Format wd passport for mac only works

Purchased 2tb my passport for mac in february 2017 to replace an aging wd mybook. How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc youtube. I then found the instructions to format it to mac but now whenever i connect it to a pc, it wont work. Yes but depending on what file format your format it with, u might not be able to write on it using or mac, only read. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors forums. I can see the disk, and open it, but cannot add, remove, or delete data. Secondly, how should i bring back the wd to a normal working state. After working for a moment, it told me that the operation had failed because. How to erase my passport and reformat wd portable drives. Oct 15, 2015 my 500gb passport has been bought and installed to my home pc. If you go ahead and format the wd my passport using disk utility, then your drive could work again as usual. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc.

Then, ill introduce you to workable and easy ways to format wd passport external hard drive, wd elements external hard drive and other external hard drives. The wd hard drive failed to show up on my pc and i couldnt access saved data. Its ready formatted for use on mac, time machine ready and small enough to fit in your coat pocket. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. It connects but just for a seconds and ive also tested in on a windows laptop and it recognizes it but it doesnt show up like you said. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a wd my passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macos and windows os. Western digital my passport for mac 500gb macworld.

Here is a stepbystep guide on how to format wd passport. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. Oct 11, 2018 want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the ex fat as. Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. If the wd my passport for mac still does not work or not show up in finderdisk utility after the basic checks, go ahead to try out the solutions as below to make it show up on mac. What you should know that formatting will erase all data on the drive. Wd my passport format problem high sierr apple community. Or if youre desperate to know how to reformat wd my passport. Mar 03, 2016 i mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. 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. How to format external hard drive on mac compatible.

I saw a post about getting the wd app, and i did that, but it doesnt recognize my device, or at least it is not detecting it. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. Unable to format wd passport external hard drive having a 1tb wd passport external hard drive with raw file system, i want to format it to exfat for using in mac and windows computer. I have erased dated and want to format for microsoft pc. Wd my passport external hard drive set up guide for mac. Security and wd backup, can be installed from your my passport drive. You are best to erasedelete just the folders and files you put on the disk. If the wd my passport drive is not showing up in finder, disk utility or on the desktop after connecting to your mac, how to find it and make it work. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. If you want to share digital files between mac and windows system easily, you must convert. To format a western digital my passport external hard drive in exfat or fat32 format, you can bank on builtin applications of mac. Use with time machine, partition, and make it work. That is to say, only fat32 and exfat can work on both mac and pc.

Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. Operating system compatibility your my passport drive and the wd drive utilities and wd security software are. Wd elements, wd my book western digital, my passport. We know, macs and windows have their native file systems such as the. High level view of the steps to making wd passport compatible with mac and windows 1. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to.

How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc duration. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. However, it only works with all versions of windows, but read only with mac by default. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc. For mac computers, go to the apple menu and select software update. Wd passport only works on mac need to copy all files to windows. How to fix wd my passport for mac not showing up on mac issue. All the files are read only, i cant save them or transfer them in any computer and it. Erase your wd my passport only when the contained data isnt relevant. Jul 31, 2019 unable to format wd passport external hard drive having a 1tb wd passport external hard drive with raw file system, i want to format it to exfat for using in mac and windows computer. My question is if i am able to set my hard drive to a format in which it can work on both windows and mac.

Wd my passport portable hard drive external hdd manual set up guide for macbook pro, imac, mac mini, mac pro, macbook air. I have a wd ultra my passport external hard drive and had originally configured it to my macbook pro, but i just received the surface pro 4 as a gift and im trying to use the external hard drive with this device. Two effective ways to format wd passport for windows. How to convert wd external drive to apple file systemapfs. Looking for free western digital fat32 formatting tool to format wd my passport ultra or other external hard drives to fat32 so that you can use it in both windows 7 and mac. How to format a hard drive to work on mac and pc youtube. Would work again after mac reboot only to stop backing up within a day. Then i went to work on a project and some of my coworkers used it to save files in it from a pc laptop. I bought it to be able to have multiple files portable for work and school as i use large files daily and a flash drive just wont cut it. Dec 27, 2016 i have a wd ultra my passport external hard drive and had originally configured it to my macbook pro, but i just received the surface pro 4 as a gift and im trying to use the external hard drive with this device. However, many users complain their wd my passport is read only on mac like the user below in wd community. My passport for mac portable storage works straight out of the box with mac devices which makes it easy to keep you moving on your journey.

However, by formatting your my passport differently, you. However, the new macs are shipped with the latest mac os version, macos high sierra which supports the apple file system or apfs. How to fix wd my passport for mac not showing up in find erdisk utility. After setting it up on my pc running windows vista i am unable to run the harddrive on any other computer, pc or mac. Advertisement amazons choice for wd passport for mac. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. 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. In this case yes but you have to format the disk using exfat which is a filesystem that can be used by both os types. Firstly, how should i recover data from an unmounted wd my passport. 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. In may time machine failed to backup to new 2tb drive could access drive and file structure but no backup. My wd my passport ultra 1tb external hard drive isnt reading on my mac right now.

Its product line covers wd my passport, wd my passport ultra, wd my book, wd my passport for mac and more. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive. Among those external hard drive categories, wd my passport external hard drives are the most widely used ones. This tutorial will show you how to fix wd my passport not mountingshowing uprecognizeddetected on macos catalina 10. If the wd my passport read only on mac problem is caused by the ntfs file system, installing iboysoft ntfs for mac to edit, rename, delete the saved files and transfer files to the read only wd my passport hard drive. Trying to use it on my girlfriends computer is a completely different matter. I cant believe that wd makes it so difficult for users to hook up a. I suppose you are using at least windows vista sp1 on the pc and snow leopard 10. Mar 29, 2019 how to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. It has pretty much every bit of information i really hold dear, and on any mac computer i can find everything on it. If you want to get on with formatting your wd my passport on your mac, youll find the step by step walk through just below.

Wd external hard drive wont format what should i do. Sep 12, 2019 wd my passport ultra 1tb drive not detected on pc, how to fix it i have a wd my passport ultra 1tb portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. How to make external hard drive work with mac and pc set up. Dec 25, 2016 macs can only read but not write to a ntfs file system. But i only got windows was unable to complete the format when i tried to format it form windows explorer. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. My passport portable hard drive, with the wd backup, wd security and wd drive utilities software usb 3. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and pcs, and the only workaround is to format the drive. I just got a new macbook pro with retina display os x 10. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Im extremely frustrated because this drive is in a read only mode, and i cant figure out how to change it. Want to reformat my wd passport so i can use it on a pc instead of apple only.

How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. But i only got windows was unable to complete the format when i tried to format. Wd 4tb my passport for mac portable external hard drive, usbcusba wdbp6a0040bbkwese. Nov 04, 2019 two effective ways to format wd passport for windows. You delete these just as you have been doing all along. Click on the apply button and click on the done button when it is activated.

May 21, 2018 in this video tutorial, i show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a mac and a pc. If your wd external drive isnt in this new format, you wont be able to use it if your mac has been updated to macos high sierra. Oct 15, 2015 when i first got my wd external hard drive, it was formatted for pc. It is not recognized in system information or desk utility. Disk drive format your my passport ultra drive is formatted as a single ntfs partition for compatibility with all updated windows operating systems. Automatically if you only have the one locked my passport for mac drive connected to. List of all wd firmware and software available for download.

Did it mounted successfully last time you plugged into the mac. However, if first aid is unable to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting error, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. Format wd my passport for mac and pc with ms dos fat 32 or exfat. Use unformat to recover data from wd passport only works on mac need to copy all files to windows laptop after quick format,full format,accidentally formatted,reformatting,highlevel formatting,lowlevel formatting. How do i make my wd passport work on both windows and mac.

Do i use disc utilities fat32 or is there some other format. Western digitals my passport for mac is a solid, compact, comparatively speedy little usbonly portable hard drive that also happens to be time machineready and designed for the mac. Also is it ok to erase all the present files on the disc. How to fix my mac not recognizing my wd external hard drive. Oct 27, 2008 if you were able to read and write to the drive before from your mac, not a pc, then it means the drive was formatted to fat32. It doesnt register that the drive even exists, though the device connected noise sounds. Not sure what extended format is and if its suitable.

This morning, wd my passport suddenly became inaccessible, couldnt be detected by my computer. Hard drives often have to be formatted to work on macbooks and apple desktops. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the wd my passport for mac hard drive. Advice youll find useful ahead of formatting your my passport drive on your mac. Look for the external hard drive icon on your desktop. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. You can format a drive as fat32, which would allow it to work on both windows and mac, but it wont do automatic backups, wont take files larger than 4gb and will have a high risk of data corruption. The wd passport for mac is one of several drives that i use for backup on my macbook pro, so i do not need to. Fix and repair wd my passport ultra not detectedshowing up. Mount the drive on your mac and open disk utility from applications, utilities, and tell us which file format its using.

And in 10 quick steps ill tell you how to format wd passport for mac. This guide introduces three common scenarios in which you might find your wd my passport external hard drive read only on mac. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. My passport external hard drive microsoft community. Was there an unusual behaviour of the disk say an unpleasant clicking noise. You can set it to run automatically to your schedule. But a month a ago i changed the file format so it would open on my mac and it opened for about a week and then now it wont recognize it but i can hear it spinning and vibrating and it lights up. 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. Simply drag and drop files to and from, or setup a backup routine with apples time machine software to help protect the contents of your digital life. However, it only works with all versions of windows, but readonly with mac by default. The western digital drive i bought is windows ntfs formatted and not mac friendly so the first thing i did was try to simply format it.

Fix wd my passport for mac not showing upnot working on mac. Wd my passport format problem high sierra im having some trouble formatting my wd my passport in high sierra. If you cant see files on the hard drive on mac, how to access data. Macbook external hard drive not recognized how to reformat.

The application can also be unpinned, which causes the application to open in a window. Set the format type to apfs ssds only or mac os extended journaled. Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air. Oct 20, 2019 youre mad as hell because your new wd my passport drive is read only on your mac. My wd passport for mac only works as read files wd. Wd my passport for mac best overall the western digital 2tb my passport for mac is the perfect 2tb portable external hard drive for mac users. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition. While its convenient to purchase the hard drive that will work with your computer right out of the box, most external hard drives can also be reformatted so youre not limited to your initial choice. Shop wd my passport ultra for mac 4tb external usb 3. Pick your wd my passport in the external hard drive list. Here then are the best external hard drives for mac of 2020 in order of ranking. Passport not reading on mac external drives for mac wd. Westerndigital my passport lights up, but not detected on pc.

I have a wd 500 gb passport wd pn wd5000mt00 2309a formatted for mac. I have a wd my passport 320gb external hard drive that i am trying to hook up to my imac for the first time. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. My new mac is not recognizing the external hard drive. So i have a my passport drive that i had back before my mac computer killed itself. Unless someone changed the file format, it should still be read and write. Look for your wd my passport drive on your desktop. If you want to use the drive with a mac computer, see reformatting the drive on page 38 and troubleshooting on page 39. Im extremely frustrated because this drive is in a readonly mode.