Click on the 'Erase' button to start erasing the external hard drive or USB. Formatting a hard drive will take a while and wait for it patiently. Once the progress bar is at 100%, the job is done! How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac. As it is mentioned above, after formatting a hard drive, all data on the hard drive will be erased.
Can I Use WD Hard Drive on Mac and PC
Before you get the answer, you must figure out what kind of file system can work well on both the macOS and the Windows system. macOS supports a handful of common file systems - HFS+, FAT32, and exFAT, with read-only support for NTFS. While Windows employs two major file systems: NTFS and FAT. FAT was inherited from old DOS and has exFAT as its later extension. In addition, the ReFS file system was developed as a new generation file system for server computers starting from Windows Server 2012.
That is to say, only FAT32 and exFAT can work on both Mac and PC. If you want to share digital files between Mac and Windows system easily, you must convert WD My Passport to FAT or exFAT. Here are three ways to format a WD My Passport, follow any one of them to convert to FAT.
How to Format WD My Passport in Windows Platform (Free)
You can format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to ex-FAT or FAT32 format using a free ex-FAT or FAT32 converter - EaseUS Partition Master or use built-in applications Windows.
Solution 1. Format WD My Passport Using Software (Free)
It is a wise choice to use a professional format tool. With the help of EaseUS Partition Master Free, you can perfectly bypass the format limitation of the Windows disk management tool and help you format WD My Passport to FAT32 or exFAT easily without any obstacles. What's more, this Windows partition software helps you create, resize, clone, move, and merge partitions without difficulty. Follow the details below to convert WD My Passport to FAT32 or exFAT.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.
Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Show all files mac software. How to show hidden files in USB drive with the professional tool? It can also on Windows or Mac. Download and install the Unhide File softwareClick the download button to get the.exe/dmg installation file.
Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.
Solution 2. Format WD My Passport Using File Explorer
Windows limits FAT32 partitions to 32GB. It does not offer the ability to format a drive larger than 32GB to FAT32, the only available choices are NTFS or exFAT. See all windows of an app in mac. If you want to format your WD My Passport to FAT32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32GB. If it is larger than 32GB, you can only format it to exFAT.
Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer, locate and right-click on WD My Passport that you need to format, select 'Format'.
Step 2. Rename the drive, reset its file system to FAT32 or exFAT.
Step 3. Click 'Start' to begin the formatting.
How to Format WD My Passport in macOS/OS X Platform
The easiest way to format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32 or exFAT.
Tips: The instructions below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. Once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost!
Step 1. Connect WD My Passport to your Mac.
Step 2. Once that's done, double left-click on the Mac HD, the internal Mac hard drive visible on the top-right corner of the desktop screen.Select 'Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility'.
Step 3. Select your WD My Passport on the sidebar, choose 'Erase'.
Step 4. Rename the drive, select the 'Volume Format' drop-down list and choose 'MS-DOS (FAT)' or 'ex-FAT File System'. Then click 'Erase'.
Wait for the process to complete and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format. Then, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.
Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS
FAT is known as the File Allocation Table. The successive major versions of the FAT format are named after the number of table element bits: FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. FAT32 is the oldest of the three file systems available to Windows. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which admittedly is less of a limitation unless you’re using super-high-capacity drives.
exFAT, Extended File Allocation Table, is optimized for flash drives. It was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista. This file system doesn't have the limitations of FAT32. You can use it when you need a bigger file size and partition limits than FAT32 offers.
NTFS, NT File System, is the modern file system Windows likes to use by default. It is packed with modern features not available to FAT32 and exFAT. However, it only works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default.
If you want to use WD My Passport or any other hard drive on Mac and PC, you need to format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in exFAT or FAT32 format.
Tips to Avoid Formatting WD My Passport Without Backup
Just as I have mentioned above, once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost. To avoid unnecessary data loss issues, we highly recommended all users extract or back up important data to another device or partition in advance. You can copy files one by one to a new disk or drive. If you have quite a lot of data to be transferred, professional backup software shall be your best choice. Here we recommend you try EaseUS Todo Backup which allows you to directly back up target data with simple steps.
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Step 1: Launch EaseUS Todo Backup software and then choose 'File Backup', 'Disk/partition Backup' or 'System Backup' for different backup purpose.
Step 2: Choose the system, disk partition, files or apps that you want to back up. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file.
Step 3: Click 'Proceed' to start the data backup process.
Hot Topics - People Also Ask These QuestionsWhat is the difference between NTFS, fat32, and exFAT?
NTFS is the commonly used file system for Windows internal drives. Windows OS can only be installed on an NTFS partition. FAT32 is an older file system used for external drives due to its great compatibility. exFAT is a replacement for FAT32, which is not as compatible as FAT32 but without the limitations of FAT32.
Can I use WD hard drive on Mac and PC?
Yes. If you want to use WD My Passport or any other hard drive on Mac and PC, you need to format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in exFAT or FAT32 format.
Can I convert exFAT to NTFS without losing data?
You are unable to directly convert exFAT to NTFS without losing data, as there is no such utility that can help you perform the exFAT to NTFS conversion. You can back up exFAT partition data to another drive and then format the exFAT partition to NTFS with EaseUS Partition Master Free.
How do I format my WD Passport?
Step 1. Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose Format.
Step 2. In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/exFAT), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click OK.
Step 3. Click OK in it to continue.
Step 4. Click the Execute Operation button on the top-left corner to review the changes, then click Apply.
Conclusion
You can format your Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to FAT32 or exFAT format to transfer the data between a Mac and Windows system conveniently. According to the solutions above, the EaseUS partition tool stands out for its convenience and easiness. It's always your best choice.
Summary: Go through the methods mentioned in this blog to get back your precious data from the erased or unreadable WD external hard drive.
Comfort yourself, as there are easy & powerful techniques through which you can recover your lost data on macOS Mojave. Download the software on your Mac from Stellar’s official website.
Query 1:Help, I’m in trouble. I lost my precious data from my Western Digital 2 TB external hard drive due to accidental formatting. Does there exist a solution through which I can recover my data from my WD external hard drive? Note: I am using MacBook Pro with macOS Mojave.
Query 2:Hello, my 2 TB WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive was not recognizable anymore when connected to my MacBook with macOS Mojave. The drive contained essential data, which I desperately want it back. I would appreciate any data recovery advice, thanks!
Icebreaker
Knowing your Western Digital (WD) external hard drive is essential in recovering your lost data. Your hard drive is an electromechanical non-volatile data storage device that stores data permanently on a rotating platter coated with the ferromagnetic material. The magnetic head of the WD hard drive writes or reads data to or from the platter. These data are stored in a series of logical blocks or sectors.
macOS Mojave maintains the information of these files as metadata stored in the file system of the drive. When you delete a file, macOS Mojave updates its metadata information. Also, when you erase a drive, Mojave creates a fresh file system. In both situations, data stored in the sectors remain unharmed—This gives a chance for data recovery.
Mounting an External Hard Drive
WD external hard drive mounts on your macOS Mojave when you connect it to your MacBook. Mounting makes the drive available for use and is visible in Finder and Disk Utility. In case the storage drive is corrupt, the file system information is lost, which makes the hard drive un-mountable or unreadable on macOS Mojave.
The only way to create a new file system is by erasing the un-mountable/unrecognizable external hard drive with APFS or other macOS Mojave compatible file system format. Nevertheless, formatting also makes hard drive data inaccessible from macOS Mojave, and consequently, you lose those data.
Steps to Recover Lost Data
To recover lost data from your WD external hard drive, you need to deploy Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac on your MacBook running on macOS Mojave. This practical and efficient macOS Mojave compatible data recovery software provides an intuitive user interface to ease your recovery process.
The steps to recover your lost data from your WD external hard drive are as follows:
Step 1) Download the software on your Mac from Stellar’s official website.
Install the software on Macintosh HD. Now, connect your Western Digital external hard drive to your MacBook and launch the data recovery software, and from the main interface, select the type of files you want to recover and click Next;
Step 2) Choose your erased or unreadable WD external hard drive and toggle on Deep Scan.
Step 3) Click Scan, and once the scan is complete, preview the scanned files to verify
Step 4) Select the required data and click Recover. Specify the save location to another external storage drive with storage space more than or equal to your WD external drive space, and then click Save
Mac Formatting SoftwareVideo: External Drive Recovery on Mojave
This is how you can recover your data from your erased or un-mountable external WD hard drive on macOS Mojave. Free download this amazing software and bring your lost data back to life.
Safeguard Data via Backup
This data loss instance must have triggered your brain to back up your Mac data. Backup does not mean, which most people comprehend, to save data to an external drive without keeping a copy on the internal drive. Backup means if you lose one the other you can use to get back your data.
Therefore, if you saved your data to an external drive and you do not want the same data on your Mac, then you need to have yet another external drive to back up. This is the sole philosophy of backup. It is advisable to create the backup of backup for business-critical data and keep the redundant backup in an offsite location.
ConclusionWd Hard Drive Formatting Software For Mac Pro
The blog showcased tried and tested methodology to recover your lost data from a WD external hard drive on macOS Mojave. Try Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to recover lost data quickly. The software is great to handle all kind of logical data loss situation from any Mac storage device—internal or external—including WD drives.
Wd Hard Drive Formatting Software For Mac Pc
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November 2020
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