How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. After full reformat of external drive wd mybook to ntfs. Ive only had it for a couple months and now its not showing up on my macbook pro. In may time machine failed to backup to new 2tb drive could access drive and file structure but no backup. Check out wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3. The wd my book is ready to go with time machine or superduper. Hard drive to go between mac and pc without deleting anythin. Contacting wd technical support when contacting wd for support, have your wd product serial number, system hardware, and. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. The wd my book comes formatted for windows operating system and requires reformatting for mac operating systems. Wd my book essential drive not recognized on my mac. Plug the cable attached to the wd external hard drive to the appropriate port on the mac, for example, the usb port. But before you reformat it, please recover important files in advance. I want to use time machine software to backup my macs to the network drive.
If you want to partition the disk, click the partition tab and select a layout. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. 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. This answer explains how to format a wd drive for use on windows and macos. Macs may also create a protected efi partition on these drives that you cant delete with the. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may. Youre mad as hell because your new wd my passport drive is read only on your mac. There are 2 options, with the full taking a much longer time around 67 hours per tb of storage you have. 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. A wd my passport formatted with mac file system will be a dud on the windows and viceversa. Hey, im having problems with my 1 tb wd my book essential drive external usb hdd. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book. The my book desktop hard drive also works great with acronis true image wd edition software to schedule full system backups.
Although this thread is a year old, i thought i would add my 2 cents regarding the wd mybook and issues with mounting on mac. Setting up and using wd security and wd drive utilities. My book essential full how to reformat wd community. Purchased 2tb my passport for mac in february 2017 to replace an aging wd mybook. May require reformatting for other operating systems compatibility may vary depending on users hardware configuration and operating systems and requires reformatting for time machine.
Would work again after mac reboot only to stop backing up within a day. Nov 14, 2017 i recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. I just received the replacement 12tb mybook duo from the western digital rma process. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. I have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers. Inside, enter the applications folder and then the utilities folder. Western digital wdbeks0020hbk my book for mac 2tb usb 3. How to solve my wd hard drive not recognized in windows 10. Your my book for mac drive and the wd drive utilities and wd security software are compatible with the following operating systems. Buy wd 3tb my book desktop external hard drive, usb 3. Doubleclick on the mac s main hard drive to open its window on the desktop.
They sent me back a new enclosure but the drives inside are recertified white labeled red drives. If you want to use the drive with a mac computer, see reformatting the drive on page 35 and troubleshooting on page 39. Ive had my mybook for about a year and its working fine, except that it almost always takes 2 attempts to mount the drive. If you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. Unfortunately, win7 nor xp will no longer recognize it after formatting when it is attached to a usb. Full solutions to no writable partition found in wd smartware. Connect it, power it up, go to disk utility in applicationsutilities, select the wd disk on the left, go to the erase tab, and choose mac os extended. Buy wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3. Doubleclick on the macs main hard drive to open its window on the desktop.
I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Mac compatible, may require reformatting before use. If you have switched between windows and mac, no writable wd smartware partition found problem will also happen. Windows xp, windows vista, windows 7 requires reformatting note. Western digital wdbycc0020hbk my book for mac 2tb usb 3. Mybook or my book for mac external drives for mac wd. I want to use time machine software to backup my macs.
Oct 17, 2010 i have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers. In the left side of the disk utility window, select the disk you want to use with time machine. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. Compatibility may vary depending on users hardware configuration and. I have wd smartware installed and would like to re format my drive and continue using the smartware but be more selective as to what gets backed up. The fat32 file system has a maximum individual file size of 4 gb. This was partly due to it saving 5 backup copies of files by default. Compatibility may vary depending on users hardware configuration and operating system.
Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. My book home edition user manual about your wd drive 3 about your wd drive drive format this wd device is preformatted as a single fat32 partition for compatibility with all updated windows and macintosh operating systems. How to format my my book live home network drive my. This drive connects directly to your mac through usb.
The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book external hard drive psychohistory. My book essential is almost full and is now not saving some of my files. Yes, you can use the wd my book on your imac with mojave 10. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. And in 10 quick steps ill tell you how to format wd passport for mac.
Many storage devices such as usb drives and external hard disk drives come preformatted in ntfs because a larger number of consumers are using them on pcs. If youre running a newer computer, youll see a huge speed increase thanks to usb 3. Experience the convenience of alexa, now on your pc. Open disk utility clicking on the main disk not the secondary click on erase an put as format. To know how to reformat the drive on mojave mac os you can refer to the link below. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. Dec 08, 2011 i have a wd mybook home external drive that is not detected by windows 7or xp. What happens is i plug in my drive to power and the drive.
Nov 27, 2012 how to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Do i need any of these or should i reformat and get back the disk space. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Compatibility can vary, depending on hardware configuration and operating system.
How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. Disk wont format external drives for mac wd community. The best external desktop drive is the wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3. It has two directories wd discovery and wd software office installers that contain over half a gigabyte of software wd backup, wd drive utilities, wd security. Or if youre desperate to know how to reformat wd my passport. Volumes formatted as apfs can be read by a mac running. However, making your storage device mac compatible, and even cross compatible with macs and pcs, is as simple as reformatting the drive. After reformatting will i get all of the 1tb of space i had before. Format wd my passport for mac and pc with ms dos fat 32 or exfat file system and share digital files between mac and windows system easily. Thank you for helping us maintain cnets great community. Get answers to your questions in our photography forums. Oct 20, 2019 youre mad as hell because your new wd my passport drive is read only on your mac.
Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. I have a wd mybook home external drive that is not detected by windows 7or xp. Does this mean that they cannot be converted to windows. Wd mybook wont mount apple ios os help fix mac iphone. I tried to follow your way of reformatting as i am using it on mac. There is actually an option under settings utilities that allows you to do the factory restore. 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. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. Wd communityshare your thoughts and connect with other wd users. A new windows explorer window opens, on the left side.
Oct 15, 2015 reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows. Password protection the my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. I had a look on the wd site and found a load of updates for my wd my book pro unit. I checked disk utility to see if it shows up there and it doesnt. Equipped with wd backup software for windows and apple time machine compatibility for mac, the my book desktop hard drive can back up your photos, videos, music, and documents. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. Password protection with hardware encryption the my book devices builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software helps keep your content private and safe. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc.
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