How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air.
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. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use with your mac in just a few minutes. How to format the drive to mac os format back up data using mac os 10. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. 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. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. Wd elements, wd my book western digital, my passport wd, we my cloud, wd my. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. I am not able to get the mac to recognize the mybook drive. The wd my book comes formatted for windows operating system and requires reformatting for mac operating systems. Nov 26, 20 read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwrite format ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives.
Mar 03, 2016 i mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac. How to reformat a mybook external hard drive on mac osx. Doubleclick the my book icon, and then doubleclick the. Western digital my book mac edition user manual pdf. And you can be confident that apple hasnt changed the way you format an external drive on a mac. This format is also compatible with all versions of windows but limited to none windows os as fat32. May 01, 2020 click the erase button or tab, then complete these items.
Whether you have mac os sierra, high sierra or mojave the way you format your wd elements drive for mac is the same. This answer explains how to setup and use wd security and wd drive uti. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. I am trying to back up the hard drive of an older desktop using a western digital my book world edition 1tb drive. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default.
To this day, it remains the default file system for mechanical and hybrid hard drives, both while installing macos and while formatting external drives. Format western digital passport to fat32 with wd quick formatter. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. As shown in figure 1, your my book drive kit includes the following. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Select that disk and click the erase button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. Among those external hard drive categories, wd my passport external hard drives are the most widely used ones. If youre running a newer computer, youll see a huge speed increase thanks to usb 3. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Equipped with wd backup software for windows and apple time machine compatibility for mac, the my book desktop hard drive can back up your photos, videos, music, and documents. The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. My book drive, with the wd backup, wd drive utilities, and wd security software usb 3.
Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. 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. For earlier versions of the mac operating system, screens may be slightly different. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually come formatted for windows using fat32. Cannot format wd my book external drive i cannot format my western digital my book 750gb external drive with mac os extended journaled. Mac os extended was the default file system used by every mac from 1998 until 2017, when apfs replaced it.
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. Disk utility fails to format the drive as max os x extended journaled with a format failed. Although mybook hard drives are capable of working with both macs. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. The wd my book is ready to go with time machine or superduper. Connect your western digital mybook external hard drive to your mac computer with the included usb cable. Check the box labeled perform a quick format and click next. The first time this happened, i found an obscure firmware update at western digitals forums. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use with your mac in just a.
With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all the photos. This article explains reformatting is required for macos compatibility. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Click on the finder icon in the dock to open a new finder window. The volume label field can be customized in order to give the volume a desired name, such as my book or wd black 1.
Mac os extended journaled file system is how its referred to on your mac. The best external desktop drive is the wd 4tb my book desktop external hard. This drive connects directly to your mac through usb. The easiest way to format the drive to fat32 or exfat is by using macoss built. Password protection the my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. Next is the file system, which controls how the data is read and written. Built for os x my book for mac is preformatted for os x so its ready to go right out of the box. However, many users complain their wd my passport is readonly on mac like the user below in wd community.
Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. I intend to use the drive with time machine for back ups. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc youtube. Feb 10, 2012 tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. Ntfs is a modern format system and windows also uses this format for itself and for other nonremovable drives by default. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard.
Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for. A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to. I mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors forums.
Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as macintosh hd. Two easy methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my. Disk utility is a useful application inside your mac system.
How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Western digital produces a line of external hard drives called the mybook. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. The other type of wd my passport hard drive comes in a for mac version. Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Macs dont limit these partition sizes, so if you have access to both operating systems, format the drive using a mac. To know how to reformat the drive on mojave mac os you can refer to the link below. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Wd external hard drive set up guide how to use on mac youtube. Mybook or my book for mac external drives for mac wd. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way.
Western digital my book mac edition user manual pdf download. Set the file system to ntfs, which is the default windows file system, and leave the allocation unit size to default. Of course, there are more than two methods that can help you format a wd my passport portable hard drive under mac os. It is similar to exfat which can be read by both windows and mac, but it can store more than 4gb files.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Best for mechanical drives, or drives used with older macos versions. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32. Select the drive, click erase, choose the name and format of the drive, and click erase. Wd drive utilities macos catalina support wd software. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. However, all of the solutions can be divided into two types. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Its product line covers wd my passport, wd my passport ultra, wd my book, wd my passport for mac and more. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Oct 25, 2018 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. Wd elements, wd my book western digital, my passport wd, we my. How to partition and format a drive on windows 10 and 8.
Backing up mac hard drive using wd my book world edition. Setting up and using wd security and wd drive utilities. Wd my book 2tb shows up in device manager but doesnt open. Twice now i have had problems formatting a new western digital my book external drive under 10.
Navigate to the applications section and open the utilities folder. For mac computers, go to the apple menu and select software update or app store. This answer explains how to format a wd drive for use on windows and macos. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. I never had much luck finding a good ntfs addin for the mac. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra.
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. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Yes, you can use the wd my book on your imac with mojave 10. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. 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. The best external desktop drive is the wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3. I have booted the computer with the leopard dvd and used disk utility. The only downside to these drives is that they are not formatted for macos out. Wd 3tb my book for mac desktop external hard drive usb 3. When i open disk utility pertaining to the new hd i see 698. Nearest category i could find to my subject interest.
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