how to format wd external hard drive for mac and pc

You would do this by creating partitions on your hard drive. What If You Want A Separate Area On Your WD Elements For Mac And PC? You plug back into your Mac your Mac can see and use those files. Work on documents on the drive and put docs from your PC onto the drive. Western Digital Elements drive into your PC. Copy files from your Mac onto your Elements drive. You’ll find the name you gave it under its drive icon.Įntire WD Elements external hard drive is in a format both computers can use.Ĭreate folders. Your WD external hard drive shows up on your Mac’s desktop. And ready for you to use on your Mac and your Windows platform. Click toĬlick on Erase on the bottom right hand corner of the pop up window.Īnd in a few minutes your WD Elements drive is ExFAT formatted. Scheme as GUID Partition Map as you did before. You select the file system format of ExFAT. Now Format Your WD Elements Drive As ExFAT Your drive now changes from NTFS to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. Then click on Erase on the bottom right of the pop up window.ĭisk Utility now takes a few minutes to format your WD external drive. Next pick GUID Partition Map for the scheme. You open up the up down arrows to expand the list of available file system formats. The red arrow on the picture shows you where to click. You format your Elements drive to Mac OS Extended Journaled file system. You’ll format your external hard disk twice. One that’ll help you know exactly what you’re using your Elements WD hard drive for. Put in a name for your Elements shared external hdd.Ĭhoose a name that’s easy for you to remember. Your WD Element drive comes with a USB cable that has a type A connector that plugs into your Mac.ĥ. You’ll want to make sure you’ve enough power for your drive. And you’re half way through formatting your Western Digital Elements drive.

You won’t want your Mac’s battery to fail. Why?īecause the USB cable powers your Elements drive. You may want to think about connecting your MacBook Pro or Air to external power. You’ll need your Mac powered on and you logged in. And this way you’ll get a shared drive that works reliably. Mac’s are choosy about the formatting of their external drives.

Why Doesn't Your WD Elements Drive Work Out Of The Box On Your Mac And PC?Īhead Of Starting Your WD Elements Mac And PC Formatting.

Click The + Button Under The Large Circle.

To Format Your WD Elements With A Partition For Mac And PC.

What If You Want A Separate Area On Your WD Elements For Mac And PC?.

Pick Your Western Digital Elements Drive. Can You See Your WD Elements External Drive On Your Desktop? How To Format WD Elements For Mac And PC.Ahead Of Starting Your WD Elements Mac And PC Formatting.Top Level View Of Formatting WD Elements For A Mac And A PC.

How to format wd external hard drive for mac and pc