How to format WD external drive for Mac. That should do it. You should then a) see it mount on the desktop, and b) automatically get a prompt to use the drive for Time Machine - if not, you can go into the Time Machine menu (top right of the screen), go to TM Preferences, and select it. You can reformat WD Elements hard drive for Mac. WD Elements Drive 2 TB: WD Elements Drive 4 TB: GET 10% OFF COOL 'INTO THE AM' T-SHIRTS & APPAREL Click here.
By default, a WD Elements HDD cannot work on Mac computers as they are formatted in NTFS format. This format is not supported on Mac devices and you will not be able to access the hard drive. New (December 2017) WD Elements Drive will not format to Mac OS Extended Journaled. Having attempted this now says 'Erase process failed' and has called the disk' Disk 2s1' and is all greyed out. I want to use this new disk as a time machine backup disk. Any suggestions on how to rectify this. After Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry with 1TB WD Passport.) from the side list. Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility toolbar. A panel should drop down. In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to APFS (SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.).
When I bought the WD My Passport Ultra drive, I was surprised to see that it didn’t support OS X out of the box. Yes, it had some software specifically made for OS X on it, but even that didn’t help. Turns out, it just wasn’t in the right format. These hard drives are customized to run well on Windows (as you’d expect), and they don’t run well with OS X.
So to get it running, what we’ll need to do is format it in Journaled format, which is OS X only format or MS-DOS (FAT), which means it will run with both OS X and Windows. If you’re only going to be using the hard drive on a Mac, I recommend you stick with Journaled.
Why You Need to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
Western Digital Mac Driver
When I first got the hard drive, I wasn’t able to copy anything over to it (but I was able to copy from it). Disk Utility showed that it was formatted to MS-DOS (FAT) but I’m pretty sure it would have been NTFS instead. If you experience the same issue, your only recourse is to reformat it in one of two formats.
If you’re only going to use the external hard drive with Macs or you want to use it for Time Machine backups, format it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you’re like me who also needs to use at least a part of the hard drive from Windows PCs, you’ll need to choose MS-DOS (FAT) format. But here you won’t get great support for Time Machine. Plus you can’t make partitions bigger than 2 TB or move files larger than 4 GB around.
How to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
First, connect the external hard drive, bring up Spotlight Search by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Space and type in Disk Utility. Press Enter and Disk Utility will launch. You can also find it in Utilities folder in Applications.
Now, from the left column select 1 TB WD My Passport (or whatever your hard drive name is), and click on the Erase tab.
From here, in Format, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), give it a name if you want, and click Erase.
You’ll get a warning. Again, click Erase.
In a couple of seconds, you’ll have an OS X ready hard drive to go.
Related: Check out our Ultimate Guide to OS X Yosemite.How to Create Partitions
I’m planning on using my hard drive for both Time Machine backups and to carry media files around. I might need to use the hard drive with Windows computers so I’m going to format one of the partitions as MS-DOS (FAT), fully aware of its limitations. The other one, for Time Machine backups, will be in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
To create a partition, select the hard drive from the left column and click the Partition tab.
From the drop-down below Partition Layout, select the number of partitions you want. Don’t go overboard here.
Now, just below, you’ll see a visual representation of the partitions. How to unencrypt .rem files on blackberry. You can use the breakpoint to change the size of the partitions by moving it up or down. You can also click on a partition, give it a name and select the format.
Online lathe simulator. Once you’ve decided all the details, simply click the Apply button. From the pop-up, select Partition.
Disk Utility: Check out the two tips for using Disk Utility and 8 ways to free up space on your Mac.Western Digital Mac Software
What Do You Use It For?
![Western Digital Elements Mac Format Western Digital Elements Mac Format](https://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/thumbnails/000/105/022/small/digital-storage-hand-draw-icons.jpg)
What are you planning on doing with the external hard drive? Time Machine backups perhaps? Or just storing media? Share with us in our forums section.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#backup #hard disk
Did You Know
DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.
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I have a 1 TB WD external HD that won't mount. I connect it via firewire to my MacBook Pro running OS 10.13 High Sierra. My mac sees the drive, it just won't mount. I've also tried to mount it via USB, but again, my system sees the drive, but won't mount it. Does anyone have any suggestion what I can do?
Generally, when you connect an WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung external hard drive to Mac, it will be automatically mounted, then you can perform read and write operation on it. Alternatively, you can also select the disk and click on Mount to make it accessible by the operating system using Disk Utility.
However, hard drive problems may happen that your WD external hard drive won't mount on Mac, usually when you desperately need to access some data stored on it. Remain calm, all data on WD external hard drive is still there. This article will explain how to fix WD My Passport not mounting/showing up/recognized/detected.
WD external hard drive won't mount on Mac, how to fix?
First of all, if your WD external hard drive is listed on the left-hand-side menu of Disk Utility, you can make sure it doesn't have any hardware problem. Why the WD external hard drive won't mount? It is because the file system of the disk has been corrupted, preventing the disk from being accessible on Mac. Just try these solutions below.
Solution 1: Run Disk Utility to repair the WD external hard drive
No matter what problems you are meeting on a disk, First Aid is your first choice to repair it.
Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Choose theunmountable WD external hard drive.
Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
![Western Digital Elements Mac Format Western Digital Elements Mac Format](https://img.agem.sk/201410/W_obrazok_000154991.jpg)
Solution 2: Reformat to fix WD My Passport not mounting
If Sometimes, the Disk Utility may not function as desired. In this situation, the only solution is to reformat the WD external hard drive. But reformatting will remove all data on the disk. In order to avoid data loss, you have to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drive as soon as possible.
Step 1: Recover lost data from unmountable WD external hard drive on Mac
As the best free Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is able to recover lost data from unmountable, unreadable, corrupted, inaccessible external hard drive, hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, etc. It supports to recover documents, photos, music files, videos, emails on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac. M3u converter for mac.
2. Launch this program. Select the unmountable WD external hard drive and click 'Next'. The program will start scanning this drive for recoverable files.
3. After the scanning process finishes, you can click the found files and preview.
4. Choose what you want to get back and click 'Recover'.
5. Go through the recovered files and make sure all desired files are back.
Step 2: Fix WD external hard drive not mounting/showing up/recognized/detected on Mac by reformatting
1. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
2. Select the unmountable WD external hard drive and click 'Erase' on the top.
3. Provide a name and a format to erase the drive.
4. When finished, you can mount your WD external hard drive on Mac and use it again.
Also read: Other ways to erase external hard drive on Mac
Hope this tutorial can help to fix WD external hard drive not mounting/showing up/recognized/detected on Mac. If your WD external hard drive not recognized on Windows, it is also easy to be fixed. If you have any question, please feel free to contact us.
Also read: Can't See External hard drive showing up on Mac, What to do?
Still have questions?