However, you can format the drive to work with both Windows and Mac by This is useful if a drive is being used under both Operating System (OS) to move files between the two environments. Then, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file. Format Wd External Hard Drive Using Easeus Free Partition Software. Question: Q: Reformat WD My Passport Ultra for Mac Not Working. My Passport Ultra was previously used on my Windows 7 PC. I have since reformatted it on my PC just to get all the info off of it. You can not use a PC to reformat a drive for a Mac, take a screenshot of Disk Utility with the drive connected, so we can see what you see.

Now, from the left column select 1 TB WD My Passport (or whatever your hard drive name is), and click on the Erase tab. From here, in Format, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), give it a name if you want, and click Erase. You’ll get a warning. Again, click Erase. In a couple of seconds, you’ll have an OS X ready hard drive to go. Want to reformat my WD Passport so I can use it on a PC instead of Apple only. Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.3. Answered by a verified Mac Support Specialist. Summary: This guide introduces three common scenarios in which you might find your WD My Passport external hard drive read-only on Mac. 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.

Published on October 20th, 2013

How to properly Format/Reformat a hard drive for Mac OS

A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for PC (Windows) or for Mac. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the Operating System that you are using. In this guide I will show you how you can properly format/reformat a hard drive for Mac OS. Formatting a hard drive for Windows will be discussed in another article.

How To Reformat Wd My Passport For Mac Os

Formatting and Reformatting a hard drive or hard disk is an easy task (if you know how). But it is also dangerous as it can result in loosing data or corrupting the drive when it is not done properly.

Before I proceed, I will be explaining some few things regarding formatting a hard drive. But if you want to know the instructions in formatting and reformatting a hard drive, just scroll down to the instructions below.

First, why do we need to format and/or reformat a hard drive. I will name some reasons, common reasons why we need to do this.

1. Some hard drives are already pre-formatted for a certain platform or system, like when you buy it out of the box it’s already formatted for Mac or Windows. But when it is not, we need to format the drive.

2. Hard drives are formatted so that a particular platform or operating system will be able to read and recognize the drive, whether it is an internal drive or external drive.

3. Hard drives are reformatted because sometimes we need to do clean up and we just want to wipe everything out that is written in the drive.

4. Formatting/Reformatting a drive can also remove soft bad sectors. But not necessarily always. Sometimes when a drive has a physical bad sector, reformatting it could spread the damage.

5. We reformat a hard drive if we are switching from one platform to another (Windows to Mac and vice verse)

Back to the main topic, below is a step by step instruction on how to Format/Reformat a hard drive for Mac OS.

Warning: FORMATTING and REFORMATTING A DRIVE ERASES EVERYTHING. Proceed with caution. Do backup your files first.

Formatting/Reformatting a hard drive for a Mac

1. Open Disk Utility by clicking Finder -> Applications -> Utilities and finally click Disk Utility.

2. Choose the hard drive that you want to format or reformat. Make sure that it is the correct hard drive!

3. Go to the Partition Tab 123movies download how do you know movie for free online.

4. Click the Current Volume Scheme drop down menu and choose One (1) partition.

5. Click Options, and from the Partition Scheme provided choose “GUID Partition Table” radio button or “Apple Partition Map” radio button.

6. Then click OK. Then key-in in the other options like Volume Name, Format and Size.
In this juncture, in the Format option, choose Mac OS for Mac OS X. Or MS-DOS File System otherwise.

7. Click Apply and the Partition Disk screen will open.

8. Click Partition. During this time the drive or volume will dismount and it will be partitioned and formatted. DO NOT TURN OFF OR RESTART your computer during this time!

Time Machine may pop up asking you to use the newly formatted drive for backups. Just cancel it to proceed.

9. After that, just exit Disk Utility and your done!

Hope this “format/reformat a hard drive for Mac” guide helped!

Below are some recommended Internal Hard drive and External Hard Drives that you might like. All of them are best sellers.

Currently Best Selling Internal Hard Drives

1. WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache – WD10EZEX

2. WD Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache – WD30EFRX

3. Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop 3.5″ Hard Drive

4. Seagate Barracuda 3 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200 RPM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST3000DM001

5. Western Digital 4 TB WD Green SATA III 5400 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD40EZRX

Currently Best Selling External Hard Drives

1. WD My Passport Ultra Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 with Auto and Cloud Backup

2. WD My Cloud Personal Cloud Storage

3. WD My Passport Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0

How To Partition A Wd Passport On Mac

4. WD My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0

5. Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

Yo just got a new external hard drive and want to use it on your Mac. However, the Mac OS does not allow you to write data to the drive. You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on Mac. Follow the tutorial below, you'll get everything covered.

Bonus: How to Recover Data from Formatted External Hard Drive on Mac

Reformatting an external hard drive for use with Mac OSX is not as difficult as it might seem. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your back-up files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. Keep in mind that a MAC can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance and to create a bootable disk, formatting exclusively for MAC is required.

Part 1: Which File Format You Should Choose?

Before you begin formatting the drive, there are a few things to do. The most important, you should decide which format to use.

There are a few file formats you can use, but it depends on the purpose you want to use the drive for. Which one is right for your circumstance? We'll describe them here, you'll know your choice after reading the details.

APFS: This is the default file system in Macs with High Sierra. It is efficient and reliable. However, it won't be readable and usable on machines that are not running Mac High Sierra, and Windows or Linux PCs. What's more, it is compatible with SSD and flash storage devices only.

Mac OS Extended (Journaled/HFS+): If you didn't update your Mac OS to High Sierra, the default file system on your Mac shoule be Mac OS Extended. Mac OS Extended (encrypted) would be an ideal option if you probably carry your laptop or external drive here and there. You can encrypt it so that no one can access the contents on your drive.

How To Reformat Wd My Passport For Mac Os