Two methods mentioned above apply to formatting wd passport for mac as well. Download the wd discovery software for mac from the western digital site. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive. There is a driver that works wonders, for both windows and mac, and its not expensive. Among those external hard drive categories, wd my passport external hard drives are the most widely used ones. Wd my passport ultra 2tb setup and driver installation.
It is a wise choice to use a professional format tool. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. After erasing my passport drive, the instructions are to partition the drive. I recently purchased a 2 tb hard drive for my mac book pro osx v10. The size field is greyed out and the value shows as 1,000gb. Format the drive as exfat requires windows 7 or later, or appropriately updated windows vista sp2 or windows xp with kb955704. You need to format your wd my passport ultra by using low level format. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and 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. Hi guys, i hope someone here could help me with a problem that im facing i recently bought a passport for mac and it came formatted as mac os extended journal the hard drives behaviour is normal on my osx lion, however when i plugged the hard drive in when running windows 7 via boot camp, the os reported that the device hard drive failed to install, and when i checked what seem to cause.
Establish a connection between the western digital my passport ultra 1tb and the mac computer. List of all wd firmware and software available for download. So i got a wd my passport ultra which seems to be in ntfs format and i can only read it on my mac. Select exfat when formatting an external drive in mac os x sierra. I am trying to erase under exfat format and master boot record since i want. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. I tried using exfat on a 32 gb usb drive and it worked on my mac and it.
But, it half of the times works and the other, does nothing. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. The newer mac releases are starting to see exfat support, and soon you will see linux as well. Format western digital passport to fat32 with wd quick formatter. Also is it ok to erase all the present files on the disc. To share that drive between a mac and windows pc you need software. 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. The instructions say to click partition but that action is greyed out. How do i format my external hard drive to exfat on mac. Can i format the hdd from my wd passport wireless without. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then.
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. Im having some trouble formatting my wd my passport in high sierra. For mac computers, go to the apple menu and select software update. The my passport x storage device is backwardly compatible with usb 2. Many devices like the ps3, xbox, and many bluray will only support fat32.
I guess it wouldnt hurt too much if you dont mind performance issues. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. Great video but dam your mouse click louder than my glock. So if you want your external hard drive to be backward compatible with both oss then you need to reformat it with fat32 or exfat. However, many users complain their wd my passport is readonly on mac like the user below in wd community. Use the exfat file system and never format your external. Reformatting my passport 1tb to exfat wd community.
However, i then reformatted the 3tb for exfat to make it usable for both windows and mac, and now it is not found by readyshare. Wd my passport format problem high sierr apple community. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to choose the exfat formatting options. This software allows you to check the disk health and you can format to hfs using that. Ill store my media files on it while keeping the internal hard drive clear for apps. 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.
Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and windows. Wd my passport ultra 1tb setup and troubleshooting guide. I checked disk my wd my passport same size as you show. I checked disk a wd ultra passport 4 tb drive 4,096 reported in each allocation unit. Plug the disk into a windows vista sp1 or windows 7 computer. In this post, youll learn how to format a hard drive for your mac. Wd passport external hd not recognized on windows 10. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter easeus partition master or use builtin applications windows. Here is a stepbystep guide on how to format wd passport. Sandisk extreme external ssd 2tb formatting question.
I also have a samsung smart tv which i have used with friends hard drives to watch video files, so was eager to do this myself, i. Your macpc will just read and write every format with. Western digital provides data storage solutions, including systems, hdd, flash ssd, memory and personal data solutions to help customers capture and preserve their most valued data. Is it likely that exfat is the problem or is there something else awry. I looked at my old passport in utilities and it was formatted as ntfs. 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. To format a western digital my passport external hard drive in exfat or fat32 format, you. Essentially, its a file system thats both readable and writable on any modern mac or windows machine sorry, leopard users. Compatibility will depend in part with a motherboards ability to fit that specific. A windows pc cannot see, read, write to that file system. I want to know what i should do to make the hard disk compatible with bot mac os and pc. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. Two effective ways to format wd passport for windows. Disk drive format your my passport ssd drive is formatted as a single exfat partition for compatibility with updated windows and mac os x operating systems.
How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. The western digital ultra portable 2tb external hard drive is a small and portable hard drive that can securely store your files offline. There is message text below the size field this volume has 40. So, i bought a 2tb drive a week or two ago and formatted it to exfat so it would work on both mac and pc. Format western digital passport to fat32 with wd quick formatter 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. My passport for mac not detectable on windows 7 with exfat. Shop wd my passport ultra for mac 4tb external usb 3. I found the instructions and am trying to follow them. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for.
After your mac computer detects the wd my passport ultra 1tb hard drive, mount it. Want to format a hard drive for mac and pc compatibility. To use with other operating systems, see reformatting the drive and troubleshooting. Wd 4tb my passport for mac portable external hard drive, usbcusba wdbp6a0040bbkwese. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Use unformat to recover data from how to format my wd my passport for mac on to windows 10 laptop after quick format,full format. 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. When i select the drive and click partition, it displays the name, the format is exfat and there is a size field.
A wd my passport formatted with mac file system will be a dud on the windows and viceversa. Not sure what extended format is and if its suitable. Can i format the hdd from my wd passport wireless without loosing features. Look for your wd my passport drive on your desktop.
Make external harddrive compatible with mac and windows computer, how to format using disk utility on mac. How to format an external drive to work seamlessly. Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exfat for use with both mac and windows. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Thankfully, msdos fat32 and exfat formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your wd my passport work with a mac and a windows pc simultaneously. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to need the help of a. However, by formatting your my passport differently, you can ensure compatibility in a variety of different ways. The wd my passport ultra comes with the software which can be easily installed on your windowsmac computer. Router worked perfectly, and readyshare found both a smaller wd passport 500g and the 3tb out of the box.
Hello, i just recently bought a wd passport wireless to take on holidays. 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. Wd 4tb my passport for mac portable external hard drive blue, usbcusba wdba2f0040bblwesn. The easiest way to format the drive to fat32 or exfat is by using macoss built. Do i use disc utilities fat32 or is there some other format. Proceed with the following instructions to know how to format the wd my passport ultra 1tb setup drive on the mac computer. Its product line covers wd my passport, wd my passport ultra, wd my book, wd my passport for mac and more. To support osx, win and smarttvs at the same time id choosen exfat for my. What you should know that formatting will erase all data on the drive. Then, ill introduce you to workable and easy ways to format wd passport external hard drive, wd elements external hard drive and other external hard drives. I will leave windows instructions below for the benefit of windows users. Setup for xbox 360 users just plug it in and follow the easy onscreen instructions settings dialog to format the drive. How to use my wd passport external hard drive both in.