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. If you want to format your wd my passport to fat32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32gb. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. Password protection with hardware encryption the my passport for mac drives password protection and builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software helps keep your content private and safe. Format an exfat external hard drive to fat32 with easeus. Open disk utility and select the icon of the usb key on the left side of the window. Some experienced users or administrators prefer to use command lines to execute some operations on windows pc. When i connect my wd my passport ultra external hard drive to the usb port no sound is made and the external hard drive is not detected, as you can see in the below images the driver for my passport ultra seems to have deleted itself, there is no driver what so ever.
Then, back in the main window, choose the msdos fat option. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. Easeus partition master free is more than just a disk formatting tool. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. 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. How do i format my external hard drive to exfat on mac. If you encrypt an internal device, you must enter a password to access the device and its information. If it is larger than 32gb, you can only format it to exfat. My passport for mac includes usbc and usba cables for universal compatibility with mac computers of yesterday and today. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. My passport ultra 2tb hard drive is inaccessible and i am unable to reformat.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Format to fat32 using cmd, diskpart or powershell command line. Encrypt and protect a storage device with a password in disk utility on mac. This is at least in part because the secure digital memory. To resolve the issue, please convert the usb drive format from ntfs to fat32. In the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. The exfat file system is a better option when it comes to formatting wd my passport on mac.
Then click on the partition tab in the right window. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. 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. You can use apples builtin disk utility before you format the drive, make sure theres nothing valuable on it thats not also backed up elsewhere, since all data will be lost. Hi there, joeysmyth, just wanted to let you know that i first tried to delete the data that was on the wd my passport. When you plug it in to the computer, does it power on. With my previous laptops pcs, ive always stored my data on an external hard drive. Now, i have a new macbook pro and all my data is still on that external hd. How can i convert the usb drive format from ntfs to fat32.
You can reformat the drive with a file system that mac can read. I set it up for my quicken backups and so far have had no problems. 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. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Deborah, if you plan to use drive for quicken backup only, the drive needs no special formatting. 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. Open windows file explorer, locate and rightclick on wd my passport that you need to format, select format. Disk utility is a mac application, you can run it on your mac. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file. Windows 10 not recognizing my fat32 usb hard disk and pen. Easily format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Hello, i just recently bought a wd passport wireless to take on holidays.
Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32. Step 1 first, if you want to format an external storage drive to fat32 system using diskpart, you will need to connect the external drive to your pc using a usb cable. Should i use fat32 when formatting an external hdd wd. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. I went into computer manage and it says clearly that there are three healthy ntfs partitions on my laptops hard drive but the my passport external 1 tb drive is listed as udf which means for all practical purposes, the unit cannot be used any more. Western digital manufactures the passport line of portable external hard drives. Then plug the other end into a usb port on your mac.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. There was nothing on the passport which was formatted with the wd smartware, but was reformatted with the dish formatting needed to save the dvr media recordings. However, when i plug in the usb drive to my windows 10 computer, the exfat usb drive created on mac os not working in windows 10 and remind with. 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. The wd my passport is a compact and spacious external hard disk that lets you store your digital files securely. 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. A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system.
Now, i will show you the two methods to format wd my passport portable hard drive on mac. Read about it and found that id have to reformat it in mac os extended journaled. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. My passport ultra was previously used on my windows 7 pc. If youre using a mac, you dont need special software to format a usb drive in the fat32 format. Trying to format my passport ultra 1tb to fat32 wd community. Step 5 thereafter, click on the erase button and let the system erase everything on the drive and reformat wd elements for mac by exfat or fat32 format. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. A new windows explorer window opens, on the left side. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Format to fat32 for usb or external hard drive in windows. But dont fret, because this article will show you simple ways to go about formatting your wd passport so you can easily use it on both mac and windows. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer.
How can i reformat my external drive with the pc after it. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. Select the quick format option, and then click the start button. Fat32 will let you directly plug the drive into both windows and mac. How to format a wd external hard drive in exfat or fat32 to use in windows or mac osx. Western digital my passport ultra 1tb external hard drive.
Encrypt and protect a storage device with a password in. Can i format the hdd from my wd passport wireless without. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. I can still though add files later, as i change them add more pics, music, etc.
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. It was very stubborn and i resorted to formatting the drive. 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. How to erase my passport and reformat wd portable drives. My mac wont recognize my usb in fat32 format so i had to. The difference in mac and windows native format systems are to blame for this. By formatting the passport as an exfat or fat32 drive, you can use it with. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it.
Windows 10 not recognizing my fat32 usb hard disk and pen drives i have got a new thinkpad which runs windows 10, before this i used to have mac and linux laptops. Plug in your wd my passport s usb cable into its micro usb b port. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Locate and rightclick on your usb flash drive or external hard drive, select format. The wd my passport gets its power from the mac and the drives led light will start flashing as it powers up. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. Make sure it gets connected properly and gets recognized by windows. I copied over all my important data from mac and ubuntu laptop in my seagate 1tb hard disk and hp 32 gb pen drive, both formatted as fat32 so that mac, ubuntu and windows can access. The usb drive is about 32gb and i formatted it on my macbook running osx mavericks for exfat, because this seems to be the only available file system that is compatible with both mac and windows. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to. It will list all the hard drives and devices on your mac computer. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter. If he switches his wd drive between windows os and mac os frequently like dual boot os on a pc, he needs to format the drive to a file system which works well in both operating systems. Can i reformat my wd passport external hd to work for a.
Therefore, some user needs western digital fat32 formatting utility because he wants to connect his ntfsformatted my passport ultra to mac os. Replace current with 1 partition and then click on options master boot record mbr. I wanted to load some movies onto the drive by the usb connection, unfortunately my synology does not recognize exfat drives which is the wds format. Rename the drive, reset its file system to fat32 or exfat. Now when i try to backup my laptop with the passport, it is not recognized at all. Be sure to connect the passport directly to the pc, avoid using usb extension cables or usb hubs, if possible you can also format the passport on a mac using disk utility. You can format a fat32 usb drive on a mac using disk utility. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. I just read this and maybe windows cant format drives larger than 32gb into fat32. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Format western digital passport to fat32 with wd quick formatter. Choose your usb drive, right click the mouse and choose format.
I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. When you format an internal or external storage device, you can encrypt and protect it with a password. 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. Look for the external hard drive icon on your desktop. Now my tv doesnt recognize exfat and it needs to be in fat32. Set the usb to fat32, tick quick format and click ok to confirm. I have since reformatted it on my pc just to get all the info off of it. I have a wd 500gb my passport external hdd that i would like to format to fat32 so i can use it for backup but more importantly so i can plug it into my ps3 and view all the downloaded movies i have. It lets you create, delete, and clone partitions in addition to formatting hard drives to chosen formats. This will make it readable by both macs and microsoft windows computers. I want to format it to work on my macbook pro for time machine, so i looked into how to do that. External hard disks and usb drives are generally formatted with the windows fat32 file system for maximum compatibility most devices, including macs, can read and write from fat32 devices. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. I run windows 7 and have already tried to reformat using command prompt which did not work.
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