Feb 10, 2012  Tutorial on how to format a Western Digital Elements Harddrive for a Mac. Out of the both it's not Mac compatible, but you can format it for use with your Mac in just a few minutes. Designed to fit in the palm of your hand, there’s plenty of space to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. Perfectly paired with Apple’s Time Machine backup software and password protection, the My Passport for Mac drive helps keep your files safe.

If the error message persists, restarting the computer may resolve the issue. If additional assistance is required, please. • When finished, the drive will be formatted and repartitioned successfully. Click on Done. ExFAT in macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier One of the easiest ways to format a drive to use is by using Mac OSX's built-in Disk Utility. For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below: • Begin by connecting the WD drive to the Mac computer.

I click on each one of these, then click Erase, choose Mac OS Extended for the Volume Format, name it, or can I leave it untitled (as is)? Just curious, how does journaled differ from without journaled? What about the Security Options button? It defaults to 'Don't Erase Data'. Should I leave it on the default, or choose another option (Zero out data, 7 pass erase, 35 pass erase)? Really appreciate your help.

How to format an external hard drive to FAT32 for Mac and PC If you ignored all the disadvantages and decided to format your external hard drive to FAT32, you might need a third-party software for help when the disk is larger than 32GB. You know, Windows Disk Management utility completely cannot help at this moment.

Note: On other versions of Windows, Disk Management can be accessed through Control Panel, going to System > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. • Disk Management will display the various disks that are available in that system. Locate the desired drive by looking at the drive information and drive size.

For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below: • Open Disk Management. In Windows 8 this can be achieved by moving the mouse to the bottom-left corner of the Desktop and right-clicking on top of the Start menu screen. Important: On Windows 7, Vista, or XP, instead click on Start, right-click on top of Computer and click on Manage. Then, click Disk Management right below Storage. • From the menu, click on Disk Management.

Since I have Tiger OS (10.4.11), I thought this might be the a contributing factor why it didn't show up. Still, all I need to do is format this new HD, right? Can't be that complicated (I hope). Can anybody help? Thanks DeltaMac and #1 Rhapsody for your responses. Can I clarify a couple of things? #1 Rhapsody wrote: When I open Disk Utility pertaining to the new HD I see 698.6 GB WD (for Western Digital), then below that which looks like a subfolder, 'My Book' (Western Digital's name for the HD).

I continued to get the error message [unable to unmount]. I used the Disk Utility PARTITION on my internal HD on the My Book, but I partitioned it with ONE partition, and chose the GUID table option. I then was able to format the drive to HPS+ (journaled) with the ERASE function.

Click 'Apply' to format the external hard drive to FAT32 for Mac and PC compatibility.

If you have data on that drive, then the multi-pass will assure that data cannot be recovered by any normal method. The 35-pass is acceptable for US government deletion of sensitive data, from what I have read.

FAT32 has several limitations, including a 4 GB per-file limit. This is a file system limitation that affects both Mac's and PC's, and the only workaround is to format the drive to exFAT. For more information about what these limitations are please see.

I then was able to format the drive to HPS+ (journaled) with the ERASE function. ________________________________ One bum throwing a crumb to another.

When ready, click on Next. • In the Format Partition section, select the File System to be exFAT and change the Volume Label to a desired name for the drive. Make sure the Perform a quick format check-box is highlighted, and when ready click on Next. • The Wizard will display a summary of the selected settings for review. It is important to know that formatting and partitioning the drive will erase all data that is on the drive. If there's no needed information within the drive, then click on Partition. If there is data on the drive that is needed or is not backed up, it will need to be copied to another location before proceeding.

This process is Data Destructive and cannot be undone. Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST! To reformat an external hard drive to the NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) file system, please follow the instructions below: • Download, unzip, install, and run the if running Windows, or if running Mac OSX 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, or 10.9 (Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks). Note: WD Quick Formatter for Mac is not supported on macOS Yosemite, El Capitan, or Sierra. It's best to use Disk Utility. Please see for more information.

The easiest way to format the drive to or is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility or Windows' built-in Disk Management. Critical: Never attempt to connect any external drive to multiple computers at the same time. This could quickly damage the drive's partition and corrupt the data on the drive. ExFAT in macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) and above There are two easy ways to format a drive to use is by using Mac OSX's built-in Disk Utility; using Erase (Step 4) or Partition (Step 7). For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below: • Connect the WD drive to the Mac computer.

• On a Windows system and if the drive is greater than 2TB, the screen below will be displayed. Decide if the drive is to be used with a computer running Windows XP. If it might be used on Windows XP, then select XP Compatible.If the drive is not to be used with Windows XP, then select Factory Default. Once this selection is made, click on the drop down menu to view and/or select different external drives from the list, should there be additional drives connected to the system.

It takes a really long time, and serves no purpose on a new hard drive, other than causing a lot of stress on the hard drive. Not recommended unless you MUST use it to clear previous data. Leave that on the default for a normal erase.

• Leave the size of the volume to be the maximum disk space so it has only one volume. Click on Next. • Assign a drive letter for the drive to have once the process is at an end. Windows will automatically assign one, but this may be changed if so desired.

Once done with this process, the remaining space will display as unallocated space. Now, create another New Simple Volume in the remaining unallocated space for the next partition. For example, on a 2TB drive, set the volume size to 1000000 (1 TB) and continue to the next step.

I received a replacement 750GB external hard drive from Western Digital. The drive is currently formatted for FAT32. The previous (defunct) hd was also FAT32, which I did not realize upon receiving and using. When trying to save large files in Final Cut Pro, the hard drive would save numerous files with none over 2GB in size.

________________________________ One bum throwing a crumb to another. This worked for me; all the previous suggestions did not- First, there is a firmware update for the My Book Home Editions. Whether this was a factor in my favor or not, after failing with the above suggestions, I then installed the update and yet still could not use the previously suggested measures. Nonetheless, the firmware update is installed. I continued to get the error message [unable to unmount]. I used the Disk Utility PARTITION on my internal HD on the My Book, but I partitioned it with ONE partition, and chose the GUID table option.

Check the box labeled Perform a quick format and click Next. • Click Finish to begin formatting the drive. • When complete, the drive will appear with a blue bar as in the image below. ExFAT in Windows 8 and earlier Another easy way to format a drive to use is by using Windows' built-in Disk Management.

Please see the following article on how to format a drive to FAT32 using Acronis True Image WD Edition:. Using Third-Party Software (For newer (made after 2007) external hard drives) As Windows is unable to format a drive over 32 GB in FAT32, the use of third-party software is required. Western Digital cannot assist in acquiring or using third-party software to format a drive as FAT32.

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This is necessary in order to optimize the performance of the drive. • The WD Quick Formatter is the recommended way to format WD external drives that use Advanced Format Drives (AFDs). • The instructions in the articles below are designed to help users reformat and repartition an external drive.

Using the FAT32 Formatter for older WD drives Western Digital has a Windows based utility that will reformat an older Western Digital external USB or FireWire hard drive back to the factory default FAT32 partition. The FAT32 formatter software is only for older external single drive units and can only format a drive that is 1TB and below. It will not work on an external drive that is greater than 1TB in size. It also may not work on models released after 2007. When run, this utility can only create a single FAT32 partition for the full capacity of the hard drive. Please follow the directions below to download and use the Western Digital FAT32 formatting utility. • Download the (select the product being formatted from the list first).

How do I format Western digital external hard drive for Mac and PC? 'I get a new Western digital hard drive and want to use it as an external disk to save working files.

It is usually directly above the name of the drive, and is the drive selection that has the total size of the drive being displayed. Once selected, click on Partition on the right-side area. • In the Partition area, click under Partition Layout and select 1 Partition. Then, click on Options. • In the Options window select Master Boot Record and then click Ok.

Once selected, click on Partition on the top area of the Disk Utility window. • The Partition window will now appear. Next to Partition, assign the desired drive name for the device. • Click on the drop-down next to Format and from the drop-down menu select MS-DOS (FAT). This is the format that the drive will be formatted to.

If there is data on the drive that is needed or is not backed up, it will need to be copied to another location before proceeding. • The drive is now formatting and a status bar will be seen at the bottom that says formatting the disk and gives the name of the drive, the format it is applying, and the name that was specified. When it is done, this bar will go away and the drive should now be listed on the desktop. FAT32 in Windows 10 and earlier Important: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP can only (using the actual operating system itself) create FAT32 partitions that are 32 GB or smaller. In order to format a drive larger than 32 GB using Windows OS, additional software may be required. Western Digital provides the software that allows users of our internal hard drives to format their drives.

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If there is already a partition on the drive, the bar above that drive will appear blue. If there is no critical data on the drive, or the data has been successfully backed up, right-click the bar and click Delete Volume. Important: If Disk Management shows the drive as Not Initialized, the drive will have to be initialized. For assistance initializing a hard drive, please see. • If there is no partition and data on the drive, it will appear as Unallocated, with a black bar on top. Right-click the Unallocated space or the black bar, and click New Simple Volume.

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• A window will come up showing that formatting and partitioning the drive will erase all data that is on the drive. If there's no needed information within the drive, then click on Partition.

ExFAT in Windows 10 Another easy way to format a drive to use is by using Windows' built-in Disk Management. For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below: • Right-click on Start, the Windows logo on the bottom-left of the screen, and click Disk Management. • In the Disk Management window, the lower pane will display a list of available drives. Identify the drive that needs to be partitioned and formatted, and make sure that all critical data on this drive has been backed up elsewhere.

(If you decide to create multiple partitions, you would then see a line for each of those partitions, all underneath that WD line.) You don't have to name your partition, it will just stay as Untitled, in that case. Or, you can name it Bob, or Janice, or Drive, or whatever. Journaliing makes no difference, unless you have OS X installed on that external drive, and you are booted to that system.

Most Secure Any help anyone out there can provide would be appreciated. Thanks for these instructions; they are useful but I'm still stuck with the final steps, i.e. I see that there are several format options as follows: MacOS Extended (Journaled) MacOS Extended (Journaled Encrypted) MacOS Extended (Case Sensitive Journaled) MacOS Extended (Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted) Then there is also the Scheme to choose from: GUID Partition Map Master Boot Record Apple Partition Map And finally there are some security options: Fastest vs. Most Secure Any help anyone out there can provide would be appreciated. Apple Footer • This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.

When ready, click on Format Drive. Important: • XP Compatible configuration option is not available on Windows 8 and 10 Important: • If an error is received stating that the drive cannot be unmounted, this means that another application, service, or program is actively using the drive. Proceed to determine what is interacting with the drive and close that application or process prior to formatting the drive.