How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. I purchased it about a month ago and i down loaded thousands of pictures onto iti tried to retrieve a picture today and it keeps saying i need to format my drivei look on disk manager on my computer and it shows there is date on the drive but it. Wd external hard drive work for mac os an apple community. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. In the value label field, type a descriptive name for the drive. 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. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac.
One primary section capable of storing files larger than 4gb, and a secondary section capable of sharing files between macos and windows 10. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. When finished, you can mount your wd external hard drive on mac and use it again.
Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format a wd external hard drive in fat32 to use in windows or mac osx. Jan 17, 2019 rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option. It is usually used to repair a corrupted external hard disk. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. I then found the instructions to format it to mac but now whenever i connect it to a pc, it wont work.
Developed by microsoft, this modern file system is optimized for situations where the ntfs file system is not a feasible solution, and the file size limit of the standard fat32 file system is unacceptable. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. As the default file system in windows, it can only read by mac os, writing to it is not available. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community.
One hurdle youll face is that, by default, these platforms use different filesystems. That said, our guide splits the external drive in half. Whether youre selling your computer, trying a new operating system, or setting up an external drive for backups, sometimes you need to completely erase and format a hard drive. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Wd quick formatter tool download is available on western digital official website. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. You can have problems with your mac refusing to format your elements drive if its not picked at the right level. But compared with formatting, an ntfs for mac driver like iboysoft ntfs for mac is a better and feasible solution.
For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. To sum up, it is easy to format an external hard drive for both mac and windows pc. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. Aug 30, 2019 plug in the external hard drive into the system and open windows explorer by clicking on the computer section in the side bar, you will see your external hard drive get attached to your system. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Because the file system on the wd passport for mac external hard drive is a mac os extended journaled file system. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system.
How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Two ways for reformatting wd hard drive for mac and pc. 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. Wd quick formatter is short for western digital quick formatter, a format tool developed by western digital technologies, inc. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. If you are good at working with commands, then you can try to format your hard drive to fat32 using the command prompt. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. The first tool occurs to your mind to format wd hard drive might be file explorer. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc.
At this time, you can format wd hard drive to exfat via diskpart. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. 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. Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using. If you are going to use the external hard drive on mac only, i would format it as mac os extended journaled and a guid partition. Use the file system dropdown menu, and select ntfs recommended. Simplify file storage and access with this 2tb buffalo linkstation nas server.
How to solve my wd hard drive not recognized in windows 10. 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. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. 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. Wd quick formatter tool allows you to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc. However, in file explorer, if you right click partition on the wd hard drive and choose format, youll find that there is no exfat option. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. Be sure to choose your wd elements drive at the top level.
To share that drive between a mac and windows pc you need software. Apr 16, 2020 command prompt is windows command processor and it is used to perform commands in the windows system. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. In this case, the most effortless way is to format the. Step 1 in the windows search, look for the command prompt. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc set up. Wd external hard drives wd portable drives wd community. But all that doesnt mean you cant get your data back.
I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. How to recover data from a formatted external hard drive. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. 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. 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. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows pc. Accidental deletion, disk formatting, computer corruption or damage, etc. Rightclick the new hard drive and select the format option.
Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Read speeds up to 2000mbs to decrease load times and get you into the game faster. The tips and shortcuts below will give you the necessary info and tidbits you need to format wd elements for mac. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. How to format an external hard drive with wd quick formatter. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Feb 08, 2020 so, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Did what you said for a wd my book and process showed a red alert. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Fantom drives 10tb external hard drive 7200rpm usb 3.
Choose your wd elements external hard drive on your mac s external drives list. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Fantom drives 2tb external hard drive 7200rpm usb 3. Apple mac machines support a different file system. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The loss of data from your wd hard drive can be caused by numerous things. In this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. Command prompt is windows command processor and it is used to perform commands in the windows system. Most external hard drives hd are sold in a format called ntfs, which is designed to work with windows. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc.
Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. For example, the external hard drive is unrecognized or inaccessible, showing you need to format the disk in drive before you can use it. A windows pc cannot see, read, write to that file system.
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. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Hope this tutorial can help to fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac. How do i make my wd passport work on both windows and mac. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. 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. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Format the hard drive exfat which is a readable file system on windows and mac computers. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. To make your western digital hard drive work on both mac and windows. 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. My question is if i am able to set my hard drive to a format in which it can work on both windows and mac.