Formatting wd my book for mac and windows

For information about optional accessories for wd products, visit. Sep 27, 2017 my macbook pro is on its deathbed and it will soon go to that big apple store in the sky. 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. Next is the file system, which controls how the data is read and written. Should i use fat32 when formatting an external hdd wd. Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community.

As to size for each partition, it depends on your own demands. You can recover almost every type of file with iskysoft crash recovery. I intend to use the drive with time machine for back ups. If your usb drive is formatted as ntfs, you will have readonly access while connected to a netcenter, wd my book world edition, or wd my book world edition ii. Click yes to erase the drive and use it for time machine. Reformatting a external western digital my book drive. Plug in the 1tb western digital drive to power outlet and usb port. Check the box labeled perform a quick format and click next. Oct 28, 2010 i am the same boat you are in, my dad purchased a wd my book 1tb external drive for our desktop, running windows 7, and found out that he could not back up to it, so he formatted it to ntfs. Wd external hard drive slow transfer rate and unresponsive. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco.

Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. A solid state drive is primarily used on mac machine. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Rightclick on the slow wd external hard drive and choose properties. This guide introduces three common scenarios in which you might find your wd my passport external hard drive readonly on mac. Dec, 2019 open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. The my book for pc comes in 2tb, 3tb and 4tb capacities while the my book for mac tops out at 3tb.

How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Easystore required formatting for mac and it had no instruction manual in the box. 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. Open time machine and choose the new my essentials book as the drive to backup as a time machine drive.

How to solve my wd hard drive not recognized in windows 10. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Sep 17, 2015 i have a lacie d2 quadra 1tb external hard drive. Follow the onscreen wizard to complete the process. Why is external hard drive not showing up on my computer. I have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers. In the tab, click tools, under the tools click optimize. The first thing i did was to connect the drive to my mac via one of my usb 2. Does this mean that they cannot be converted to windows. How to partition and format a drive on windows 10 and 8. The software come with a fast quick scan more and an indepth deep scan mode windows and mac hard drive support. Launch recoverit data recovery and follow the next steps to perform external hard drive data recovery on windows computer, if you are a mac user, you can download recoverit data recovery for mac to go on step 1. Overwrite exfat format of 8tb external drive with ntfs. Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac.

My book for mac external hard drive, with the wd security and wd drive utilities software usb 3. Open disk management tool by rightclicking on start menu icon and then select disk management. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. My network drive was fine storing images on my windows system. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2.

If you cannot access wd my passport external hard drive due to access denied error, this pages solution is helpful. If gaining permissions does not fix the issue, download easeus hard drive recovery software to retrieve and export data from inaccessible wd my. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting.

If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. The volume label field can be customized in order to give the volume a desired name, such as my book or wd black 1. My book drive, with the wd backup, wd drive utilities, and wd security software usb 3. Verify that the my book drive appears under devices in the sidebar area of your finder display. I tried to use the mac disk utility to make the drive useable with a mac but it was not recognised. I would like to format my external hard drive so that i can edit in on my macbook pro. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac computer.

Equipped with wd backup software for windows and apple time machine compatibility for mac, the my book desktop hard drive can back up your photos, videos, music, and documents. Now enter the volume label as you need and change the file system for exfat and click ok. The problem though is that i have a macbook, and i. Steps on how to recover data from external hard drive download and install recoverit data recovery on your computer. Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac. The problem though is that i have a macbook, and i am the only one in the house with a mac. Download western digital my book office edition external.

Which external hard drive can be used with both windows and mac. Feb 22, 2020 if you cannot access wd my passport external hard drive due to access denied error, this pages solution is helpful. If your usb drive contains a mac based format, you will not be able to use the drive connected to the netcenter, wd my book world edition, or wd my book world edition ii. I was worried about my ability to format it for mac use, but the wd support information that detailed how to do it made it surprisingly easy. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. 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. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. 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. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. It seems that wd doesnt make my books for macs any more. I want to use time machine software to backup my macs to the network drive.

Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air. As shown in figure 1, your my book drive kit includes the following. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way. Depending on your region, if required, change the power adapter as follows. Easy to use my book desktop storage is ready to use out of the box so you can start transferring files, saving your memories and backing up right away.

Now, go to your applications folder on your mac hard disk. How to reformat western digital element 1 tb solved ccm. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. This is at least in part because the secure digital memory. My hard drive doesnt show up windows 7 fix western digital hard drive not. Password protection the my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. How to fix wd my passport access denied in windows 1087. If gaining permissions does not fix the issue, download easeus hard drive recovery software to retrieve and export data from inaccessible wd my passport. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and windows.

I should also say that i am running a very old mac os 10. I used to have a macbook air so it would always read the devise cause i guess it was formatted just for mac. It comes with all the software you need to help protect your data, including wd backup and wd security software and is compatible with apple time machine. Which external hard drive can be used with both windows. Oct 25, 2018 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. Recoverit is a life saver to solve your data loss problems. How do i make my wd passport work on both windows and mac. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. Dont worry, the next guide we will show you the best solution to fix the hard drive not recognized problem. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Oct 03, 20 the my book for pc comes in 2tb, 3tb and 4tb capacities while the my book for mac tops out at 3tb. How to partition hard disk in windows 710 without formatting.

The two my book products are essentially the same, the core difference is in the formatting of the drive. This weekend, i am planning to copy some files that need to transfer to an external hard drive. If the wd my passport readonly on mac problem is caused by the ntfs file system, installing iboysoft ntfs for mac to edit, rename, delete the saved files and transfer files to the readonly wd my passport hard drive. If the external disks check box is selected on your finder preferences dialog, the my book icon displays on your desktop. I just purchased a 24 all in one desktop from dell with windows 10 for videopicture editing. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. So how do i get to see my files from my external hard drive on my pc aidfile recovery software keyfeature. My book live formatting from windows to mac wd community.

I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. 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. There is widespread support for fat32 across different operating systems and devices. 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. At least their passport series has a feature called smartware that prevents you from doing anything useful with the drive, even something basic like formatting it. Your my book studio drive and the wd security and wd drive utilities software are. As shown in figure 1, your my book for mac disk drive kit includes. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Wd my book 2tb shows up in device manager but doesnt open.

Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. I am the same boat you are in, my dad purchased a wd my book 1tb external drive for our desktop, running windows 7, and found out that he could not back up to it, so he formatted it to ntfs. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.

Wd my book 2tb shows up in device manager but doesnt open im a mac girl so forgive me if this is a dumb question. Feb 08, 2020 your advice on formatting the external hard drive is rather insightful. 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 mac saw the drive but wouldnt write to it so i transfered all the files from it to the mac hd. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. I then found the instructions to format it to mac but now whenever i connect it to a pc, it wont work. 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. Alternatively, you can create 2 partitions on the external hard drive. Formatting, however, deletes the content of a volume to clean it, and assigns a file system to it so that data can be moved into and out of the volume. If you want to recycle a ssd, formatting is the best way to remove all history data from the ssd. A partition is especially useful if you want to use the drive for 2 purposes, such as having a section for tm backups and a section that allows you to write to it from both windows and os x.

The other answer does a good job of how to use disk utility to format a normal drive, but not all of wd external drives will work with that. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. So am i stuck putting all the files on the wd my book back on my mac and then somewhat formatting it to work on windows and then putting the files back on it. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. The wd my passport for mac hard drive is specially designed for mac mini computers, imacs and macbooks. Fat32exfatntfsrefhs are all read and writeable by most microsoft windows operating systems. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. While the external hard drive connected to the windows computer or mac, and the device did not show up.