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. Hard drives store data, but the operating system needs a way of tracking where that data is on the hard drive. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing data. My laptop stopped recognizing wd passport with a letter drive in explorer. 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. Plug in your wd my passport s usb cable into its micro usb b port. There is a wd ses driver that should get installed when this device is hooked up from windows 10, would be listed below universal serial bus controllers in device manager and only visible when hooked up unless you select under view in the menu and check show hidden devices. Wd my passport not recognized on mac i have a wd my passport external which is not recognized on mac, but i have stored many files on this external hdd.
Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. Two effective ways to format wd passport for windows. This trusted portable storage always offers quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer and to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. It supports usbd connectors for superior transfer speeds, and the included security software offers multiple options to keep your files safe from prying eyes. I wanted to use one external hard drive for my imac and windows 7 computer and found it doesnt work well. You can still use the same drive on the different operating system as a mass storage drive and to encrypt the data on it.
The wd my passport unit is sold as a usb3 external drive, said also to be compatible with usb2. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. External drive like wd elements, my book and my passport can be formatted to fat32 via this tool. So can anybody tell me how to recover data from an unreadable external hard drive for mac.
A wd my passport formatted with mac file system will be a dud on the windows and viceversa. As it happens, there are different means of doing this. Now, lets go to learn more from the following part. Now, i am trying to use it on my macbook pro, and it lights up, its also recognized by my mac, i. It doesnt show up in my computer, device manage or disk management. After calling the tech support, they were really helpful in solving my problem with. If i reformat, am i able to turn the mac passport into the same exact functionality as the windows variant. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way. Make sure the drive is formatted with a file system that is recognized by both systems.
Here is a stepbystep guide on how to format wd passport. I accidentally purchased the mac variant from amazon not realizing it was mac. Will i still have the hardware encryption and whatnot. My passport ssd is the fastest my passport drive to date with read speeds up to 540mbs using the usb typec port to rapidly transfer data. How to convert a wd passport windows into a wd passport mac answered by a verified mac support specialist we use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our website. Wd my passport not recognized by windows 10 anandtech. Wd my passport not recognized in win 10 windows 10. My passport shows up on mac but not on windows, no way to. Western digital my passport is a commonly used external hard drive for mac. That pretty much means ntfs, because windows does not know anything else useful, while linux supports dozens literally of file systems, of which l.
My passport for mac user manual unlocking the drive with the wd drive unlock utility whenever you connect your passwordprotected drive to a computer that does not have the wd security or wd drive utilities software installed, you can. Recover data from western digital my passport external hard drive on mac. Its speed gives great performance to help run virtual machines on your computer. If you have any other concern about the drive then you should try contacting wd s. By continuing to use this site you consent to the use of cookies on your device as described in our cookie policy unless you have disabled them. I no longer have access to a mac and i am wondering if there is there a way to use the drive on a pc. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Here, youll usually see two listings of partitions available on the drive select the listing that is furthest left. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. What to do if wd backup is not working windows 108. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. It works with both windows and macos right out of the box and. My passport usb not working on my ipad apple community. Cant get windows to view my 1tb my passport ext hd.
This western digital my passport ultra drive has a 4tb capacity for massive storage. The wd my passport gets its power from the mac and the drives led light will start flashing as it powers up. 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. On this popup screen, choose ntfs, fat32 or exfat among listed file systems and click ok. Below are the usual instances where you may lose or delete files from wd my passport external drive on mac. As of now my pc recognizes a drive has been connected the hardware icon appears in the menu tray but it does not show up under my computer.
The my passport portable drive is trusted to store the massive amounts of photos, videos and music you love. It is a wise choice to use a professional format tool. To start formatting, connect your wd passport to your mac. 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. What you should know that formatting will erase all data on the drive. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. The instructions i have found online require reformatting the drive, which i assume would wipe out existing. Hi guys, i hope someone here could help me with a problem that im facing i recently bought a passport for mac and it came formatted as mac os extended journal the hard drives behaviour is normal on my osx lion, however when i plugged the hard drive in when running windows 7 via boot camp, the os reported that the device hard drive failed to install, and. 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 the disk utility window, select the passport hard drive. But data from any external storage drive can get deleted or lost due to different reasons. A new windows explorer window opens, on the left side of the screen. So i have a my passport drive that i had back before my mac computer killed itself. Now, the 5 vdc supply of power from a usb2 port is limited to 0.
How to use my wd passport external hard drive both in. You can format a western digital my passport external hard drive to exfat or fat32 format using a free exfat or fat32 converter easeus partition master or use builtin applications windows. In the main console, locate the partition on the wd passport external hard drive, right click it and choose format partition. If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. How to get external hard drive to work with mac os x. Look for the external hard drive icon on your desktop. I have wd my passport for mac and i want to back up my macbook air, what do i need to do. It has pretty much every bit of information i really hold dear, and on any mac computer i can find everything on it. Available in an array of vibrant, fun colors, the sleek style fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, so you caneasily take your treasured content everywhere you go. I have some important excel files on this external, so i would appreciate it very much if anybody can recommend useful excel. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and.
For a hard drive to be able to be read from and written to. My passport air, is an ultraslim, allmetal portable drive designed to perfectly complement your macbook air. However, some of you have reported that wd backup cannot work well. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps. I have wd my passport for mac and i want apple community. I have now assigned a drive to the external drive using diskpart and it now shows up in file explorer but tells me the drive is empty it is not and i. Windows 10 wont read external mypassport drive my passport shows up in device manager but not file explorer. It doesnt register that the drive even exists, though the device connected noise sounds. Convert my passport mac to pc compatible wd portable. The wd my passport for mac hard drive is specially designed for mac mini computers, imacs and macbooks. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. I only saved my data onto a wd passport drive, not realizing that it needs to be formatted differently for a mac vs. The for mac part of the brand is only for marketing purposes really.
How to convert a western digital hard drive originally. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. I have a wd my passport portable usb hard drive which one of my computers cant detect when plugged in. I dont want to reformat the drive if thats possible. Hi all, i recently transitioned my home laptop from a mac to a pc running windows 10. Im pretty technical, i know that i can reformat the device to ntfs to work with windows, my question is. After having confirmed that the wd my passport is formatted with ntfs, many people will choose to convert ntfs to apfs for macos catalina, mojave and high sierra or reformat the wd my passport hard drive to make the wd external hard drive compatible with mac. 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. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system os to move files between the two environments. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Before proceeding further, it is recommended to take a backup of your important files.
From here, in format, select mac os extended journaled, give it a name. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Wd my passport not recognized on mac not showing up detected. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. The good the my passport ssd is rugged, light and super compact.
Trying to use it on my girlfriends computer is a completely different matter. Western digital my passport user manual pdf download. How to convert a wd passport windows into a wd passport mac. Well, formatting mass storage drive to the different file system will never disable the hardware encryption. Wd my passport not recognized when plugged in windows 10. Then plug the other end into a usb port on your mac.
Also shown as wd my passport in disk drives in the device manager. Auto backupautomatically back up photos, videos, music and documents. Connect your western digital my passport hard drive to your windows pc through the usb cable. I have a 2tb external drive called wd my passport for mac its been over a year since i last used it on my imac. To use it to protect your files, you need to download wd backup, unzip the file into a folder and double click the. The only way to get the device recognized is to reboot the computer with it connected, enter bios and do nothing, and reboot again. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows.
How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. In this video i help you guys convert your mac only external hdd into a windows compatible one. Protect personal data with this western digital my passport ultra drive for the mac. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and macos.
255 1140 868 1054 1329 1030 1139 1177 25 1032 1522 1518 1160 1230 274 1520 844 1256 114 1449 333 866 136 66 51 138 604 45 362