Macs dont limit these partition sizes, so if you have access to both operating systems, format the drive using a mac. As a result, you will need to reformat a mybook hard drive with the disk utility tool before it will work with your. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac 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. Does this mean that they cannot be converted to windows. My book for mac desktop hard drive features ultrafast usb 3. The wd my book comes formatted for windows operating system and requires reformatting for mac operating systems. The desktop storage pc products are comprised of the valueoriented elements line which is offered in 1tb3tb capacities and the updated my book which hits the topend capacity point. The wd my passport for mac is not showing up in finder nor in disk utility. Now, click the erase, button and wait a few minutes and let the macos. Two effective ways to format wd passport for windows.
Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it 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. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto. You just need to select the drive letter for your wd my book external hard drive in the window and click start button to begin. You store your vital data in the wd my book hard drive, if you encountered the data loss, you. I want to use time machine software to backup my macs. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. Although mybook hard drives are capable of working with both macs and pcs, they are initially formatted for use with only the windows operating system. So i bought this wd 3 tb drive with its own power supply. First it says i ahve a raid configuration issue not possible, no such thing here. Purchased 2tb my passport for mac in february 2017 to replace an aging wd mybook.
How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. Using the western digital my book hard drive facilitates our lifes, you can take your favourite media data or any important files to anywhere when you need them. Western digital manufactures the passport line of portable external hard drives. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. 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. My book for mac user manual installing the wd security software the wd security software allows you to set password protection and hardware encryption to secure your files from unauthorized access. Hello all, i am switching completely from mac to windows.
How to switch a wd passport from a mac to pc small business. Pro and the my book studio, nearly 30 wd drives play nicely with apples macos. The wd my book for mac is our favorite external hard drive. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually come formatted for windows using fat32. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Wd my book essential drive not recognized on my mac. And the whole thing takes only a few minutes to do. Wd western digital mybook for mac 6tb e apple community. The fat32 file system has a maximum individual file size of 4 gb.
After that you can use your wd passport on both mac and pc. I see that there are several format options as follows. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. This edition is available with storage capacities of 1 tb, 1. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Macos extended journaled macos extended journaled encrypted. I would like to use the mbl as a backup to the computes but not with the categories as in the wd software. Wd has a more extensive desktop line for the mac, with the premium my book studio line, which features an allmetal enclosure and capacities up to 4tb. Would work again after mac reboot only to stop backing up within a day.
Yes, you can use the wd my book on your imac with mojave 10. Compatible with usbc and usba, the my passport for mac drive comes equipped to connect with todays latest technology. In addition to simplifying the backup process for both windows and mac computers, this hard drive features 256bit aes hardware encryption to ensure stored files remain secure. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Wd my book for mac 2tb external hard drive storage. Wd elements, wd my book western digital, my passport wd, we my. I have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers. Next, connect the drive to the windows 7 operating system and then format the western digital utility. The mybook studio edition comes with quad interface. Install clean hdd in white light my book world edition. Western digitals mybook drives are very convenient and popular storage options, but if the drive stops working then you might have success by giving it.
When i upgraded the software mbl would not recognise the partitions previously created. I checked disk utility to see if it shows up there and it doesnt. What happens is i plug in my drive to power and the drive. Mybook or my book for mac external drives for mac wd. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. You format your wd my passport to mac os extended journaled file system. Easily use your wd my passport for mac and windows in 7 steps.
Ive only had it for a couple months and now its not showing up on my macbook pro. West digital hard drives, such as wd my passport for mac, wd elements, or wd easystore, are trusted by a large number of users to store the massive amounts of photos, videos, and. Select the location of wd my book external hard drive. How to format the drive to mac os format back up data using mac os 10. 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. A good precautionary measure i follow is that i will erase and format any drive i buy. To know how to reformat the drive on mojave mac os you can refer to the link below. The my passport for mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your onthego lifestyle. How to format my my book live home network drive my. For this, you need to make the 4tb drive xp compatible. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. This drive connects directly to your mac through usb.
How to recover files from wd my book external hard drive. Password protection the my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. The current edition as of november 2010 has two firewire 800 ports and one usb 2. Dont know what the issue is, whether its wd incompatability with older mac or something in my mac. With the limited information you have presented, formatting drives with mac os 10. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. Reformatting required for mac os compatibility wd western. 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.
Although mybook hard drives are capable of working with both macs. This answer explains how to format a wd drive for use on windows and macos. Doubleclick the my book icon, and then doubleclick the. Tutorial on how to format a western digital elements harddrive for a mac. Wd my book 2tb shows up in device manager but doesnt open. The common format that both windows and mac can read is fat32. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. If youre running a newer computer, youll see a huge speed increase thanks to usb 3. In may time machine failed to backup to new 2tb drive could access drive and file structure but no backup.
Western digital my book is a sleek series of western digital wd external hard drives. Your my book for mac drive and the wd drive utilities and wd security software are compatible with the following operating systems. The wd my book is ready to go with time machine or superduper. To format it as fat32, you will have to go and use disk management after you have set it as raid1. Answer if you format it in the exfat format on a mac, it can go back and forth between a pc and a mac. The wd my passport for mac hard drive is specially designed for mac mini computers, imacs and macbooks. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community. At the same time i purchased a 3tb wd mybook essential for use as backup for both pc and mac and generally as network storage primarily movies, music and photos. My book mirror edition user manual about your wd drive 4 about your wd drive format and configuration this wd device is preformatted as a single windows ntfs partition and is preconfigured for raid 1 mirrored mode for extra data protection with instantaneous and automatic data updates. I am looking at the wd mybook studio edition ii 2 tb and have some questions i need answered before getting it. 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.
While the drive was under osx, i used disk utility to add more partitions to a fully formated. Next you format your wd my passport drive to an exfat file system. To recover lost, deleted, formatted and corrupted files from your wd my book external hard drive, you can go to select external devices recovery to start. Wd external hard drive set up guide how to use on mac youtube. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. It will also work with both if formatted as an msdosfat, but it would have a. Reformatting a external western digital my book drive ask different.
Hey, im having problems with my 1 tb wd my book essential drive external usb hdd. The only downside to these drives is that they are not formatted for macos out of the box. How to reformat a mybook external hard drive on mac osx. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Western digital produces a line of external hard drives called the mybook. Western digital my book mac edition user manual pdf. The best external desktop drive is the wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3. Select a format from the format dropdown menu beneath the name text field, for example, mac os x extended journaled or msdos fat. Perhaps someone who uses it with their mac knows the answers. The twonky seems fine and i can put files into it and acces them form my other computers. Follow the tutorial in this article to fix the issue and recover lost data from not showing upnot working wd hdd without data loss. Direct attached storage online user guide and solutions. Probably should look at trying out the free version of hfs for windows, to allow it to read and write to a drive formatted for a mac with hfs file system. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my.