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Western Digital offers an expansive portfolio of technologies, storage devices, systems and solutions for businesses and consumers alike. Our data-centric solutions are comprised of the Western Digital®, G-Technology®, SanDisk® and WD® brands. 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.

1. Wd For Mac Format Download
2. Format Wd For Mac

Summary: Let’s figure out how to format your WD Passport on macOS & Windows. In this blog post, we will walk you through the formatting process and share instructions to format an external drive on macOS & Windows.
But before you proceed, understand that formatting carries a risk of hard drive corruption and data loss. So, in case, if you had accidentally lost your data due to drive formatting or corruption, we also recommend a data recovery software that can rescue data from your HDD. Take a free trial to evaluate the software now.

Professional Photographers and videographers have their hands laid upon various digital devices. Usually, their arsenal includes a cutting-edge Windows 10 desktop, the latest and the magnificent MacBook Pro, DSLR & SD-Cards of-course and the trusted & loved external drives such as the WD My Passport. The role of the WD My Passport drive is crucial since the individual will leverage the portable media to safely store their collection of pictures, videos, audio, and docs. But despite the best of the best device specifications; there remains one small glitch to rectify.

We know, Macs and Windows have their native file systems such as the new APFS or HFS and the NTFS. A WD My Passport formatted with Mac file system will be a dud on the Windows and vice-versa. Thankfully, MS-DOS FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a WD My Passport safely and in a manner best suited for sharing your digital files between a macOS and Windows OS.

To format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in ex-FAT or FAT32 format, you can bank on built-in applications of Mac & PC. However, while doing this, there are things you have to keep in mind and follow the correct steps. Here you will get to know about the process to format your “My passport” portable drive in FAT32 and ex-FAT file system in both Windows and Mac platforms.

In Windows Platform:

1. Connect your Western Digital My Passport hard drive to your Windows PC through the USB cable. Wait till the Windows detects the external hard drive and configure it as an expansion drive automatically.

2. Now, click the Start button and select ‘This PC’. A new Windows Explorer window opens, on the left side of the screen; you will see a list of installed drives and their drive letters.

3. Locate the icon assigned to Western Digital My Passport drive and Right-click the connected drive icon and click ‘Format’ in the pop-up menu.

4. Select the ‘File System’ from the drop-down list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either ‘ex-FAT’ or ‘FAT32’.

5. Enter a relevant name in the ‘Volume Label’ field. This name will represent your drive when you connect it with Windows Explorer or Mac and will be mentioned above the drive letter for the My Passport drive. Therefore, enter a descriptive name.

6. Now, again select a ‘Quick Format’ option, then click ‘Start’ option, wait for a few minutes to get your drive reformatted with the FAT32 file system, so that you can use it. After successful formatting, you can directly save or move files to it like any other external hard drive.

In macOS / OS X Platform

1. Connect your Western Digital My Passport drive to Mac computer, and let the OS detect and mount the drive for use. Now, a new hard drive icon will appear on the desktop.
2. On macOS Dock, select Finder. When the Finder window opens, on the menu bar, select ‘Go’ and then ‘Utilities.’ After that, you will be able to see /Applications/Utilities folder in Finder. From the Utilities folder window, select ‘Disk Utility’ application.
3. When the Disk Utility opens, choose the Western Digital hard drive icon from the sidebar.
4. Click ‘Erase’ on the Disk Utility file menu. Now, the Erase dialogue window appears, here select the ‘Volume Format’ drop-down list and choose ‘MS-DOS (FAT)’ or ex-FAT File System.’ Note: ex-FAT is a better choice for formatting WD My Passport on Mac.
5. Now, click the ‘Erase,’ button and wait a few minutes and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format.
6. Once formatting is done, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.

Window’s Disk Management and Mac’s Disk Utility applications are secure platforms to erase your WD My Passport easily. You don’t require any third-party software to format your WD My Passport with FAT or ex-FAT.

Caution: Avoid Formatting your WD My Passport without Backup

We can’t rule out the possibilities of human errors resulting in the accidental formatting of the WD My Passport external drive. A silly man-made mistake will permanently remove all of the contained pictures, videos, audio files, and docs instantly from the WD My Passport. Hence, fasten your seat-belts and backup your WD My Passport before erasing. If you have already joined the data loss club unwillingly, then try running D-I-Y applications to recover data from Mac and Windows.

Tips for Effective Formatting

1. Format your Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to FAT32 or ex-FAT format so to transfer the data between a Mac and Windows system conveniently.
2. There are specific third-party systems, like Digital Camcorders, and Sony PlayStation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either FAT32 or ex-FAT format to perform read from and write operation. Check it before selecting a file format.
3. Due to some limitations FAT32 format is not useful for every type of user, and also affects both Mac’s and PC’s performances. Therefore, it is better to choose ex-FAT instead.
4. Ex-FAT supports maximum volume size up to 128 PiB, and its supported maximum file size is 128 PiB.
5. Like FAT32, ex-FAT is not a very commonly used file system, due to which its support may vary among third-party devices.
6. The corruption chances of the external drive increases, if it is used on both Mac and PC systems regularly. Therefore, it is better to take backup of your important photos and videos before sharing them between both the computers.

Download WD Quick Formatter Alternative to Format External Hard Drive

1. 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master - WD Quick Formatter alternative, right-click the partition on your external hard drive and choose the Format option.
2. 2. Assign a new partition label, file system, and cluster size to the selected partition, then click OK.
3. 3. Click the Execute Operation button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click Apply to start formatting your WD hard drive.

• Applies to Windows 10/8/7
• Supports NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4

Everything About Wd Quick Formatter - Wd External Hard Drive Format Tool

WD Quick Formatter, also called WD advanced format utility is a tool that allows you to reformat WD external hard drive to NTFS, FAT32, etc in Windows 10/8/7 or other Windows versions. It is usually used to repair corrupted hard disk when it is unrecognized or inaccessible, fix format issues when Windows was unable to complete the format, change file system, or optimize the performance of the drive. The WD Quick Formatter is ONLY for external drives. Once the WD Quick Formatter is finished reformatting the drive, the drive will only have one partition. This is necessary in order to optimize the performance of the drive.

Part 1. How to Reformat WD External Hard Drive Using WD Quick Formatter

WD Quick Formatter is available on the Western Digital official website. You can use it to repair a corrupted external hard disk. The typical symptoms - the power LED is on but the drive is not accessible. Meanwhile, you'll receive error messages like:

• You need to format the disk before you can use it.
• Drive X: is not accessible. Access is denied.

The most effortless way is to format the external hard drive if you want to get access to the drive. Follow the steps below to format the external hard drives with WD Quick Formatter.

Step 1. Connect WD external hard drive to your Windows PC. Download and run the WD Quick Formatter.

Step 2. In the welcome screen, click 'Continue' to move to the next screen.

Step 3. In the End User License Agreement page, click 'Accept'.

Step 4. Next, the WD Quick Formatter tool will scan for WD external drives to be formatted.

If the drive is to be used with a computer running Windows system like XP, then select XP Compatible. It is the same case with Windows 10/8/7. And if the drive is not to be used with Windows OS, then select Factory Default. Once this selection is made, click on the drop-down menu to view and/or select different external drives from the list, should there be additional drives connected to the system. When ready, click 'Format Drive'.

Step 5. Once the Format is completed, click the 'Format Another Drive' button to select another WD external drive to format, or click the 'Exit' button to exit the program.

Also read:How to Format WD My Passport for Mac and PC

Part 2. Format Wd External Hard Drive Using Easeus Free Partition Software

However, WD Quick Formatter might fail to format WD external hard drive due to some errors. When it happens, a reliable external hard drive formatter alternative - EaseUS free partition tool is needed. Many users have used this tool to complete the disk formatting job in Windows 10/8/7 while WD external drive format failed with the WD Quick Formatter tool.

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'.

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.

Conclusion

You can always format the wanted drive with WD Quick Formatter. If WD Quick Formatter failed in formatting external drive, try WD Quick Formatter alternative - EaseUS Partition Master. You can easily format your HDD, SSD, SD card, or USB drive for free. You can learn more in the table below.

WD Format Tool Frequently Asked Questions

If you have other questions about the Western Digital format tool, you can read the questions and answers below.

How do I check my WD firmware version?

Your firmware version can be found by going to the device's web interface and looking for the Firmware section.

How do I reformat a WD external hard drive on Mac?

Step 1. Connect WD My Passport to your Mac.

Wd For Mac Format Download

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'.

How do I update my WD firmware?

1. 1. Select your Current Firmware, connect the computer to the My Passport Wireless Wi-Fi network.
2. 2. Using a web browser, open the My Passport Wireless dashboard.
3. 3. Go to Firmware Tab.
4. 4. Under the section Auto Update.
5. 5. You will see a pop up confirming to upgrade your firmware, click OK.

How do I format my WD external hard drive for Windows 10?

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.

Which is better exFAT or NTFS?

Format Wd For Mac

NTFS is ideal for internal drives, while exFAT is generally ideal for flash drives. Both of them have no realistic file-size or partition size limits. If storage devices are not compatible with the NTFS file system and you don't want to limited by FAT32, you can choose the exFAT file system.