When I bought the WD My Passport Ultra drive, I was surprised to see that it didn’t support OS X out of the box. Yes, it had some software specifically made for OS X on it, but even that didn’t help. Turns out, it just wasn’t in the right format. These hard drives are customized to run well on Windows (as you’d expect), and they don’t run well with OS X.
So to get it running, what we’ll need to do is format it in Journaled format, which is OS X only format or MS-DOS (FAT), which means it will run with both OS X and Windows. If you’re only going to be using the hard drive on a Mac, I recommend you stick with Journaled.
Jan 08, 2020 How do I Format WD Elements for Mac? To use your WD Elements drive on your Mac you need your Elements drive in HFS+ format. This formatting is also known as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. Don’t worry about the name. Just know that this is a file system that your Mac uses for a Time Machine backup. And if you want to copy and paste. Download wd smartware mac for free. System Tools downloads - Smartware by Western Digital Corporation and many more programs are available for instant and free download. Keyboard shortcuts Mac OS X. But Preview, Mac OS X's default. Capture your Mac's screen. How to speed up your Mac.
Why You Need to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
When I first got the hard drive, I wasn’t able to copy anything over to it (but I was able to copy from it). Disk Utility showed that it was formatted to MS-DOS (FAT) but I’m pretty sure it would have been NTFS instead. If you experience the same issue, your only recourse is to reformat it in one of two formats.
If you’re only going to use the external hard drive with Macs or you want to use it for Time Machine backups, format it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you’re like me who also needs to use at least a part of the hard drive from Windows PCs, you’ll need to choose MS-DOS (FAT) format. But here you won’t get great support for Time Machine. Plus you can’t make partitions bigger than 2 TB or move files larger than 4 GB around.
How to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
First, connect the external hard drive, bring up Spotlight Search by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Space and type in Disk Utility. Press Enter and Disk Utility will launch. You can also find it in Utilities folder in Applications.
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.
Related: Check out our Ultimate Guide to OS X Yosemite.How to Create Partitions
Wd Elements Requires Reformatting For Mac Os X
I’m planning on using my hard drive for both Time Machine backups and to carry media files around. I might need to use the hard drive with Windows computers so I’m going to format one of the partitions as MS-DOS (FAT), fully aware of its limitations. The other one, for Time Machine backups, will be in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
To create a partition, select the hard drive from the left column and click the Partition tab.
From the drop-down below Partition Layout, select the number of partitions you want. Don’t go overboard here.
Now, just below, you’ll see a visual representation of the partitions. You can use the breakpoint to change the size of the partitions by moving it up or down. You can also click on a partition, give it a name and select the format.
Once you’ve decided all the details, simply click the Apply button. From the pop-up, select Partition.
Disk Utility: Check out the two tips for using Disk Utility and 8 ways to free up space on your Mac.What Do You Use It For?
What are you planning on doing with the external hard drive? Time Machine backups perhaps? Or just storing media? Share with us in our forums section.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See
Wd Elements Formatieren Mac Os X
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DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.
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'My 1TB WD external hard drive is not working on my Windows 10 PC and I can do nothing to the drive since it fails to show up in This PC.
I've changed the USB port but it still not working.
I don't know what reasons have made the drive not responding, and neither I know any solutions. I've saved quite a lot of important files inside the drive. If you have any methods to fix my issue and make the WD external hard drive work again, please help me. Thank you.'
Though it's no longer a new problem that external hard drive fails to work or suddenly fail to show up in PC. But it's still a tough issue for ordinary users when their external hard drive, USB or SD card etc devices suddenly become unrecognized, not working or responding in PC. Here below, you'll find 1 quick fix and 4 methods to fix WD external hard drive not working issue. If your external hard drive or storage devices are having this issue, relax and just follow to get your problem fixed right here now.
Quick fix WD external hard drive not showing up/unrecognized/responding error
1. Click Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in the Search box and hit Enter.
2. Open Device Manager > Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Right-click on the USB Root Hub > Select Properties.
4. Go to Power Management and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
After this, reboot PC and reconnect WD external hard drive to your PC, then you'll be able to use the drive again.
If this quick fix doesn't work, relax and just follow below-offered methods to repair not working WD external hard drive or devices now.
Fix WD external hard drive not recognized error
Here you have two methods to follow and fix WD external hard drive not recognized or undetectable error in Windows 10/8/7:
Method 1. Reboot PC into Safe Mode to make WD external hard drive recognizable
- Go to Setting > Update & security.
- Tab on Recovery > Advanced Startup > Restart now.
- PC will automatically boot into another Startup Settings screen.
- Press F4 to initiate PC reboot into Safe Mode.
- Then check whether the WD external hard disk can be detected or not.
Method 2. Change drive letter to make unrecognized WD external hard drive detectable
The other way is to change the drive letter with Disk Management tool so to make unrecognized or undetectable WD external hard drive to show up in PC:
- Right-click on This PC/My Computer > Select Manage.
- Go Disk Management > Find your external hard drive and right click it by choosing Change Drive Letter and Path...
- Assign the drive with a new letter that doesn't exist in your PC and mark the Partition as Active.
- Click OK.
- Restart PC and your External hard drive will show up and work again.
Fix WD external hard drive not working/responding issue
When WD external hard drive, USB or other brands of storage devices are not working or not responding to any operations in your PC, don't worry. You can follow below-offered methods to get problems fixed right now:
Method 1. Update WD external hard drive driver to make it work
1. Click on Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in Search to open Device Manager by hitting Enter.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click every USB device found there and select Uninstall.
3. Then check out whether any devices show up as unrecognized or not:
- If WD external hard drive shows unrecognized, go to drivers tab and delete/uninstall the driver; Then check out whether the external hard drive shows up in My Computer/My PC or not.
- If it doesn't show up, reboot or restart PC;
- If it shows up but disappears later, repeat above steps and go to Disk Management, change the drive letter of your WD external hard drive and reconnect it to PC to let PC detect it again.
Method 2. Repair corrupted system files/bad sectors on not working WD external hard drive
Wd Mac Software
Corrupted system files or bad sectors on WD external hard drive or other storage devices would block your device from working or responding in Windows PC.
Professional partition manager software from EaseUS will repair bad sectors and fix corrupted system files to make your WD external hard drive work again. Free download, install it and follow below guide steps to fix bad sectors and corrupted system files on your drive now:
Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.
Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.
Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.
Extra Tip: WD external hard drive recovery
After fixing not working external hard drive on your Windows PC, you may continue using it for storing fancy data again.
But if you lost files or valuable data on the drive, don't worry. Professional WD external hard drive recovery solution offered by EaseUS hard drive recovery software is what you exactly need. It will simply restore lost files from WD external hard drive within 3 simple steps on Windows 10/8/7 etc PC.
If you lost files after fixing WD external hard drive not working issue or cannot access saved data in your storage devices, just free download EaseUS hard drive recovery software and let it help now.