The my passport for mac device works straight out of the box with mac computers and is apple time machine ready so you can easily get going. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. But, if you are using my passport which comes preformatted in ntfs files system which is compatible with windows only, then you have to reformat the drive in mac os extended journaled file system in order to make it compatible with mac, and the scheme would be guid partition map. Whether youre formatting an internal drive, external drive, usb flash drive, or sd card, windows will give you the choice of ntfs, fat32, and exfat. Reformat wd my passport ultra for mac not apple community. Jan 22, 2009 two stupid, im thinking follow up questions. Dec 25, 2016 so if you want your external hard drive to be backward compatible with both oss then you need to reformat it with fat32 or exfat. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. According to this page and a few others, the maximum fat32 partition is 2tb, so you will need to create two partitions. The wd quick formatter is only for external drives, like wd my passport ultra.
Please backup data to cloud or other safe places in advance if necessary step 1. I will move the data currently on my hdd back to another hdd first of course so as not to lose anything. Ntfs, a modern file system, is used in system drive by default due to its advanced features what benefit system running. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file. Usbc ready, usba compatible my passport for mac includes usbc and usba cables for universal compatibility with mac computers of yesterday and today. Should i reformat my passport to ntfs tech support guy. I have since reformatted it on my pc just to get all the info off of it.
How to format an external hard drive for ps4 ryli gaming. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. Format to fat32 for usb or external hard drive in windows 10. 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. 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.
The reason is because i am planning on using my ps3 to watch all my video off of, and a ps3 only recognizes fat32 drives, not ntfs which is currently what my hdd is. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. Format 500gb external hdd to fat32 within few clicks. Connect the external hard drive to a windowsbased computer. Jul 24, 2017 in the fat32 format window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. Fat32formatter can be started, but you cannot format any drive. Dec 03, 2007 you can reformat the drive with a file system that mac can read. I just read this and maybe windows cant format drives larger than 32gb into fat32. That means if you have a single game file which size is larger than 4gb, it cannot, by any means. Can i reformat my wd passport external hd to work for a mac. 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. Learn how to format your external hard drive, and what file systems are. This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your usb drive, open the windows file explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
I want to format it to work on my macbook pro for time machine, so i looked into how to do that. Reformat a wd my passport ultra, etc to use without the preinstalled software. The exfat file system is not specific for wd but is used so that the drive can be used for readwrite processes on both os windows and os x, with large files. I have tried downloading the quick formats from wds. 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. Rightclick on windows icon and select windows powershell admin, click yes to open it. 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. As formatting will going to erase everything on your drive and thats why avoid formatting. In this video i go over how to format an external hard drive to fat 32 on a mac. So if you want your external hard drive to be backward compatible with both oss then you need to reformat it with fat32 or exfat. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup.
To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Easiest way to format 500gb external hdd to fat32 in. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. 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.
When you plug it in to the computer, does it power on. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Although it is possible to format a drive as exfat from disk utility on the mac, that drive will not work with windows pcs, and thats not what were after. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on windows. Jul 16, 20 fat32 is readwrite compatible with a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems, including dos, most flavors of windows up to and including 8, mac os x, and many flavors of unix. Fat32 is most compatible file system format that can be readandwrite in many. I usually get an internal drive and install it in a external case as a back up drive for windows 7. Nov 20, 2011 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. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Windows 10 will go ahead and begin formatting the drive in fat32. May 15, 2020 the wd quick formatter is only for external drives, like wd my passport ultra. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to format external hard drive to fat32 for mac youtube. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Can i format the hdd from my wd passport wireless without. My passport ultra 2tb hard drive is inaccessible and i am unable to reformat. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Oct 03, 2017 but, if you are using my passport which comes preformatted in ntfs files system which is compatible with windows only, then you have to reformat the drive in mac os extended journaled file system in order to make it compatible with mac, and the scheme would be guid partition map. If you use a mac, the likelihood that youll have to reformat the drive is higher. The former recommendation fat32formatter is an excellent small tool to format external hard drives to fat32 on windows 8 and windows 8. Miniaide fat32 formatter free download and software. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. I want to format my wd my passport essential 500gb into fat32 but i only see the options ntfs or exfat. How to format a flash drive with a mac to fat32 techwalla. Dec 29, 2015 in this guide were using exfat instead of fat32, another filesystem that both windows and mac can read and write to, because fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Format external driveusb exfat in windows 10 in simple steps. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a microsoft agent or microsoft employee and that the phone number is an official microsoft global customer service number.
Reformat a wd my passport ultra, etc to use without the. Sep 12, 2019 when you format a partition or drive in windows 10, there are three types of file system you wont be unfamiliar, ntfs, fat32 and exfat. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. H is the drive letter of your external hard drive in windows 10. 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. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms.
You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter. Software and firmware downloads wd support western digital. By default, wd quick formatter will format the drive to fat32 or ntfs and after formatting, a partition used to optimize the performance of the drive will be left. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. It told me to open the disk utility, and to choose the drive and then choose erase. I can still though add files later, as i change them add more pics, music, etc. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. This will make it readable by both macs and microsoft windows computers. Are the external backup drives like the wd my passport ultra, etc able to be reformatted and used in the same way. You can format a fat32 usb drive on a mac using disk utility. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx.
As of now, fat32 formatter has worked on disks 2tb. When considering using an external hard drive for ps4, the most significant problem with fat32 is the maximum file size it allows. This operation will clean all data on the selected drive. A single high resolution file can easily go over 4 gb, so fat32 may not the best format. Tech support scams are an industrywide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. Wd my passport essential ntfs on mac i recently bought a macbook air, but i used to use a desktop pc as my only computer, and a westerndigital my passport essential 500gb as my portable hd, so it is formated in ntfs because my pc as windows for os. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files.
The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Aug 17, 2018 the above command will open a diskpart window. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. 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. My passport ultra was previously used on my windows 7 pc. If you want to use your usb drive on both windows pc and mac, you may need to format the drive to fat32 on mac. Select the quick format option, and then click the start button. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. 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. Individual files on a fat32 drive cant be over 4gb in size thats the maximum.
A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. Type exit and hit enter to close the program when diskpart reports it has successfully formatted the usb. How to use wd quick formatter to format external drive in. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. Interfaces tested include idepata, sata, esata, usb and firewire the formatted disks work on windows 2000 xp vista win7, mac, linux, the ipod.
Why cant i reformat my wd my passport 500gb on windows to. Formatting with this tool is much quicker than the command. But before we go through the guide, we must address a very important issue in this regard, which is. Wd my passport essential ntfs on mac apple community. Reformat and repartition the external drive are also available. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. This utility will format a western digital external usb or firewire hard drive back to its. Please like, sub, share if you find this video helpful.