Make Wd Hard Disk Work For Both Mac And Windows

Apr 12,2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

May 21, 2018  In this video tutorial, I show you how to easily format an external hard drive to work on both a Mac and a PC. If you run into the issue of not having enough space format it to be the EX FAT as. Aug 21, 2011  However, exFAT is an option if you have Windows 7. Other than FAT, there is NTFS which is Windows' file system and readable by OS X. Write support can be added via 3rd party software such as NTFS-3G.

This is a question often asked by Mac users only. Windows users don’t need to do much other than plug in the WD Passport to use it, but for Mac, it’s not as straightforward as that.

The difference in Mac and Windows’ native format systems are to blame for this. But don’t fret, because this article will show you simple ways to go about formatting your WD Passport so you can easily use it on both Mac and Windows.

Part 1 - Overview of WD My Passport File System

Technology has reached a point where it pretty much seeps into every aspect of our daily life. We’re always using our phones and computers to send messages, host meetings, shop online, etc.

Of course, there is much exchange of valuable data as these happen, and where you keep this data is extremely important; that’s where WD’s My Passport comes in.

My Passport is a hard drive that’s trustworthy and portable enough to be given a 5-star rating on almost any website you check. Coupled with the WD Backup TM app and password protection feature, My Passport helps to keep your data safe. That being said, situations arise when you’ll need to format or reformat the drive.

Default File System of WD my passport

Western Digital (WD) hard drives are formatted with NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) by default to make them more compatible with both operating systems.

Granted, FAT32 is less efficient than NTFS in Windows, but it has inherent benefits too, like its compatibility. And to connect your NTFS-formatted My Passport to macOS, you’ll need to utilize a formatting tool.

This is especially true if you regularly use your WD drive on both Windows and macOS. So always remember to check if the drive is formatted or not.

Why WD my Passport can’t be used on mac?

A significant number of users trust West Digital hard drives. Their auto backup, password protection, and high reliability are second to none.

But nothing is perfect, right? Sometimes when you connect the WD My Passport drive to your Mac, it’s grayed out in Disk Utility.

The drive’s external light can be on too but it still doesn't work. Worse still, it could become unreadable on your Mac. You know what that means, right? Your data can’t be accessible now.

What Are the Reasons for My Passport Not Showing Up on Mac?

More often than not, an external hard drive doesn't show up on Mac simply because your Mac's USB cable or USB port is bad. But the following factors may also contribute to WD not showing up.

• Latest macOS update

What happens here is when you update your macOS to the latest build or release, issues of incompatibility could arise. So, you might have to update the WD My Passport’s drivers to at least meet the minimum requirements of the newly-installed macOS.

• Device malfunction

The simple fact is, your Mac could malfunction due to one error or another, and that could tamper with how your macOS identifies your WD My Passport. Computers are susceptible to unexpected or unforeseen glitches and errors, so never rule this out as a possible cause.

• Anti-virus

Yes, an anti-virus is meant to protect your system, but it can also have “side effects” that won’t bode too well for it. For example, most anti-virus are notorious for identifying laptop games as virus, even though they aren’t. Sometimes, they prevent the games from launching.

They can also stop some software form starting. This applies to your hard drives too.

Likewise, the antivirus could stop your system from accessing your WD Passport, perhaps because there is already virus in it. Thus, it’s imperative you install the right anti-virus that will work well and won’t tamper with your system’s settings too much,

• Virus

Not much needs to be said because everyone knows the kind of damage virus is capable of. There’s a virus out there can even hide your hard drive. So even if you plug it into your My Passport into your Mac, you won’t see it.

• Motherboard errors

Without a motherboard, a system is pretty much a screen and keyboard. So, if your Mac’s motherboard suffers software or hardware damage, almost nothing will work properly, and that includes your USB ports. So, your drive, even if it’s functioning properly, might not even be recognized.

• WD My Passport causes damage or corruption

This time, the problem stems from your WD My Passport. Maybe the drive fell or a malfunctioning system corrupted it. Either of these issues could lead to the drive malfunctioning or not showing up when you plug it into your Mac.

Part 2 - How to Format WD my Passport for Mac?

The simple step-by-step guide below will show you how to format your WD My Passport on your computer, so pay attention. The information you’ll find here touches on formatting and reformatting WD’s My Passport for your Mac.

• Login into your Mac

Just turn on your Mac and when it boots up, plug in your My Passport drive to your WD. Your WD My Passport drive will appear as a rectangular, yellow icon on your desktop (it looks just like the image below).

• Navigate to Finder if Your Drive Isn’t Visible

If your My Passport drive doesn't turn up for some reason, click on “Finder”, then select “Preferences”.

• A small window will open up. Make sure you tick the checkboxes “Hard Disks” and “External Disks.”
• Your WD My Mac Passport drive should now be running on your screen.
• Launch Disk Utility

You can find disk utility by clicking on the spotlight search button, then type “Disk Utility”.

• Highlight “Disk Utility”, then double-click it.
• Access your Drives

You'll see your internal and external hard drives on the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window.

• Click on the dropdown arrow to expand or collapse the drives on the list.
• Look under the “External” category and you’ll find your My Passport drive there. If it has not appeared, your Mac's USB port could be malfunctioning. So, unplug your drive and restart your Mac. That will probably fix the issue.
• Make sure you have your drive selected. By the way, choose the first drive you see on the list; you know, the one at the top. Doing otherwise might lead to issues when formatting the WD Passport for Mac.
• Format Your Drive

Find the “View” button at the top left of your Disk Utility window and click it. A drop-down menu will open up.

• Remember, what comes next is formatting. So, make sure your files have been copied off the drive if there are any on it.
• Click on “Erase”
• In the small window that pops up, you’ll have to input a name for the My Passport drive first.
• You'll find it useful to give a name to your drive to show what you'll be using the drive for.
• Right below that is the “Format” field. There are a few formats you can choose from but you only need one.
• Choose Format Type

Select “Extended Mac OS (Journaled)”.

This is the file system you will need if you want to be able to easily transfer files back and forth between your Mac and your My Passport drive. The format is also what makes the drive compatible with Time Machine for backup on your Mac

• Next, for the Scheme option, select “GUID Partition Map.”
• Finally, click on the “Erase” button. It will just take a few seconds for the drive to be formatted. Once, look at your desktop and you’ll see the icon of WD my Passport on it.
• Eject Your Drive

Oh, and always remember to safely eject your drive before unplugging its cable. Failure to do this could lead to the drive crashing or suffering some issues.

• To eject your WD my Passport drive from your Mac, just right-click on its icon on your desktop.
• In the dropdown menu you see, click on “Eject”.

Part 3 - Recover Accidentally Formatted WD Files

If you are unable to locate or access the data on your Western Digital (WD) external hard drive, it can be devastating, particularly when the lost data contains precious images and invaluable backups.

The tips and shortcuts below will give you the necessary info and tidbits you need to format WD elements for mac. The loss of data from your WD hard drive can be caused by numerous things: Accidental deletion, disk formatting, computer corruption or damage, etc.

But all that doesn’t mean you can’t get your data back. There are some great solutions you can utilize to recover deleted, corrupted or lost files and you’ll learn of them before the end of this post.

Why Formatted Data Can Be Recovered?

It makes perfect sense for you to worry if you lose your data, but sometimes, formatting becomes necessary too, doesn’t it?

• Accidental Deletion or Redesign

Sometimes when you reinstall the operating system, the drive or partition gets deleted, even if you don’t intend for it to happen.

• Unexpected Data Loss Situations:

Due to carelessness or haste, some people can unknowingly format or delete the wrong partition. It takes little more than a few clicks for the damage to be done, so you must exercise caution here.

Then of course, you can’t rule out other possible causes like a virus, power failure, or hardware damage to your drive. They are all likely causes of data loss.

When it comes to Western Digital disk recovery, the first option that comes to mind is using third party data recovery applications. This is considerably better than the complicated and time-consuming manual data recovery options out there.

Restoring lost WD data takes only minutes, depending on the size of the drive and the amount of data to be recovered. The data recovery tool in question supports all Western Digital hard disk drives, such as My Book Pro, My Book, WD Elements, My Book Studio, etc.

Sometimes, there will be a need to learn how to reformat my passport for Mac, so once you’re acquainted with formatting, you should enlighten yourself on how to reformat WD my passport for Mac.

How to Recover Formatted WD Drive Files using Recoverit Data Recovery?

If you know anything about data recovery, then it’s very likely you’re familiar with Recoverit Data Recovery. If you aren’t, you’ve been missing out a lot!

Recoverit Data Recovery is a data recovery tool that’s extremely capable of recovering data or any kind of file you lost from your drive. So, if you lost your data via formatting, accidental deletion, virus attacks and more, Recoverit will get them all back.

Recoverit’s data recovery steps are often very similar irrespective of which type of system you own; Windows or Mac. But since you’re dealing with Mac today, that will be the focus here. So, go on and follow the 3 steps below to get back data on a Mac.

1. Select the WD drive
2. Scan the drive
3. Preview and retrieve data

Step 1: Select the WD Drive

Start Recoverit and look under the “External Devices” section. You’ll see some drives connected to your Mac. Select the WD drive and click on “Start”.

Step 2: Scan Your WD Drive

Recoverit will start scanning the drive. Look to the left of the software and you’ll see checkboxes that detail the types of files the software is finding. You can tick the checkboxes if you’re only looking for particular files; that will actually make the scan process faster, but it’s just an option.

Step 3: Preview and Recover Pen Drive Data

Once the scan ends, you’ll see the list of files Recoverit found. You can even preview them if you want. Recovering the files is pretty easy too.

Just tick the ones you want to recover or tick one checkbox that highlights everything. For the last step, click “Recover”.

All you have to do is wait for all your files to be recovered. See? Easy as pie. But here’s an important tip: Don’t save the files to the same WD drive they are being recovered from.

How to use WD my Passport on Mac?

Files and getting bigger and bigger, so you’ll need the best drive out there to capable of storing these files, right? There are countless hard drives you can choose from but the keyword here is the ‘best’, and WD is exactly that.

If you need a new backup solution for your photos or videos, the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB drive can more than handle the job. It’s a compact external hard drive with 1 TB capacity coupled with high transmission speeds.

To use a WD my passport on Mac, you need to know how to reformat it. The same goes for using any kind of WD drive on Mac.

Benefits of WD my Passport

The simple fact is, you’ll be very happy with the shape, weight, look and even feel of the WD My Passport drive. This 1 TB size is wonderful and can comfortably store even the large Digital SLR data files for many years to come.

For those who really love music, all their favorite songs can be stored on this drive too. These large and powerful drives even find use in hospitals and educational facilities, among other places.

The WD Passport is also patronized by computer programmers, innovative artists and several other professionals in various business fields.

What makes this external hard drive so reliable and easily the best portable drive is the fact it was manufactured by the popular Western Digital Company. It’s a trusted company that has filled homes, offices, and institutions with hard drives for over 20 years; that’s over 20 years of experience and satisfied customers!

Because of how compact the drive is, it easily fits into your shirt or purse’s pocket. And the fact it weighs just about 0.44 pounds means it won’t feel uncomfortable or be obtrusive in any way.

This new device is excellent and doesn't need external power, eliminating the need for an extra power cord. It also works almost soundlessly, so no annoying grinding noises to distract you while you work.

If your WD drive is plugged into a USB 3.0 port, you can easily access and save files 3 times faster than what USB 2.0 port is capable of. To elaborate, you can upload a 2-hour HD video in just 5 minutes! But if it was USB 2.0, it will take at least 13 minutes or more. The difference is clear, isn’t it?

Tips on using WD my Passport for Mac

• Plug the wall/power bar and let power enter it.
• Plug one end of the USB cable into the drive and the other end in your system. If you have a USB 3.0 port on your system (it’s usually blue, especially for Windows systems), use it because it can make a big difference in the speed of the transfer of files.
• If you’re using Windows, the drive will now be turned on, showing up in “My Computer”. It might take a few seconds to do this, so be a little patient.
• If you’re on a Mac, navigate to “My Machine” to see the new hard disk. It's going to be called “My Book”.
• Double-click it and select “Create WD Applications”. This will start the Backup software installation process. If you don't see the “WD Apps Setup”, search for a folder called “WD Apps for Windows”. But if you're using macOS or OS X, you’ll see “WD Apps for Mac”.
• Only follow the Program Setup prompts. Don’t stray from them and tamper with instructions you don’t understand.

Final words

So, there you have it. A simple yet effective tutorial on making your WD drive work on Mac. Remember that the most important thing here is the safety of your files, so it is highly recommended you use a WD My Passport because it’s a drive that promises nothing but the highest quality.

And if anything does happen to your WD drive and you lose your files, there’s never a need to worry because Recoverit is ready and willing to get all those files back.

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Mar 23,2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

A lot of people face issues when they try to connect their external hard drives to their Mac devices. This is because of the differences in file format between windows and Mac systems.

People often search things like how to make WD elements compatible with Mac so that they can use their external HDD without any issue. Having an External HDD that isn’t supported on Mac devices can be an issue for professionals who need to consistently transfer files from one type of computers to another. Hence in order to keep your work flow smooth and without any obstructions, it will be better to get your HDDs formatted into formats that are supported across all the operating systems that are used generally

Part 1. Does WD Elements Work with Mac

By default, a WD Elements HDD cannot work on Mac computers as they are formatted in NTFS format. This format is not supported on Mac devices and you will not be able to access the hard drive. The differences in formats cause issue in reading the hard drive and in order to be able to use it universally across your entire device, it is important to first reformat the drive into a supported format.

Common Formats of WD Elements Drive

Most commonly WD elements come with NTFS format which is not supported by Mac by default. It is important to check the formats before you buy external HDD as not all the HDDs are supported across both devices. Some versions might also be available in FAT32 and ExFAT formats, which are widely supported across different types of operating systems and devices.

Does WD Elements Work on Mac

Depending upon the format in which HDD is created, it may or may not work on Mac devices. Most of these hard disks are formatted into NTFS format that is only supported on windows PCs. If you want to buy WD elements that work on Mac, ask the shopkeeper to give you an HDD that has HFS+ format as it is supported by Mac devices or you can go for file formats like ExFAT and FAT32.

How to Make WD Elements Compatible with Mac

As WD element is a popular external hard disk, more and more people prefer buying it due to their reliability. Because of the fact that Windows PCs are more popular, they generally come with NTFS format. The only way to be able to use these hard disks on your Mac is by reformatting it into other formats like Journaled, ExFAT or FAT32 formats as they are supported across all the devices.

Part 2. How to Format WD Elements for Mac

Due to the differences in the operating systems, most of the ED elements external hard disks don’t work natively on the Mac OS powered devices. In order to get over this hurdle, it becomes necessary to format the hard disk into a format that is widely supported. How to reformat WD elements for Mac you ask? Well, it is quite easy to begin with and can easily be done across different devices so that it can be used with cross platform usage features. There is no requirement of any third party application to be able to do so and the processes are quite easy as well.

What’s the Best Format of WD Elements for Mac

Choosing the perfect format to which you will reformat the hard disk in can be quite tricky as there are a lot of formats and they have their own pros and cons. For example, ExFat systems have limitation over size of partitions, FAT32 systems are not widely found and Mac OS’s Journaled formats will only work onMac OS powered devices. Hence in order to choose the right format you will have to understand your requirement.

If you primarily use Mac OS devices only then it will be better to go for Mac OS journaled formats as they have little to no limitations for partitions and file sizes. But if you like to use it across all the devices, it will be better to convert it to HFS+ formats as it is supported on Android, Windows and Mac OS without any issue and there are no limitations that make it any less useful than NTFS systems.

How to Format/Reformat WD Elements for Mac

Depending on the system that you are using, there are 2 ways to format you hard disk into a Mac supported format. One is by using the indigenous file format option in the windows OS powered computers and other is through the similar tools found in the Mac OS. Have a look down below to understand how to format WD elements for Mac using Windows as well as Mac OS devices-

How to format WD elements se for Mac on Windows Operating system?

Step 1. Connect your hard disk with the computer

Connect the hard disk to computer using a USB cable and wait for a bit so that the device can be recognized. Once that is done, click on the “This PC” option and find the icon that represents the Hard disk.

Step 2. Click on the format option

Right click on the hard disk icon and browse through the options to find the format option. Click on it and you will now see a dialogue box with options like File system, Volume Label etc. Click on the File system option and look for the available formats. Select the one that you wish to continue with and then enter a relevant name for the hard disk in the Volume name option.

Step 3. Format the drive

Once you have set everything as per your requirement, select the ‘quick format’ option and press the start button. Wait for a few moments and your drive will be formatted into the set format.

How to format WD element on your Mac device?

Step 1. Connect the WD elemental hard disk to your Mac powered device

Connect your Hard disk to your computer and wait for a bit so that the system can recognize and mount the drive so that it can be used. Once it does recognize the disk, a Hard disk shaped icon will appear on the desktop.

Step 2. Go to the disk utility option

Go to the finder option from the Mac OS dock and open it. When it opens, select the Go option from the menu bar and after that, click on utilities. Now you will be able to see things like, application/utilities etc. Go to the utility option and select the disk utility application.

Step 3. Choose the hard drive you want to format

Now after opening the Disk utility option, select the external drive connected with your device that you wish to format.

Step 4. Select the format options

Now click on the Erase option from, the disk utility file menu. You will now see a new dialogue box will appear. From here you will have to customize the format in which you want the hard disk to be formatted to. Also set the new name of the hard disk as per your requirements.

Step 5. Erase the drive

Once everything is done according to what you wanted, click on the erase option and within a few seconds, your hard disk will be formatted.

Part 3. How to Recover Formatted WD Files on Mac

When external hard disks are formatted, it becomes next to impossible to recover files that were stored in it. There are a few third party tools that can help you to do so with ease. While formatting your hard disk, it is important to make sure that there are no important files or folders present inside the hard disk that are not backed up yet.

If such files exist in your external hard disk, make sure that you make the backup before formatting your hard disk as once you initiate the format option, you will not be able to recover any of the files.

The Consequence of Formatting WD Accidentally

A lot of people tend to initiate format option by accident and this can cause a lot of issues for them. The following are some of the primary ones that they face-

• If you don’t regularly backup your data, you might end up losing a lot of important files and folders.
• Your hard disk might also become corrupt and unusable after you format it quite often by mistake.

How to Recover Formatted WD Elements Drive Files

If your WD elements has got corrupted, damaged, is unreadable or was accidentally formatted, there is little that can be done to recover the data. However, there are a few applications like the Recoverit Data recovery tool that can help you to gather and retrieve lost or corrupted files that you want. It can be used on both Mac as well as windows powered devices and are extremely easy to use as well. The tool is available to be downloaded and used for free on the official website and doesn’t require high end PC to work properly. It can easily repair corrupted videos, files etc. with ease.

Cardioperfect pro link usb driver for mac. The following are the steps that can help you to recover the files with the help of Recoverit data recovery tool-

Step 1. Select the drive you wish to recover the data from

Download, install and launch Recover it data recovery tool on your Mac. Once done, select the drive that you wish to repair and get the data out of. If you already know the exact folder, select it and then press the start button to proceed.

Step 2. Location will be scanned

Now recover it will scan the location you have provided thoroughly with the help of advanced algorithms. All the deleted, corrupted andhidden files and folders will appear in the tool after the scan is complete. The best thing about the tool is that the scanning can be customized with the help of a lot of filters that can make scanning faster and more efficient, also it allows the user to pause and resume the scanning as per their convenience.

Step 3. Preview the files

Now you will have list of all the files that could be found in that location. Browse and search the file that you wanted and click on it to preview bit. If everything seems fine, select the file and click on the recover option, select the location where you want to store the file and then start the process. You file will be recovered and restored within a few seconds.

Part 4.Tips for Formatting WD Elements for Mac

WD Elements is a very popular external hard disk that is used by a lot of people around the world. In order to make sure that there are no issues happening with the hard disk while you format it, it is important to make sure that everything is being done properly.

Know Benefits of Formatting WD Hard Drive

Formatting your hard disk from time to time helps to provide you with tons of benefits like-

• It will provide you with better transfer speed, get rid of bugs and glitches, remove unwanted file and create space, and will also keep viruses at bay.
• If you use it as a primary storage unit, it will also result in faster and more efficient performance.

Learn Tips on Changing WD Elements for Mac

The following are a few tips that you can follow while changing the WD elements for Mac-

• Make sure you choose the right format as per your requirement so that it can be supported across different devices.
• The best formats for this purpose will be ExFAT or HFS+.
• Ensure that your computer doesn’t turn off during the time that the hard disk is being formatted.
• Avoid using 3rd party applications to reformat the hard disks as it can harm it and

Conclusion

WD elements are very popular external hard disks that are used by people across the world. It comes formatted with the NTFS format which is not supported on Mac OS. Hence in order to be able to use this tool, it is important to reformat it into supported formats like HFS+, FAT32 and ExFAT before you can use them.

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