Instead boldly claim that it is impossible to do so you cant reformat a wd drive and then wait for some expert to quickly and clearly prove you wrong with clear instructions on how to do it. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. How to format 2tb or 1tb hard drive to fat32 successfully. Western digital wd elements 2tb external hard drive usb 3. I m attaching the drive using the supplied usd cable and it appears on my desktop as an elements disk, but when i use disk utility to format the disk for mac os extended journaled it gives me the following message. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your backup files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system imageseu. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Wd elements 2 tb external hard disk price 14 may 2020. A 5tb hard drive can hold approximately 2000 netflix videos. The small, lightweight drive features up to 5tb of storage with wd quality and reliability. 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. Whats odd is that i once did eight new wd elements drives in a siting and had to mess with two of the eight whereas the other six formatted immediately.
Similarly to the elements, it comes in 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, and 4tb. Step 2 doubleclick on the mac s main hard drive to open its window on the desktop. In order to reformat wd portable hard drive and permanently erase the data on the wd portable hard drive, we strongly recommend you to use this tool super eraser to help you reformat the wd portable hard drive. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Finally i decided that the information was not that critical and decided to reformat the disk. 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.
Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac if you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. Hi, i am going to sell a 2tb wd portable hard drive. Back to the main interface, click apply proceed to commit the pending operation. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Plug the cable attached to the wd external hard drive to the appropriate port on the mac, for example, the usb port. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. It consists of wd discovery software can be downloaded from the manufacturers site, where it can be connected to social media accounts such as facebook, twitter, etc. 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. I just went through some hoops when i got a 2tb mybook studio drive recently for christmas. The wd 2tb external hard drive setup is lightweight, compact, where you can store movies, music, pictures, office documents and take it with you wherever you go. Store data safely on this 2tb western digital hard drive. Jan 08, 2020 to set up your wd elements drive to work on your mac youll need to format it for mac. It is very compact and matches well in size with the other components of the dvr setup.
The system requirements can be formatted ntfs for windows 7,8,10 and mac os x. When i opened disk utility to try to reformat it, it shows up as read only so i cant make any changes. Up for sale is a a western digital elements 2tb external usb hard disk drive. Wd elements is preconfigured for usage on a windows pc. Steps on how to format the drive are provided on the following link.
Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Download this wd portable hard drive reformatting software here. Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. After some searching i found the latest disk utility from western digital, acronis true image wd edition. The wd dlg shows the total capacity of the drive, not the remaining free one so this doesnt mean the data is gone.
Im not very computer savvy, so if someone could run me through this step by step it would be much appreciated. Having attempted this now says erase process failed and has called the disk disk 2s1 and is all greyed out. How to reformat western digital element 1 tb solved ccm. We reformat a hard drive if we are switching from one platform to another windows to mac and vice verse back to the main topic, below is a step by step instruction on how to format reformat a hard drive for mac os. Click over and in a few minutes youll have the formatting all done. Macbook external hard drive not recognized how to reformat. Wd 2 tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. If you want to use your wd elements drive without any special software on your mac. This formatting is also known as mac os extended journaled file system. Unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting for mac. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system. Could you please navigate to disk management and see how the drive is seen there. 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. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
Wd elements drive will not format to mac os extended journaled. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc. Apr 20, 2020 cannot format 2tb hard drive to fat32 in windows i have a 2tb external hard drive that i need to use at home with my windows 7 pc and at school where i use a mac. Top level view of formatting wd elements for a mac and a pc. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. For a larger capacity, the hard drive becomes a fraction bigger in size and logically more expensive. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. Wd 2tb external hard drive setup and driver download. I have found that this wd elements 2tb usb external hard drive is fully compatible with my windows 7 64bit laptop straight out of the box, even though the laptop has only got usb 2. Im wondering how i reformat the hard drive, which comes from the factory formatted for pcs. Macs dont limit these partition sizes, so if you have access to both operating systems, format the drive using a mac. Using your wd elements drive for both your home mac and work windows pc means.
And yes if you want to use your wd elements drive for a time machine backup. A wd my passport formatted with mac file system will be a dud on the windows and viceversa. If you post a screenshot of it it would be even more helpful. 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. Wd 1tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. How to format wd elements 1tb for time ma apple community. After some searching i found the latest disk utility from western digital, acronis true image wd.
Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. I can find it under device manager and disk management but thats it. Aside from the 4tb, you can also buy a 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, or 5tb hard drive. And particularly if you want to use for both without using special software. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. New western digital wd elements 2tb external hard drive. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system.
You can also change cluster size, and partition label on this window. Free up space on your internal hard drive by transferring files to your wd elements portable hard drive and get your laptop moving again. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. All three sorts of files work when i connect the hd to my computer mac. Norio hello, i connect my western digital portable hard drive with my computer. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Western digital 4 tb wd green sata iii 5400 rpm 64 mb cache bulkoem desktop hard drive wd40ezrx. I know ntfs is for windows only and fat32 works on both windows and mac. Drives cannot exceed 2tb and are limited to 4 partitions. The wd 2tb external hard drive setup for mac is specially designed for mac and time machine ready. Experience the convenience of alexa, now on your pc. Jan 29, 2012 failed wd elements external drive i hace a 1 tb wd elements hd connected to a mac mini. However, i have been unable to format 2tb hard drive to fat32. It will hold all the recorded programs i need for the week.
Now, click the erase, button and wait a few minutes and let the macos. How to format an external hard drive with wd quick. For the 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. Failed wd elements external drive i hace a 1 tb wd elements hd connected to a mac mini. Then yes you need to put the wd elements drive in a format your mac can read and write to. Jun 07, 2010 unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting for mac. 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. You just connect up your wd elements drive to your mac. I want to use this new disk as a time machine backup disk.
Inputoutput error when reformatting wd elements ext hard. Hello all, im on my second elements 2tb drive that i cannot format using disk utility. Sep 17, 2015 i have a lacie d2 quadra 1tb external hard drive. Wd quick formatter is short for western digital quick formatter, a format tool developed by western digital technologies, inc. With its compact size, this wd elements portable hard drive fits conveniently in your briefcase or backpack. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Naturally, this means im able to transfer files to it at the normal usb 2. Unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting.
Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac. I was eventually able to get them all to format with some tinkering in diskutility. High capacity in a small enclosure the small, lightweight design offers up to 4tb capacity, making wd elements portable hard drives the ideal companion for consumers on the go. I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. Youll find my article on how you format the wd elements hard drive here.
Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. Why wont my macbook pro recognize my wd external hard drive. However, when i connect it to my macbook pro, it says the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer and time machine doesnt recognize it. Western digital wd1002faex caviar black 1 tb sata iii 7200 rpm 64 mb cache internal desktop 3. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows 8, 7, vista, xp and mac osx. You have in your macs operating system a piece of software called. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. Wd quick formatter tool allows you to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc. How to format an external hard drive with wd quick formatter. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Its wd backup software automatically saves files on a preset schedule, and it has a sleek but durable design for portability without sacrificing security.
Select the unmountable wd external hard drive and click erase on the top. Jan 03, 2018 new december 2017 wd elements drive will not format to mac os extended journaled. You are able to format a 500gb, 1tb, 2tb wd elements external drive to fat32, thus. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac computer. Formatting and reformatting a drive erases everything. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. Yes you can use your wd elements drive for both a mac and a pc if you want. Mac users, meanwhile, will have to reformat the drive, but thats the way it is most of the time unless youre buying mac specific hard drives. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as it might seem. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Partition failed partion failed with the following error.
Out of the both its not mac compatible, but you can format it for use with. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32. Keep in mind that a mac can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance. Reformatting required for mac os compatibility wd western. In this blog post, we will walk you through the formatting. How to reformat western digital hard drive for mac duration. Will i lose all my data by reformatting to mac in my external hard.
Wd elements drive will not format to mac os extended. How to format 2tb or 1tb hard drive to fat32 successfully in. Wd western digital elements 2tb wdbaau0020hbk01 usb. The drive was not recognized by my dell laptop running windows xp. Formatted and fully tested to use on a pcwindows or mac. It comes with ac power adapter and usb cable not pictured. Wd quick formatter tool allows you to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32. I had this model replace a wd book version of usb external hard drive that i purchased 2 days ago and was supposedly formatted specifically for mac os x 10.
In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Wd 2tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and. Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. Ntfs formatted and not mac friendly so the first thing i did was try to simply format it. A 1tb, 2tb or larger drive could make your life so much. Right click the 2tb hard drive and select format partition. Hope this tutorial can help to fix wd external hard drive not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on mac.