Nov 26, 2011 in this video i go over how to format an external hard drive to fat 32 on a mac. Fat32 file allocation table readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Software and firmware downloads wd support support. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Nov 04, 2019 here is a stepbystep guide on how to format wd passport. Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you dont have to constantly back up and reformat each time. So i got a wd my passport ultra which seems to be in ntfs format and i can only read it on my mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.
Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. With the help of easeus partition master free, you can. And the whole thing takes only a few minutes to do. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Western digitals passport external drive for mac isnt eternally bound to macos. I used the wd quick drive format to format my passport 0820. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Wd fat32 formatter is a external usbfirewire fat32 formatting utility. A new windows explorer window opens, on the left side of the screen. I recommend ntfs over fat32, but fat32 can be great because it will work anywhere and is great if you have legacy equipment. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file.
Wd my passport ultra 1tb setup and troubleshooting guide. If you use a mac, the likelihood that youll have to reformat the drive is higher. Formatting wd my passport will not only allow you to have full storage of your wd my passport, but will also remove virusinfected files. Youll only need a computer desktop or laptop, doesnt matter then format it from there. Try wd advanced format utility alternative easeus external hard drive formatter to format disk while wd external drive format failed with wd quick formatter tool.
The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Granted, fat32 is less efficient than ntfs in windows, but it has inherent benefits too, like its compatibility. Sep 05, 2011 very easy way to format an external hard drive into fat32 with a mac using the disk utility. 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. Why cant i reformat my wd my passport 500gb on windows to. Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. The partition is like the outline of the city, and the file system you make when you format is like the streets inside the city. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Once the install process is finished, the wd fat32 formatter will put a software icon on the desktop that you can doubleclick on, and start the format process. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions.
Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Format wd passport via third party format tool aomei partition assistant standard, a gui thirdparty free format tool, allows you to format drive beyond 32gb to fat32, make conversion between ntfs and fat32 without formatting and more. Internal hdd and internal ssd drives do not ship preformatted and will need to be partitioned and formatted before being used. In this video i show how to format a 4tb hard drive to a fat32 format so you dont have to spilt partitions anymore too allow both wii and gamecube games to be stored on the same partition. Nov 21, 2019 the wd my passport drive is read only on your mac. My passport ultra was previously used on my windows 7 pc.
I mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac. Do i use disc utilities fat32 or is there some other format. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page.
On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter easeus partition master or use builtin applications windows. Wd passport portable hard drive using wd my passport on both macbook pro and windows 7. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and. Feb 14, 2017 how to format a wd my passport portable hard drive for. 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. If its in ntfs, nothing but 32 bit windows will write to an ntfs drive, but osx will read the drive. Formatting nfts to fat32 external drives for pc wd community. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac.
I have since reformatted it on my pc just to get all the info off of it. Should i reformat my passport to ntfs tech support guy. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive to exfat. To format hhd to fat32 windows 10, you can use powershell if you dont want to use the command prompt. Mac os extended journaled file system is how its referred to on your mac. If you want to format your wd my passport to fat32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32gb. Apr 16, 2020 you can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter easeus partition master or use builtin applications windows. You can use some third party software like fat32 format or fat32formatter or follow the instructions here using the cmd line. Now my tv doesnt recognize exfat and it needs to be in fat32. But i sold that crappy computer to get my asus pc laptop and now whenever i plug in my hard drive and try to reformat it, windows is never able to reformat the drive. I want to format my wd my passport essential 500gb into fat32 but i only see the options ntfs or exfat. The first thing you need is a partition, or volume as they call it.
My mac wont recognize my usb in fat32 format so i had to. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. Mar 31, 2016 linux will format fat 32 on a 1 tb or larger drive, and do it without hesitation. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Then, select the external hard drive and click partition tab on the top. Wd my passport format problem high sierr apple community. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. In the format window, navigate to the file system field, and select either the exfat or fat32 option. I intend to use the drive with time machine for back ups. Wd support how to low level format or write zeros full erase to a wd hard drive or solid state drive you need to use wd smartware or wd drive utility to format your external drive. Not sure what extended format is and if its suitable. Western digital manufactures the passport line of portable external hard drives.
How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Youre probably familiar with this tool if youve been a user of a windows 10. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for windows. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. Wd 2tb my passport for mac portable external hard drive, usbcusba wdblpg0020bbkwese 4. Jul 31, 2016 you need to format your wd my passport ultra by using low level format. Use the mac os disk utility to format the drive to msdos fat32. I have tried downloading the quick formats from wds. How to format hard drive to fat32 file system up to 2tb. It will format a western digital external usb or firewire hard drive back to its original fat32 partition and format.
After testing seven hard drives, we found that western digitals 4 tb my. The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Wd passport external hd not recognized on windows 10. Wd quick formatter is short for western digital quick formatter, a format tool developed by western digital technologies, inc. And yes if you want to use your wd elements drive for a time machine backup. The process of formatting the external hard drive for ps4 is very easy and can be done in a very few steps. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Wd my passport format problem high sierra im having some trouble formatting my wd my passport in high sierra. I just read this and maybe windows cant format drives larger than 32gb into fat32. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Format western digital passport to fat32 with wd quick formatter 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. I plug in my wd passport and it welcomes me to wd smartware, i click on set up drive and it tells me no readable partition found on your my passport essential drive.
Below the format options field, make sure to checkmark the box next to the quick format option. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an. How to format external hard drive for ps4 safely minitool. Oct 25, 2018 format western digital passport to fat32 with wd quick formatter 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. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive to exfat.
Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. You need to format your wd my passport ultra by using low level format. Bonjour, je voudrais savoir comment formater mon disque dur externe wertern digital my passport essentail 500gbgo qui est actuellement en ntfs en fat32. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. To format an external hard drive for ps4, please refer to the follwoing steps. Next you format your wd my passport drive to an exfat file system. It does not offer the ability to format a drive larger than 32gb to fat32, the only available choices are ntfs or exfat. Therefore, some user needs western digital fat32 formatting utility because he wants to connect his ntfsformatted my passport ultra to mac os. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and. Format wd my passport for mac to windows scoutfile. Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air.
I bought a wd my passport external hard drive for my macbook pro a while ago, and i used it for the time machine app to backup all of my files. Formatting large hard drive in fat32 is no longer a problem by using the features of format volume and convert to fat32 partition in macrorit partition expert, the former format feature could assist you to reach the format the large drive in fat32 without size limit this feature will erase all data that stored in the target drive, so the. 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. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac computer. Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is gone completely. Your choice is msdos aka fat32 or exfat and i go over the difference in the video. End external hard drives and external solid state drives come preformatted and ready for use.
Also is it ok to erase all the present files on the disc. A wd my passport formatted with mac file system will be a dud on the windows and viceversa. After that you can use your wd passport on both mac and pc. I am formatting a new 1 tb western digital hard drive. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. Im pretty sure the guy i got if off plugged it into his mac laptop and tried tosuccessfully formatted to use with a mac. I want to know what i should do to make the hard disk compatible with bot mac os and pc. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted. You format your wd my passport to mac os extended journaled file system. If you want to use your wd elements drive without any special software on your mac. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors.
Check to be sure you can read and write to the drive. On the main panel, click the wd my passport ultra 1tb drives icon, and select the format button. I want to format it to work on my macbook pro for time machine, so i looked into how to do that. If you originally used a passport drive with an apple computer, you most likely formatted it in the mac os extended format, which is not compatible with the windows operating system. Apr 16, 2020 to format western digital my passport for mac or windows, you can rely on inbuilt applications of your system to format your wd my passport in exfat or fat32 format. Learn how to format your external hard drive, and what file systems are. Unable to format my passport to exfat wd community. How to format a 4tb hard drive to a fat32 format wd hard. It is a wise choice to use a professional format tool. Finally, format our new partition with the fat32 filesystem using 4k sectors and 64k cluster size. For instance, some of the modern video doorbells you buy require your storage devices to be in the fat32 format. Please go to utilities disk utility to get the window below. For a hard drive to be able to be read from and written to on both a windows and macos computer, it must be formatted to or file format.
Je voudrais changer le format pour brancher le disque dur sur ma playstation. My passport ultra 2tb hard drive is inaccessible and i am unable to reformat. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files. To format western digital my passport for mac or windows, you can rely on inbuilt applications of your system to format your wd my passport in exfat or fat32 format. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. How to format an external hard drive with wd quick formatter.
Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Wd quick formatter tool allows you to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32. If its in ntfs, i would back it up and format in fat32. Then yes you need to put the wd elements drive in a format your mac can read and write to. For more information on the difference between fat32 and exfat, please visit this page. Apr 16, 2020 to format hhd to fat32 windows 10, you can use powershell if you dont want to use the command prompt. Fat32 takes advantages in compatibility it is compatible with windows, linux, mac and can be supported by xbox, ps3, ps4 and android etc. How to format an external hard drive for ps4 ryli gaming. Connect the external hard drive with windows computer. You cant reformat them for use as just a normal drive with linux. By formatting the passport as an exfat or fat32 drive, you.
Press windows and r on the keyboard simultaneously to get the following picture. Luckily, you can easily format wd my passport for your mac. How to format external hard drive to fat32 for mac youtube. Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. This answer explains how to format a wd drive for use on windows and macos. My mac wont recognize my usb in fat32 format so i had to reformat it to exfat to transfer the files from my computer to the usb. The other type of wd my passport hard drive comes in a for mac version. Disk management built in windows is also a good utility to help you format disk. Use full scan to recover data from how to format my wd my passport for mac on to windows 10 which can not be found with undelete and unformat and recover partition,after showing an error,display as raw file system,unformatted,unknown partition,unpartitioned,needs to be formatted,or the file system is not exfat,not fat32,not ntfs.