Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only. I want to format it to work on my macbook pro for time machine, so i looked into how to do that. Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community. If youre going to be transferring files between macs and pcs use xfat. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Jan 31, 2010 hi, to format the drive can you open the mac hdd icon from your desktop then click applications then utilities and open disk utility. My passport for mac portable hard drive user manual connecting the device 4 connecting the device 1. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition. Heres how to reset a mac, whether its an imac, mac mini or macbook. My passport air, is an ultraslim, allmetal portable drive designed to perfectly complement your macbook air. Back up all important information on the drive before beginning. When i plug it in, it is recognized, but all the files are all.
So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. When it opens can you select your external drive from the list on the left then click the erase tab and choose mac os extended journaled if you are just going to use the drive with your mac or choose fat if you are going to use it with a pc as well then click. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way. It doesnt register that the drive even exists, though the device connected noise sounds. It has pretty much every bit of information i really hold dear, and on any mac computer i can find everything on it. Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. So, update your macs os x to help speed up your mac. Format wd my passport for mac, 10 quick steps mactakeawaydata. Compatible with usbc and usba devices, my passport for mac comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. I want to erase my older my passport and format it for quicken backup only. Its sleek style is fun and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you can easily take your treasured content everywhere you go.
Compatibility may vary depending on users hardware configuration and operating system performance capacity 2tb. Should i reformat my passport to ntfs tech support guy. Just get this application, no need to reformat disk, it will install driver to read write on ntfs formatted drives the first solution to support os x 10. 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. Equipped with usbc technology, the my passport ultra for mac portable drive offers an easy way to expand your storage with a modern metal design that complements your pc.
When i started the back up with super duper, it told me the passport wasnt formatted correctly and needed to be erased and reformatted see attachment. I can still though add files later, as i change them add more pics, music, etc. I had just reformat my wd passport external drive from my mac pro under ms dosfat to work for both my mac and microsoft. Theres an important difference between these wd drives apart from formatting and colour, which theluggage alluded to my passport for mac works with usb 2 and 3.
The information youll find here touches on formatting and reformatting wds my passport for your mac. I just need to back up my mac because it needs work done and cant read cds. 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. Oct 06, 2016 force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal commands in mac os x. Western digital my passport for mac 1tb portable hard drive. If thats true, i need to copy my previous back up onto my hd, reformat the passport, copy the old backup on to the passport and then do the back up. Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac. Installation get online installation help for your wd product or software. My passport studio works with firewire 800 and usb 2. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected. If you have a problem with your mac and need to reinstal the operating system you should be able to simply reinstall macos or mac os x via the recovery partition.
How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Dec 29, 2014 how to install use wester digital my passport for mac and pc windows, western digital 100gb 200gb 300gb 400gb 500gb 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, 4tb, 5tb, 6tb 7tb 8tb 9b 10tb 20tb, 40gb 50gb 60gb 70gb 80gb 90gb. Requires reformatting for mac os x leopard or snow leopard, lion, or mountain lion, which tells me formatting is indeed possible. How to read and write on wd my passport for mac without. Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. These steps are for you if you have mac os sierra operating system on your mac. Reformatting a western digital my passport hard drive to function well on windows and macintosh systems is neither timeconsuming nor technologically demanding. When you need to reinstall macos on your mac, you can install it from apple using the internet or you can install it from the recovery partition included on the hard drive or flash storage of every mac. Or if youre desperate to know how to reformat wd my passport for mac. Its probably in ntfs format so you cant write to it from the mac. Wd 2tb black my passport for mac portable external hard. My passport for mac portable hard drive, with the wd security and wd drive.
I have updated this tutorial to include macos sierra which is a free download from apple for all mac users. Much like my wd my passport ultra, most external hard drives out there are customized to work with windows, not os x. Mac doesnt recognize external hard drive, how to fix. Im assuming when i reformat, my backup files will be erased which is fine, i guess with a total computer backup, they will be there anyway. So i have a my passport drive that i had back before my mac computer killed itself. With wd discovery software, you can also work across both mac and pc. In this case, we are unable to create, copy, transfer, edit or delete files on our wd external hard drive. I dont care about any of the files on there now, they can be deleted.
Reformat macbook pro to make brand new again josh benson. Wd my passport portable hard drive external hdd manual set up guide for macbook pro, imac, mac mini, mac pro, macbook air. Compatible with apple time machine say goodbye to losing your files in mac, everything is backed up with no hassle. Download, install, and run the smartware updater here. Your wd my passport drive will appear as a rectangular, yellow icon on your desktop it looks just like the image below. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Although the device is intended for use with a mac, and is provided with usb 2. Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal commands in mac os x. My passport for mac fits perfectly into the busy life of anyone with an onthego digital life. I have since reformatted it on my pc just to get all the info off of it. I explain how to format a storage device for your mac. 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. And to get to that backup you need the wd security software installed.
Wd 1tb black my passport for mac portable external hard drive usb 3. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all. 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. Can i reformat my mac without my installation disk. It maintains compatibility with pc operating systems which requires reformatting, and it is similar in functionality and performance to the seventh generation my. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac. How to locate and open my wd passport drive in surface.
My passport ultra 2tb hard drive is inaccessible and i am unable to reformat. The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. The my passport for mac portable drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. Mac ready my passport ultra for mac is formatted for time machine and ready to deliver plugandplay storage out of the box. So if you want to use usb 3 you need the silver mac version. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Both ways of reinstalling keep your files and user settings intact. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc. After connecting my wd passport to my surface book 2, im unable to locate wd passport drive in my driver even after i unlock my wd passport. Aug 23, 2015 now, i have a wd my passport for mac with 2tb.
Trying to use it on my girlfriends computer is a completely different matter. After tearing my hair out all evening trying to reformat this stupid drive, it turns out wd has decided to include hidden partitions that make reformatting it almost impossible. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Password protection with hardware encryption the my passport for mac drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software helps keep your content private and safe. At the time of the original posting in 2011, there were some problems getting a mac formatted exfat drive working with windows, it had trouble recognizing those drives. Here is a stepbystep guide on how to format wd passport.
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. Unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting. Happens 710 times on macs with random drives when there is an open hidden process having access to the drive, just restart your mac and try again, and if you still have problems then use the installation discbootable usb lion of your mac and format the drive like if you were going to install osx on the drive failproof. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os. Installing, partitioning, and formatting the drive. Its windows 10ready out of the box to seamlessly deliver plugandplay storage, while password protection with hardware encryption helps enforce the security of your content. Jan 27, 2008 firewire drives have a passthrough port so as that they can be daisychained. Your macs recovery mode is a treasure trove of useful tools, and its the easiest way to wipe your computer and start from scratch. But, i can see wd drive and ses installed under my device manager. If youre only going to use the external hard drive with macs or you want to use it for time machine backups, format it in mac.
Mar 26, 2019 the wd my passport 4tb has a lot to offer. Wd elements, wd my book western digital, my passport wd, we my. Just turn on your mac and when it boots up, plug in your my passport drive to your wd. We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the my passport studio 1tb, as this is not the typical or intended experience with the product. I used it on windows and just tried it on mac and it doesnt install when i slide it in the cd slot. Use with time machine, partition, and make it work with windows pc. Can i reformat my wd passport external hd to work for a mac. Since a good connection is a basic condition for secondary hard drives working on the mac, we need to try these things step by step. It appears the issue has since been fixed and disks formatted exfat on os x 10.
My passport for mac portable hard drive, with the wd security and wd drive utilities software usb 3. Operating system compatibility your my passport for mac drive and the wd drive utilities and wd security. There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to format a storage drive for your mac from cleaning it up for a fresh install of os x to creating an encrypted drive for work. How to wipe your mac and reinstall macos from scratch. The drive mounts to the desktop and a my passport icon appears. The macos installer says that you may not install to this volume because it is part of an apple. My passport shows up on mac but not on windows, no way to. Just activate password protection and set your own. My question regards a new wd passport 2 tb drive i received as a christmas gift. It told me to open the disk utility, and to choose the drive and then choose erase.
Oct 15, 2015 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. It turns out that most of the time, mac doesnt recognize external hard drives, usb flash drives, pen drives, sd cards, etc. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. Jan 22, 2009 two stupid, im thinking follow up questions. Using the usb cable supplied in the kit, connect the drive to the computer as shown. But sometimes, our wd external hard drive like wd my passport becomes readonly when we plug it into mac. You should be able to delete the volume, then right click again and reformat.
How to fix wd external hard drive is readonly on a mac. Performing a factory reset on your macbook or mac can solve many macos problems, and is essential if youre selling. My passport for mac is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. Wd my passport vs for mac version macrumors forums. Compatibility may vary depending on users hardware configuration and operating. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Designed to fit in the palm of your hand, theres plenty of space to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. 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. I will try to erase reformat thru win10 as you suggested. How to reformat my passport ultra hard drive on mac 2017. The my passport studio comes preformatted for the mac, so theres no need to reformat it. A wd my passport formatted with mac file system will be a dud on the windows and viceversa. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, theres space to store, organize, and share all the photos.
What application would i use to erase the drive and how would i reformat it. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive or other storage device. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. If for some reason your mac is running slow after high sierra update, dont panic. Deborah, if you plan to use drive for quicken backup only, the drive needs no special formatting. Head to the mac app store and search for macos sierra. They offer some tools to disable the loading of the hidden partition if you have access to a windows machine, but even then you still cant recover the space used by. Install it and youll probably see a nice performance boot. And thanks to my endless knack for figuring things out on my own, ive clogged up the majority of them with useless software, damaging commands, adware, duplicate files and just about anything else you can add to a hard drive to slow it to a crawl. Easy to use my passport ultra for mac portable storage is ready to use out of the box so you can start. Unboxing wd elements portable hard drive and reformatting for mac techbr0s. How to install use wester digital my passport for mac and pc windows, western digital 100gb 200gb 300gb 400gb 500gb 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, 4tb, 5tb, 6tb 7tb 8tb 9b 10tb 20tb, 40gb 50gb 60gb 70gb 80gb 90gb. Windows computer, see reformatting the drive and troubleshooting.
If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. What is important is if you are using a pc you use a pc formatted drive, but if you are using a mac you should use a preformatted for mac drive, it will make your life easier. Wd external hard drive is favored by large number of customers due to its good performance, reliability and durability. My passport ultra was previously used on my windows 7 pc. Find the best my passport external hard drives for mac based on what customers said.
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