Apple's Mac OSX can be installed on many WD external drives. My Book Pro Edition II; My Book Studio Edition; My Passport Studio; My Book Studio LX; My.
Western Digital partitions the 2TB My Passport external hard drives into a single NTFS partition which is optimized for Windows operating systems. This single partition makes reformatting the drive possible through Windows 8's Disk Management utility without needing to create a new volume. However, you should back up any important data on the drive before reformatting it. Word for mac edit toolbar. After the format is completed, any data on the drive will be lost.
The Western Digital Passport provides expanded storage space and backup features for Windows-based and Macintosh computers. Format your Passport so the drive is compatible with the backup tools available in Mac OS X and so it can perform the common task of transferring files between the external hard drive and your Mac's internal hard drive. Solution 3: Erase/Reformat My Passport for Mac. If First Aid was unable to fix the errors in the WD My Passport, which is quite common, the file system of this drive could be seriously corrupted and you have to fix the WD My Passport for Mac not showing up on Mac problem by reformatting. This drive will work with Mac if it is reformatted on the.
Step 1
Connect the 2TB My Passport drive to your computer using the USB cable.
Step 2
Press 'Win-X' to open Windows 8's utility menu and select 'Disk Management.' Alternatively, right-click the lower left corner of the screen and select 'Disk Management.'
Step 3
Right-click the external drive's letter from either pane in Disk Management and select 'Format.'
Step 4
Click the 'File System' drop-down menu and select 'NTFS' if you plan to use the drive only in Windows operating systems. If you also need to use the drive on a Mac, select 'exFAT.' Optionally, enter a name for the drive in the Volume Label field. This name helps identify the drive in File Explorer.
Step 5
Uncheck 'Perform a Quick Format' to ensure that you thoroughly erase data on the drive. Disabling this option will greatly increase the format time. Keep this option checked if you're not worried about security and desire a fast reformat.
Click 'OK' to format the drive. Depending on your previous selection and your computer speed, formatting could take seconds or hours.
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Formatting Wd Passport For Mac
The Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac allows macOS computers to Read, Write and Access WD NTFS formatted USB drives without reformatting the drive with exFAT. macOS computers mount NTFS formatted USB drives as 'Read Only'. 'Read Only' mounted drives cannot be written to with macOS computers. NTFS drives are normally reformatted with exFAT to be used on macOS and Windows For more details on how to read and write NTFS formatted My Passport Wireless Pro and My Passport Wireless SSD on macOS, please refer to WD Discovery for Mac WD Discovery for My Cloud Home installed on macOS with an NTFS formatted My Passport Ultra. Read-Only before and Read/Write after the installation of the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac Sharing and Permissions: Before Paragon Driver Installation: You can only read After Paragon Driver Installation: You can read and write Copy (Write) to NTFS formatted My Passport Ultra on macOS After the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac is installed, the NTFS My Passport Ultra is know writable on macOS. Use of Third-Party Software or Websites We may recommend use of software, information, products, or websites that are owned or operated by other companies.
We offer or facilitate this recommendation by hyperlinks or other methods to aid your access to the third-party resource. While we endeavor to direct you to helpful, trustworthy resources, We cannot endorse, approve, or guarantee software, information, products, or services provided by or at a third-party resource or track changes in the resource. Thus, we are not responsible for the content or accuracy of any third-party resource or for any loss or damage of any sort resulting from the use of, or for any failure of, products or services provided at or from a third party resource. WD recommends these resources on an 'as is' basis. When you use a third party resource, you will be subject to its terms and licenses and no longer be protected by our privacy policy or security practices, which may differ from the third policy or practices or other terms. You should familiarize yourself with any license or use terms of, and the privacy policy and security practices of, the third party resource, which will govern your use of that resource. Important: Western Digital does not provide installation, configuration, troubleshooting or technical support for 3rd party partner or vendor products.
Please contact Paragaon Software Support for any and all issues related to the 'Paragon NTFS driver for Mac' Paragon Support Services Paragon Customer Portal.
Can I Use WD Hard Drive on Mac and PC
Before you get the answer, you must figure out what kind of file system can work well on both the macOS and the Windows system. macOS supports a handful of common file systems - HFS+, FAT32, and exFAT, with read-only support for NTFS. While Windows employs two major file systems: NTFS and FAT. FAT was inherited from old DOS and has exFAT as its later extension. In addition, the ReFS file system was developed as a new generation file system for server computers starting from Windows Server 2012.
That is to say, only FAT32 and exFAT can work on both Mac and PC. If you want to share digital files between Mac and Windows system easily, you must convert WD My Passport to FAT or exFAT. Here are three ways to format a WD My Passport, follow any one of them to convert to FAT.
- Solution 1. Format WD HDD with Software (FREE)
How to Format WD My Passport in Windows Platform (Free)
You can format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to ex-FAT or FAT32 format using a free ex-FAT or FAT32 converter - EaseUS Partition Master or use built-in applications Windows.
Solution 1. Format WD My Passport Using Software (Free)
It is a wise choice to use a professional format tool. With the help of EaseUS Partition Master Free, you can perfectly bypass the format limitation of the Windows disk management tool and help you format WD My Passport to FAT32 or exFAT easily without any obstacles. What's more, this Windows partition software helps you create, resize, clone, move, and merge partitions without difficulty. Follow the details below to convert WD My Passport to FAT32 or exFAT.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.
Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.
Solution 2. Format WD My Passport Using File Explorer
Windows limits FAT32 partitions to 32GB. It does not offer the ability to format a drive larger than 32GB to FAT32, the only available choices are NTFS or exFAT. If you want to format your WD My Passport to FAT32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32GB. If it is larger than 32GB, you can only format it to exFAT.
Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer, locate and right-click on WD My Passport that you need to format, select 'Format'. Antenna font free download.
Step 2. Rename the drive, reset its file system to FAT32 or exFAT.
Step 3. Click 'Start' to begin the formatting.
How to Format WD My Passport in macOS/OS X Platform
The easiest way to format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32 or exFAT.
Formatting My Passport For Mac
Tips: The instructions below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. Usb for mac mini. Once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost!
Step 1. Connect WD My Passport to your Mac.
Step 2. Once that's done, double left-click on the Mac HD, the internal Mac hard drive visible on the top-right corner of the desktop screen.Select 'Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility'.
Step 3. Select your WD My Passport on the sidebar, choose 'Erase'.
Step 4. Rename the drive, select the 'Volume Format' drop-down list and choose 'MS-DOS (FAT)' or 'ex-FAT File System'. Then click 'Erase'.
Wait for the process to complete and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format. Then, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.
Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS
FAT is known as the File Allocation Table. The successive major versions of the FAT format are named after the number of table element bits: FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. FAT32 is the oldest of the three file systems available to Windows. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can't be over 4 GB in size. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which admittedly is less of a limitation unless you're using super-high-capacity drives.
exFAT, Extended File Allocation Table, is optimized for flash drives. It was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista. This file system doesn't have the limitations of FAT32. You can use it when you need a bigger file size and partition limits than FAT32 offers.
NTFS, NT File System, is the modern file system Windows likes to use by default. It is packed with modern features not available to FAT32 and exFAT. However, it only works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default.
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.
Tips to Avoid Formatting WD My Passport Without Backup
Just as I have mentioned above, once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost. To avoid unnecessary data loss issues, we highly recommended all users extract or back up important data to another device or partition in advance. You can copy files one by one to a new disk or drive. If you have quite a lot of data to be transferred, professional backup software shall be your best choice. Here we recommend you try EaseUS Todo Backup which allows you to directly back up target data with simple steps.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Todo Backup software and then choose 'File Backup', 'Disk/partition Backup' or 'System Backup' for different backup purpose.
Step 2: Choose the system, disk partition, files or apps that you want to back up. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file.
Step 3: Click 'Proceed' to start the data backup process.
Hot Topics - People Also Ask These Questions
Formatting Wd My Passport Ultra For Mac
What is the difference between NTFS, fat32, and exFAT?
Formatting Wd My Passport For Mac
NTFS is the commonly used file system for Windows internal drives. Windows OS can only be installed on an NTFS partition. FAT32 is an older file system used for external drives due to its great compatibility. exFAT is a replacement for FAT32, which is not as compatible as FAT32 but without the limitations of FAT32.
Can I use WD hard drive on Mac and PC?
Yes. 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.
Can I convert exFAT to NTFS without losing data?
You are unable to directly convert exFAT to NTFS without losing data, as there is no such utility that can help you perform the exFAT to NTFS conversion. You can back up exFAT partition data to another drive and then format the exFAT partition to NTFS with EaseUS Partition Master Free.
How do I format my WD Passport?
Step 1. Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose Format.
Step 2. In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/exFAT), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click OK.
Step 3. Click OK in it to continue.
Step 4. Click the Execute Operation button on the top-left corner to review the changes, then click Apply.
Conclusion
You can format your Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to FAT32 or exFAT format to transfer the data between a Mac and Windows system conveniently. According to the solutions above, the EaseUS partition tool stands out for its convenience and easiness. It's always your best choice.