How to use my wd passport external hard drive both in windows. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. It told me to open the disk utility, and to choose the drive and then choose erase. It comes with passport photo templates for 100 countries. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected os x extended journaled as the format, and clicked erase once again. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. File system formats available in disk utility on mac.
Force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal commands in mac os x. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwriteformat ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. Look to the top of your disk utility window and select erase. If you want to use the drive with a windows computer, see reformatting the drive and troubleshooting. Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy.
Ill pick it for new mac related purchases over the older model, but wont rush out to replace older drives. Go to the manufacturers site by opening a new web browser tab. You will be able to copy data from, but not to, the external hard drive. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide.
Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. My external hd, wd my passport ultra 1t, is not mounting. How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your macs startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. I have since reformatted it on my pc just to get all the info off of it. 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. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Wd my passport x 2tb setup driver and software installation.
With fat32, it is recommended that the volumepartition size of. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. Once completed, the erased drive will function on both windows and macintosh systems. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. Apples macos operating system, as does the my passport studio. How to convert mbr to gpt on mac without data loss. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. About your wd drive my passport for mac user manual 2. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. By formatting the passport as an exfat or fat32 drive, you can use it with. With this passport photo app, you can format, print, or save passport photos in seconds. Once formatting is done, you can use the drive in macos or os x as a regular hard drive.
Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwrite format ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. The wd my passport for mac hard drive is specially designed for mac mini computers, imacs and macbooks. Once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost. The easiest way to format the drive to fat32 or exfat is by using macoss builtin disk utility. Now, from the left column select 1 tb wd my passport or whatever your hard drive name is, and click on the erase tab. Oct 15, 2015 this is my first posting on this community and i need help.
How to wipe your mac and reinstall macos from scratch. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. After working for a moment, it told me that the operation had failed because mediakit reports not enough space on drive. I used to do that with my pc and other hard drive all the time and it used to play media of all kind of formats. Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for as far back as mac os x 10.
My passport ultra was previously used on my windows 7 pc. In the mac operating system area, click the appropriate driver. Oct 25, 2016 usb devices,that are formatted in mac format. Windows 10 wont read external mypassport drive my passport shows up in device manager but not file explorer. Mar 25, 2018 i have recently bought a my passport external hd. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way.
Jun 26, 2009 the for mac part of the brand is only for marketing purposes really. I have now assigned a drive to the external drive using diskpart and it now shows up in file explorer but tells me the drive is empty it is not and i. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. The following instructions can help you to download the driver for mac. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. Find efficient methods of wd external drive format for mac here. 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.
I can see it it in disk utilities, have verified and disk repaired it, but it refuses to mount. From here, in format, select mac os extended journaled, give it a name. 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. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds.
Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x disk utility. 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. There are no updates to download on the wd website. How to use my wd passport external hard drive both in. The my passport x storage device is backwardly compatible with usb 2. The my passport for mac drives password protection and builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software helps keep your content private and safe. Format my passport for both mac and windows fasrbug. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Reformatting passport hard drive for mac the centre with maile page.
A confirmation screen opens, stating that all information on the drive will be lost if erased. Connecting the wd elements drive to a computer running windows operating system, you will get quick workarounds to formatting wd elements for mac. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Aug 29, 2015 now, from the left column select 1 tb wd my passport or whatever your hard drive name is, and click on the erase tab. Apr 16, 2020 format wd my passport in macos os x platform.
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. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. 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. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. I like the 2015 my passport ultras rounded corner case better but its very minor point for me. Gpt fdisk consisting of the gdisk, cgdisk, sgdisk, and fixparts programs is a set of textmode partitioning tools for linux, freebsd, mac os x, and windows. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. I formatted it for mac os extended, so i could obviously store files from my mac. 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. The my passport for mac is wds newest release, and was designed to specifically serve mac users with the same outofthebox functionality that the my passport ultra offers. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.
From the products listed, select my passport x 2tb. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. This wd my passport mac model is an evolution over the 2015 my passport ultra. The instructions below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. Os x includes all the tools to format the drive and store files on the passport external hard disk. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all the photos. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Uses the mac format journaled hfs plus to protect the integrity of the hierarchical file system.
Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition. Choose one of the following mac os extended file system formats for compatibility with mac computers using macos 10. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. Although when i connect my hard drive to my hdtv it would not play or even recognize files on it. Aby uzyskac informacje informacje o dysku wd my passport for mac podrecznik uzytkownika 2. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. May 01, 2020 click the erase button or tab, then complete these items. Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as macintosh hd. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community. Format the drive as exfat requires windows 7 or later, or appropriately updated windows vista sp2 or windows xp with kb955704.
How to convert mbr to gpt on mac os x without data loss. Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it using a compatible file system. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these items. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with mac and pc as long as you format them correctly. Wd my passport for mac 1tb and os x yosemite external. How to get external hard drive to work with mac os x. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system.
Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive. My passport for mac portable hard drive rapid transit for your digital life. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected. Jun 15, 2015 the my passport for mac is wds newest release, and was designed to specifically serve mac users with the same outofthebox functionality that the my passport ultra offers. Mar 20, 2020 quick workarounds to formatting wd elements for mac. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. Just plug it in and follow the easy onscreen instructions settings dialog to format the drive. 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. If you want to write to ntfs formatted hard drives in mac os x, youre going to need the help of a thirdparty driver. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. The easiest way to format the drive to fat32 or exfat is by using macoss builtin disk utility for fat32 or exfat. Why can i not play media files from a mac formatted.