To format an external hard drive for Mac with Time Machine, you must follow the steps below. Step 1 Open Finder, Applications, then go to Utilities and Disk Utility. Step 2 Follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with Time Machine on your Mac system. Part 3: Bonus Tip – Data Recovery from Formatted Hard Drive on Mac. Warning: Formatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Select Erase again. Disk Utility will start formatting the drive. Once complete, click done. For additional help see: Disk Utility Errors and Questions ×. The 4 disk formatting software for Mac above can help you easily format hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under Mac OS. However, when you format your hard drive with Super Eraser for Mac, all your data will be permanently lost. File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac. Disk Utility on Mac supports several file system formats: Apple File System (APFS): The file system used by macOS 10.13 or later. Mac OS Extended: The file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier. MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT: File systems that are compatible with Windows. Open Disk Utility for me.
Western Digital (WD) portable hard drives are really helpful. They offer high capacity storage, universal connectivity and are also compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0.
If you want the WD external hard drive to work on your Mac or PC, you need to format it first. So, if you are looking for how to format your WD drive, you are on the right page. Here, we provide a step by step guide on the same.
Securing your data
Once the formatting process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost. Therefore, you will have to extract or back up your data first before you start the process.
You can do that by copying your files to a new location one by one. If the data to be transferred is massive, then you should use a professional back up software (e.g EaseUS Todo Backup).
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Formatting your WD hard drive for Mac
Formatting your drive to FAT32 or exFAT is easier using Mac’s built-in Disk Utility. Below are the steps for the process.
- Connect your WD hard drive to your Mac computer.
- If your driver doesn’t turn up, navigate to Finder then select Preferences.
- In the small window that appears, check the boxes next to Hard Disks and External Disks. Your WD external hard drive should now be visible on your screen.
- Double-click on the driver icon that appears on your desktop.
- Click on Applications from the left pane
- Go to Utilities
- Select Disk Utility
- Click on the drive with the WD label in the left pane of the Disk Utility.
- Click on Erase in the Disk Utility file menu. The Erase dialogue window appears.
- Select the Volume Format drop-down list
- Choose MS-DOS (FAT)or ex-FAT File System.
- Click on the Erase button then wait a few minutes and let the macOS erase data on the drive.
- Reformat the drive by FAT32 or ex-FAT
- Once formatting is complete, you can use the drive in your MacOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.
Note: ex-FAT is a better choice for formatting your WD on Mac.
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Formatting your WD hard drive for PC
Below are the steps to follow when formatting the WD Drive for Mac.
- Connect your WD hard drive to your Windows PC
- Click on the Start button and select This PC. A new Windows Explorer window opens.
- Right-click on the icon assigned to the WD Drive.
- Click on Format in the pop-up menu.
- Select the File System from the drop-down list then choose either ex-FAT or FAT32
- Type a name in the Volume Label This is the name that will represent your drive when you connect it with your PC or Mac.
- Select the Quick Format option then click on Start.
- Wait for a few minutes for the process to complete. After successful formatting, you can then save or move files to it.
Format Hard Disk For Mac And Pc Use
Conclusion
![Disk Disk](/uploads/1/2/7/7/127761884/760774355.jpg)
Hopefully, the steps above will enable you format your WD external hard drive for Mac successfully. Should you encounter any problem with the same, let us know in the comments section.
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The formatting external hard drive is not the same on different operating systems. You can format external hard disk with an easy way in Windows and Linux. But for Mac OS devices is a bit tricky. You may wish to use an external FireWire or USB hard drive to store your Aperture Library, referenced images, or backup your computer files. Here are some suggestions on preparing the external hard drive for best performance with Aperture. Many external hard drives come pre-formatted as FAT 32. This is a native Windows file format that can be read by Mac OS devices but is not ideal for use with Aperture.
Format External Hard Disk on Mac
Make sure your external hard disk is connected to your Mac device correctly and the icon on the desktop appears.
- Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.
- If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.
- In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/ Utilities folder will open.
- Launch Disk Utility.
- Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.
- Or easy search the Disk Utility on the Launcher.
Format Hard Disk For Mac And Pc
7. Now click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left then click the Erase tab along the top of the window.
8. Finally, from the Volume Format menu, choose OS X Extended (Journaled) and type a name for the hard drive. Next step, just click the Erase button the format the hard drive for Mac OS Devices.
The ExFAT format will make the external hard drive compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux devices. But make sure you save remove or disconnect from the computer.
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