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. Quick workarounds to formatting wd elements for mac. Actually, if you format it with disk utility, you know its done right. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. For earlier versions of the mac operating system, screens may be slightly different. Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. The drive does not appear on the desktop or the finder.
How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Yes, im trying to format it on a mac sorry, i thought i had posted in the mac section. Format wd elements for the mac os you have whether you have mac os sierra, high sierra or mojave the way you format your wd elements drive for mac is the same. Hello, i want to format a recently purchased 1tb elements for use with my macbook pro running 10. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool.
Fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac by reformatting. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. Connecting the wd elements drive to a computer running windows operating system, you will get quick workarounds to formatting wd elements for mac. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt tom. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac.
Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Now, click the erase, button and wait a few minutes and let the macos. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. Selling a mac formatted disk is just trying to get your money. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. Hi, yesterday i bought a new 8tb wd external hard drive, it came formatted as exfat, i tried to format it to hfs but after a few seconds it failed and i got the message drive failed to unmount, then the driver dissapeared, disk utility would display it as disk5s1 but every attempt at formatting the disk would fail, took it to a pc and formatted again but my imac wound. Have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system.
Once the system detects your connected drive and mounts it. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. If you own a wd elements drive in ntfs, it will be only readable but not writable. This trusted portable storage always offers quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer and to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube.
Open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. To partition and format the drive with disk utility, follow these steps. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. For the time machine, you have to format the ssd from the default shipped format.
Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. Luckily, there are thirdparty tools to help you do so. After installing the software, connect your wd drive to the system and start using it. How to formatreformat wd elements for mac depending on the system that you are using, there are 2 ways to format you hard disk into a mac supported format. Disk utility is a smart hard drive format tool built in mac system.
The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Oct 06, 2016 have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Select the hard drive and click erase, then disk utility will help you format and erase the hard drive or device. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. To download the driver for your mac system, specify the mac os version in the correct textbox. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. If you buy a macformatted disk, you dont know what you will actually get. Apr 16, 2020 if you want to use wd my passport or any other hard drive on mac and pc, you need to format a western digital my passport external hard drive in exfat or fat32 format.
Just run it on your mac, it will show all the hard drives and external devices on your mac. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. Error message when formatting a new drive wd community. Choose mac os extended journaled or another file system if you. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. Disk utility is a useful application inside your mac system. 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. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. Selling a macformatted disk is just trying to get your money. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with mac and pc as long as you format them correctly. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility.
High sierra wont format new drives macrumors forums. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Find efficient methods of wd external drive format for mac here. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. I did restart the computer as you suggested, but again received the message the. Mar 23, 2020 how to format reformat wd elements for mac depending on the system that you are using, there are 2 ways to format you hard disk into a mac supported format. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac computer. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac.
Details say unmounting disk, couldnt unmount disk, operation failed. In fact, this is a common annoyance for many wd customers that the hard drive fails to mount in finder or disk utility. Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac. If your my passport hard drive is not working for the same reason and you havent got an effective workaround to fix this unmounted drive on your mac, check this page. Double leftclick on the mac hd, the internal mac hard drive visible on the topright corner of the desktop screen.
May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. I havent tried this one, but it should also do the job. Format 1 tb elements external drives for mac wd community. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. I did restart the computer as you suggested, but again received the message the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer. Mar 20, 2020 quick workarounds to formatting wd elements for mac. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Click the wd drive download for mac and install it on your system once the download process is complete.
Most of the ssds come in default exfat format that is compatible with both windows and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. Whats more, you can share digital files between mac and windows system easily. If you buy a mac formatted disk, you dont know what you will actually get.
We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. How to format a disk to ntfs using mac os x ask different. 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. Then below you will see the format type which will be ntfs or possibly msdos fat, we need. So, follow the steps mentioned below on your system step 1 to start the process, connect your wd my passport drive to your mac system. Try wd advanced format utility alternative easeus external hard drive formatter to format disk while wd external drive format failed with wd quick formatter tool. Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use. Nov 21, 2019 disk utility is builtin on your mac and is commonly used to erase, format or manage internal disks and external storage. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter. When finished, you can mount your wd external hard drive on mac and use it again.
One is by using the indigenous file format option in the windows os powered computers and other is through the similar tools found in the mac os. Vishal updated on april 21, 2020 mac hard drive recovery 19 comments 6 min read. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit.
Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. How to format wd my passport in mac system mac systems feature disk utility that can help you format your wd my passport easily and safely. Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume. Now right click on the external drive and click on format option doublecheck the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive. The wd my passport for mac hard drive is specially designed for mac mini computers, imacs and macbooks. For a 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. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac if you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. Bought wd 6t external my book to use with time machine. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple.
How to format wd external drive for mac more less apple footer this site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Jul 28, 20 there are 2 items or more for each disk, you have the actual disk and the volume of the disk, the example below has the disk named 2 tb wd elements and the volume is named elements, this example uses the volume which will in turn also format the disk. Now enter the volume label as you need and change the file system for exfat and click ok. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. There are 2 items or more for each disk, you have the actual disk and the volume of the disk, the example below has the disk named 2 tb wd elements and the volume is named elements, this example uses the volume which will in turn also format the disk. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and. Disk utility is a very beneficial tool, that will make your life much easier. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. Wd my passport ultra 1tb setup and troubleshooting guide. May 21, 2018 in this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. In order to get started and use disk utility to format wd my passport on your mac, follow the simple instructions below. Disk utility is builtin on your mac and is commonly used to erase, format or manage internal disks and external storage. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. It is similar to exfat which can be read by both windows and mac, but it can store more than 4gb files. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. Matter of fact, youll be seeing this tool a lot throughout the article.
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