I just applied this process a few days ago and my laptop is running like i just opened the box from apple. This stepbystep guide will help you preserve whats currently on the drive for safety sake, wipe it. Western digital my book mac edition user manual pdf. Click on erase from the buttons at the top of the disk utility window. Format my book for mac, western digital produces a line of external hard drives called the mybook. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. How to recover files after format on mac macos catalina. Now either because of time, corruption or because it may have been formatted for a mac when i plug it into my pc i cant access it. If youre not erasing the disk your mac started up from, you dont need to. If your mac is using apfs, select apfs from the format list. To begin, start by hitting the apple icon in the topleft corner of your macbook s display. Of course, if you are using it with a mac, then youll want to reformat it. Yo just got a new external hard drive and want to use it on your mac.
Mypassport for macs seem to always be out of stock, so i bought the 4tb. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. However, i dont know if its better to buy a regular my book and reformat it to use with my mac, or to buy the more expensive mac ready product. How to reformat passport external hard drive from read only to read and write for use with mac computersimportant. How to reformat wd my passport for mac mediakits report not. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. Western digital wdbeks0020hbk my book for mac 2tb usb 3.
How to reformat a mybook external hard drive on mac osx. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors. Password protection the my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. Dont let go of these keys until you see the macos utilities window appear on. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided. Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive. In the main interface, there are 5 recovery modes, choose one according to your needs. As shown in figure 2, the my book for mac drive has.
If you want to use this drive with a windows system, see reformatting the drive on page 20 and troubleshooting on page 21. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard. If you want to reformat macbook pro and get it back to what it was like right off the shelf, youve come to the right place. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. The backup drives i have are 3tb my book s for mac. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Western digital produces a line of external hard drives called the mybook. Wd external hard drive set up guide how to use on mac. Reformatting required for mac os compatibility wd western. Download the free trial of cisdem data recovery for mac now. If youre running a newer computer, youll see a huge speed increase thanks to usb 3. Reformatting 3tb wd my book for mac to windows wd community.
You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on mac. This drive connects directly to your mac through usb. Yes, its recommended to format the drive on a windows. Reformatting the drive on page 29 and troubleshooting on page 30. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk erasing a volume on your disk. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Best way to reformat my macbook pro macrumors forums. Having done my research, i want to go with a wd my book for external storageback up. I mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac.
Although i can see and write to the network drive from the macs, time machine will not recognize the drive. Basically, i want to know if i will lose out on any softwarefunctionality if i go for reformatting. This article explains reformatting is required for macos compatibility. Instead, well just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. Reformatting a external western digital my book drive ask different.
This stepbystep guide will help you preserve whats. Starting macos time machine backups to my passport and external usb drives. In other cases, such as when your disk contains multiple volumes or partitions and you dont want to erase them all, you can erase specific volumes on the disk. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book external hard drive psychohistory. How to reformat my external hard drive for windows 10. It is possible to reformat the drive and keep your files by formatting your drive and then using a data recovery tool to restore your information. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. I recently downloaded something with a virus in it onto my 80gb my book and now its messing everything up on my computer. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os. Half of the space is taken by the backup of my iphone. Western digital my book external hard drive users manual. Mybook or my book for mac external drives for mac wd community. Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu.
Connect your western digital mybook external hard drive to your mac computer with the included usb cable. Fat, exfat, or ntfs to a mac format apfs or mac os extended. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. I am wondering if there is a way to manual reformat.
Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. I have a segate 2tb external hard drive which i am attempting to move my backup file to. How to recover files after format with data recovery. The my book live duo is a twodrive consumergrade nas, or network attached storage, device.
Compatibility may vary depending on users hardware configuration and operating system. In the midst of trying to solve another problem, my mac book is out of storage space. Should i just wait until i get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it. Reformatting my book erases all its contents including the preloaded software. I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. As people begin to sell their used intel processor mac s problems are occurring when the new owner wishes to wipe everything and make the machine their own due to complexity of reinstalling various os x versions, appleid conflicts etc, so i will attempt to clear up the issue and provide concrete procedures you need to follow. Enter a name for the file to be destroyed like macintosh hd or something. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. I have been told that if i reformat the drive to fat 32, time machine on the macs will be able to see it as well as the windows computers. Expand the western digital my book drive on the left side and right click. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. My book wdh1u0, my book wdh1u0an, my book wdh1u15000, my book wdh1u20000. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32.
My book for mac to reformat or pay for the mac ready. Reformatting the drive on page 20 and troubleshooting on page 21. We know, macs and windows have their native file systems such as the new apfs or hfs and the ntfs. Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. External hard drives are key in a content creatoryoutubers life. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. But unfortunately it bit the dust and i decided to get a pc.
Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. Wd my book western digital, my passport wd, we my cloud,wd my passport ultra, how to installuse 100gb 200gb 300gb 400gb 500gb 1tb. Before you start, you need to mount the sd or micro sd card on your mac. I intend to use the drive with time machine for back ups. The my book for pc comes in 2tb, 3tb and 4tb capacities while the my book for mac tops out at 3tb. This process wont actually convert the file system. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. How to format wd external drive for mac apple community. Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting.
To reset a macbook, turn it on and immediately hold down one of these. If you have a mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a mac and back up the files. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. First, back up the data on the mac formatted drive if you have anything important on it. Whether you need to know how to format wd my passport for your mac. Nearly all mac s sold after july 20, 2011 came with factory installs of os x 10. View and download western digital my book mac edition user manual online. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. The best external desktop drive is the wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3.
Does this mean that they cannot be converted to windows. The two my book products are essentially the same, the core difference is in the formatting of the drive. If there is data on the drive but your mac device cannot read it even after. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
Youll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. This answer explain starting macos time machine backups to my passport. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. My book for mac external hard drive, with the wd security and wd drive utilities. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book.
Reformat macbook pro to make brand new again josh benson. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. If you have an sd or micro sd card you want to reformat with your mac its a pretty easy process. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.