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. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. My finder window indicates the existence of my western digital wd external hard drive 1 tb, but my disk utility cannot detect the external hard drive. A 5tb hard drive can hold approximately 2000 netflix videos. How can i use my wd elements drive with my samsung hdtv. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
1143 1403 491 419 1211 1230 1150 393 431 29 1465 1556 386 335 710 36 449 1094 1274 260 933 968 972 1071 100 495 714 531 490 1026 578 845 1235 273 205 480 56 998 706 1135 1349 359