The wd quick formatter is only for external drives, like wd my passport ultra. Installing, partitioning, and formatting the drive how to answer id partition, and format a wd drive on windows 7, vista, xp, 2000 and mac os x 3865 reformat from mac gpt to windows xp ntfs 3645 reformat the drive from mac gpt to windows 7 or vista ntfs format. The wd mybook, 8 tb, should it better be formated in exfat or ntfs. Rightclick the existing volume on the portable hard drive, choose shrink volume in the drop down menu and follow the shrink volume wizard to shrink the. Set the file system to ntfs, which is the default windows file system, and leave the allocation unit. How to use wd quick formatter to format external drive in. My book 8tb exfat formatting question wd community. Like its predecessors in the essentials line, the my book is marketed primarily as a backup storage device. To use the drive on computers with a windows operating system, you must first reformat it to a single ntsf partition. I have been using wd external hard drives since 2007 and literally never once experienced any sort of problem until now though again, i think it was caused by the combination of windows explorer and my file names being far too long also, i was copying from an ntfs hard drive to an exfat hard drive i reformatted the new one to an ntfs hard. Transferring files between the two operating systems is less of a hassle, since you dont have to constantly back up and reformat each time. If so, can i do this by just rightclicking the hard drive in my computer, clicking format. The drive comes with windows backup and time machine support, as well. Wd discovery indicated that the drive was readonly.
This is a file system limitation that affects both macs and. This is at least in part because the secure digital memory. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually come formatted for windows using fat32. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. More importantly, how do i change it back without reformatting it. It is strongly recommended not to format the raw drive before data recovery with raw drive recovery software because it might cause important data to be lost forever. You can replace ntfs with exfat or fat32, if you want to use it both in.
Under file system, change the answer to ntfs and leave the allocation unit size to default. Store files securely with this 4tb western digital my book hard drive. The only downside to ntfs on an external drive is that on some external drives, converting to ntfs makes the drive read only, so check the drives documentation either print or online to see what will or wont happen by converting. What i advise you is to take the backup of the data and use the acronis wd edition software to format the drive to fat32. Hardware all howtos win 10 win 8 win 7 win xp win vista win 9598 win nt win me win 2000 win 2012 win 2008 win 2003 win 3.
The wd drive utility lets you reformat, diagnose the drive condition, and manage the drives power use. External drive failure wd my book essential 2tb my workaround duration. Connect your wd external hard drive to your computer, and open disk management. How to format external drives using wd quick formatter in windows. My understanding is that exfat was designed specifically for usb drives, but that windows ntfs offers greater reliability. Fix hdd wd external turn into raw problem data recovery. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Reformatting the drive installing the drive on windows computers. I have a wd mybook home external drive that is not detected by windows 7or xp. Software support for the my book duo is good aside from the ntfs driver if youre a mac user in a mixed macpc environment. After full reformat of external drive wd mybook to ntfs.
The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book. Doing such a backup, the utility could not write to the drive in question. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. Formatting the drive from ntfs to fat32 is complicated especially with the smartware drives. Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. A newly purchased wd my book drive is ntfsformatted, which is compatible to work on windows. Its 5 gbps data transfer rate enables fast copying of files, and its automatic backup software can be set to fit any schedule. It is debatable how quick and reliable especially when disconnected without ejecting are logic would say refs wins but in my experience ntfs wins. A new western digital external drive is configured by default out of the box as a fat32 partition. I have a 1tb my book essential that used fat32 file system and then i tried to convert it to ntfs and not sure if its converting or if i messed it up.
Ntfs will allow you to save individual files larger than 4 gb and does offer better file checking to avoid damaged files. If thats what you want to use the drive for then by all means convert it to ntfs. Major problems copying files to a new my book 8tb wd external. Be sure you selected the correct drive icon for the my passport. Western digital wdbabt0010hbk my book av dvr expander user manual. The my book duo drive has massive capacity for storing photos, videos, documents and music. This is because you must format the drive with a specific file system before using it with a. Format new external drive as an ntfs partition it services. The top model features a single 4tb drive and a usb3. I have a wd passport that my tv formatted to udf now i would need to reformat it back to ntfs. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos.
How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. The exfat file system is not specific for wd but is used so that the drive can be used for readwrite processes on both os windows and os x, with large files. Western digital external hard drives are useful for storing and backing up files. Overwrite exfat format of 8tb external drive with ntfs. There is widespread support for fat32 across different operating systems and devices. I want to use time machine software to backup my macs. 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. Formatting nfts to fat32 external drives for pc wd.
By default, wd quick formatter will format the drive to fat32 or ntfs and after formatting, a partition used to optimize the performance of the drive will be left. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. Should i use fat32 when formatting an external hdd wd. A new western digital external drive is configured by default out of the box as a fat32. Our latest edition features visual, easytouse, automatic, continuous backup software and drive lock security protection. The software immediately recognized the drive and i was able to run a ntfs format that completed in less than a minute.
Format new external drive as an ntfs partition it services nmu it. Switch to raid1 configuration for redundancy and to mirror data on the wd red drives inside. How to format a 4tb hard drive to a fat32 format wd hard. This may be a problem for larger files, such as video files, disk images, or large outlook pst files. Can i format the hdd from my wd passport wireless without. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way.
The drive was not recognized by my dell laptop running windows xp. Try to format wd passport for windows and thus you can use it again. How to mount ntfs drives on mac os x with readwrite accessin apple. Format new external drive as an ntfs partition it services nmu. The fat32 file system has a maximum individual file size of 4 gb. Ntfs is native to windows, and most hard drives are preformatted for this file system. I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data.
Terms of use privacy policy copyright policy ca do not sell my personal information. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually. The light is runningblinking and i can hear it working but not sure if its actually doing anything its ben doing this for a few hours now and im starting to get worried. Ntfs is less supported in nonwindows devices like android phones, routers, maybe some nases, etc.
Fat32, ntfs, and exfat are the three file systems created by microsoft which used to store data on storage devices. Western digital my book live 3tb wdbacg0030hcheesn 3. Sometimes, there will be a need to learn how to reformat my passport for mac, so once youre acquainted with formatting, you should enlighten yourself on how to reformat wd my passport for mac. So i reformated it under windows to try again, and after the reformat ntfs, it now showed only 2tb. It should delete an internal operating system on the drive as well. Under storage on the left, click on disk management. 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. Unfortunately, win7 nor xp will no longer recognize it after formatting when it is attached to a usb. I have a question about formatting drives for maximum compatibility between a macbook pro and 2 pcs one running vista 64 bit and the other running windows 7. The drivers essential for the functioning of the wd my book drive are included in. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Designed to meet wds demanding requirements for durability, shock tolerance, and longterm reliability, we back up pun intended. Find your my book in the list, right click on it and select format. I have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers.
All are formatted ntfs, and are used as periodic backup. Converting my book essential fat32 to ntfs wd community. This western digital my book hard drive offers builtin 256bit hardware encryption and optional password protection for peace of mind. If so, should i use windows 10 disk management or the wd quick formatter. Try wd advanced format utility alternative easeus external hard drive formatter to format disk while wd external drive format failed with wd quick formatter tool. The difference between ft32, ntfs, and exfat is the storage size that the file systems can access apart from various feature. I was also unable to format the drive on my vista computer. My book external hard drive western digital wd it is formated in exfat. How to reformat a wd external hard drive it still works. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my. After some searching i found the latest disk utility from western digital, acronis true image wd edition.
And should i rather repair it or quick format it or better full format. Windows explorer indicated the file system as exfat. Wd my book mac driver is capable of storing a large amount of data securely. Millions of people around the world trust their data to my book desktop storage. Should i just reformat the whole hard drive to ntfs. I have several usb external storage drives connected to my pc tower. Ntfs will give you one big advantage for backups over fat32, it will allow you to create files over 4gb in size which you will likely encounter when trying to do the backup. In this video i show how to format a 4tb hard drive to a fat32 format so you dont have to spilt partitions anymore too allow both wii and gamecube games to be stored on the same partition. Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. Western digital has taken a more is better approach with its latest iteration of the wd my book essential hdd.
Raid0 mode provides superfast performance with up to 360mbs2 sequential read speeds using the usb typec port. Is there any possibility to reformat wd my book live exact model. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. Partition wd external portable hard drive in windows 1087. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Wd my book mac driver utilities download and install. So i opened windows disk management to take a look, and disk management showed two drives in the wd box. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. Major problems copying files to a new my book 8tb wd.
Instead, it has very large file and partition size limits, like ntfs, but none of its extra features to maintain its svelte file system. After having confirmed that the wd my passport is formatted with ntfs, many people will choose to convert ntfs to apfs for macos catalina, mojave and high sierra or reformat the wd my passport hard drive to make the wd external hard drive compatible with mac. And what program should i use to repair the file system, there seems to be anything wrong, also the same drive is shown twice, as f. Then, you can quick format or full format the wd external hard disk drive from raw to ntfs to fix the hdd wd external disk raw problem. However, to transfer and store your data from a mac computer, you have to reformat the drive. A usb typec port with all cables included makes it universally compatible supports.
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