This article explains reformatting is required for macos compatibility. When i connected the drive for the first time in the mac os it was recognized in the finder but was not writable. Connect your western digital my passport drive to mac computer, and let the os detect and mount the drive for use. But what happens if that drive becomes corrupted, and you have to reformat it to make it accessible again. Things appeared to run smoothly, and i even copied about 10gb from my old external onto the my passport. I have a wd my passport ultra 1tb portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only. Western digitals passport external drive for mac isnt eternally bound to macos.
If you experience the same issue, your only recourse is to reformat it in one of two formats. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and. How to get external hard drive to work with mac os x guiding tech. I forgot my password which is why i need to reformat it, but like i said, i got a mac so now i want it for this too. 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. Reformatting a western digital my passport hard drive to function well on windows and macintosh systems is neither timeconsuming nor technologically demanding. I like the 2015 my passport ultras rounded corner case better but its very minor point for me. In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a wd my passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macos and windows os. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to. 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.
If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wifi menu in the menu bar. When your wd passport formatted with a file system not recognized by windows operating system like ext2, ex3 or ext4, you wont be able to access and open it. It will take a while, but that will set your drive up to be used on the mac. I want to erase my older my passport and format it for quicken backup only.
Vishal updated on april 21, 2020 mac hard drive recovery 15 comments 6 min read. I am looking for a solution to format the wd my passport portable hard drive on my macbook pro. However, many users complain their wd my passport is readonly on mac like the user below in wd community. Mar 16, 2010 when i connected the drive for the first time in the mac os it was recognized in the finder but was not writable. Oct 11, 2018 want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. As formatting will going to erase everything on your drive and thats why avoid formatting. With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive.
Nov 04, 2019 how can i make my wd passport workable under windows computer. Summary in this article, we will analyze how a wd my passport external drive could be brought back to life after it fails to mount on mac. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. A mac hd version will cost more, because manufacturers know mac users are used to paying more for computer stuff seriously. I will try to erasereformat thru win10 as you suggested. Aug 16, 2019 hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. Plugged it back into my mac, time machine doesnt recognize it, and the mac only shows the wd unlocker on the desktop instead of it being a separate hd or disc. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community.
Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Look for the external hard drive icon on your desktop. Can i reformat my wd passport external hd to work for a. This wd my passport mac model is an evolution over the 2015 my passport ultra. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Im not sure because it will not mount on my desktop however, i can see it with disk utilities. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. By formatting the passport as an exfat or fat32 drive, you. Among those external hard drive categories, wd my passport external hard drives are the most widely used ones. Now, a new hard drive icon will appear on the desktop. The wd elements and the wd my passport external hard drives are targeted at the portable drive, on the go market place. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. How to erase my passport and reformat wd portable drives.
Back up all important information on the drive before beginning. 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. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. Can you reformat it without losing all of your data. Jan 30, 2020 macos recovery makes it easy to reinstall the mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. High level view of the steps to making wd passport compatible with mac and windows 1. When i select it to be the back up device i get this box cant connect to a current time machine backup disk. I used my wd passport hd to back up my dvr recordings on my dish receiver before it got replaced. The wd hard drive failed to show up on my pc and i couldnt access saved data either.
I formatted it for ntfs but it seems i should have used mac os extended journaled and now im at a loss as to how to reformat it. Msdos file system is the older fat filesystem used with msdos and windows. Do you save backups of your hard drive onto an external hard drive. Its product line covers wd my passport, wd my passport ultra, wd my book, wd my passport for mac and more. Trying to back up my imac with time machine to a wd my passport ultra. You can format wd passport for windows with compatible file system to solve this. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files. Force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal commands in mac os x. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. Just recently i updated my mac operating system to os x lion, not realizing that lion does not support quicken 2007. A stable wd my passport is readily available on the desktop, finder, and disk utility when the drive gets plugged into macs usb port. Set up the format you want on your my passport drive.
But you are limited to an individual file size of 4gb mac os extended will be readable only by macs but your files can be larger. This morning, wd my passport suddenly became inaccessible, couldnt be detected by my computer. If youre only going to use the external hard drive with macs or you want to use it for time machine backups, format it in mac os. Wd external reformat for mac os sierra aktivleague. Yo just got a new external hard drive and want to use it on your mac.
If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. Starting macos time machine backups to my passport and external usb drives. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. However, the mac os does not allow you to write data to the drive. You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on mac. Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community.
Feb 23, 2019 fat32 will let you directly plug the drive into both windows and mac. Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. Apr 16, 2020 can i use wd hard drive on mac and pc. Make sure your wd my passport external drive is chosen. Two easy methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac.
Fat32 will let you directly plug the drive into both windows and mac. Mar 25, 2019 much like my wd my passport ultra, most external hard drives out there are customized to work with windows, not os x. Fix wd my passport for mac not showing upnot working on mac. 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. 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.
When the finder window opens, on the menu bar, select go and then utilities. However, all of the solutions can be divided into two types. The my passport for mac drive includes usbc and usba cables, so you can save tomorrows content with the mac computers of both today and yesterday. How can i make my wd passport workable under windows computer. Ill pick it for new mac related purchases over the older model, but wont rush out to replace older drives. After tearing my hair out all evening trying to reformat this stupid drive, it turns out wd has decided to include hidden partitions that make reformatting it almost impossible. Whats more, you can share digital files between mac and windows system easily. If youre only going to use the external hard drive with macs or you want to use it for time machine backups, format it in mac os extended journaled. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps.
The my passport for mac drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with password protection helps keep your digital lifes contents secure. Can i reformat my wd passport external hd to work for a mac if it was used for a pc first. This answer explain starting macos time machine backups to my passport. Feb 27, 2018 how to format external hard drive for mac.
Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. So i followed the advice of a few forums and opened the disk utility and reformatted the drive for mac os extended journaled. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. How to format wd my passport in mac windows system. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Step 6 once formatting completes, you can then use your drive in mac as a usual hard drive part 3. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Of course, there are more than two methods that can help you format a wd my passport portable hard drive under mac os. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. What application would i use to erase the drive and how would i reformat it. Popular uses of wd my passport wd external hard drive such as my passport are suitable and trusted devices serving as the best backup tools for mac internal drives data. Is there a possible way that can help me to repair the. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list.
In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way. Popular uses of wd my passport wd external hard drive such as my passport are suitable and trusted devices serving as the best. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Mypassport for macs seem to always be out of stock, so i bought the 4tb hard drive from costco which needs to be reformatted to be used on. Apr 16, 2020 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. How to reformat western digital hard drive for mac. Before you get the answer, you must figure out what kind of file system can work well on both the macos and the windows system. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data.
How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Wd passport much like my wd my passport ultra, most. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Look for your wd my passport drive on your desktop. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Much like my wd my passport ultra, most external hard drives out there are customized to work with windows, not os x. You cant reformat them for use as just a normal drive with linux. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. I forgot my password which is why i need to reformat it, but like i said. If first aid was unable to fix the errors in the wd my passport, which is quite common, the file system of this drive could be seriously corrupted and you have to fix the wd my passport for mac not showing up on mac problem by reformatting. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus.
Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. How to reformat a wd my passport external hard drive for mac.
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