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Getting Started with a My Passport for Mac How to format a WD hard drive to exFAT or FAT32 file system. Answer ID 291. This answer explains how to format a WD drive for use on Windows and macOS. How to erase a WD hard drive. Answer ID 26338. Can't get Windows to view my 1TB My Passport EXT HD. On Neowin to contribute and support the site. Data from the mac partition and reformat drive to something windows and mac can use such.
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To make your Western Digital hard drive work on both Mac and Windows computers, you need to format the drive with the FAT32 file system. Although both operating systems can format your drive with the FAT32 system, Windows 7 limits the partition size to just 32GB, but you can format up to 1TB drives through the Windows Command Prompt. Macs don't limit these partition sizes, so if you have access to both operating systems, format the drive using a Mac.
Macintosh
1.Connect your Western Digital hard drive to your Mac computer.
2.Double-click the drive icon that appears on your desktop.
3.Click 'Applications' from the left pane, 'Utilities' from the second pane and then double click 'Disk Utility' from the third pane.
4.Click the drive from the left pane of the Disk Utility. There will likely be two drives listed. Choose the one positioned farthest to the left. It should have 'WD' in the drive label.
5.Click the 'Options' button, click 'Master Boot Record' from the pop-up window and click 'OK.'
6.Click the drop-down menu under 'Volume Scheme' and choose '1 Partition.'
9.![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126294480/760342466.jpg)
Click 'Partition' in the confirmation window. The drive will then format. When formatting is complete, the progress bar disappears.
Windows
1.Connect your Western Digital hard drive to your Windows computer. If you see an AutoPlay window, close it, but note the drive letter associated with the newly attached drive. You can also find this drive letter by holding the 'Windows' key, pressing 'E' to launch Windows Explorer and looking for the drive in the list of storage devices.
2.Click the 'Start' button, type 'cmd' and press 'Enter' to run the Command Prompt.
3.Type 'format /FS:FAT32 X:' and press 'Enter.' Replace 'X' with the drive letter of your Western Digital drive.
4.Type 'y' to confirm formatting. Formatting may take several minutes, but the Command Prompt window will display a confirmation with formatting is complete.
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Taylor, C.. 'How to Make a Western Digital HD Work for Mac & Windows.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-western-digital-hd-work-mac-windows-29138.html. Accessed 15 December 2019.
Taylor, C.. (n.d.). How to Make a Western Digital HD Work for Mac & Windows. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-western-digital-hd-work-mac-windows-29138.html
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Taylor, C.. 'How to Make a Western Digital HD Work for Mac & Windows' accessed December 15, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-western-digital-hd-work-mac-windows-29138.html
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