WD portable hard drive reformatting software for Windows/Mac In order to reformat WD portable hard drive and permanently erase the data on the WD portable hard drive, we strongly recommend you to use this tool – Super Eraser to help you reformat the WD portable hard drive. The WD Passport for Mac is one of several drives that I use for backup on my MacBook Pro, so I do not need to. Recover any information on it. In fact I think I've now wiped it. I'm not sure because it will not mount on my desktop - however, I can see it with Disk Utilities. I have tried to format it. I have tried to repair it. I have tried to.
. Formatting Your WD My Passport for Your MacIf you want to get on with formatting yourWD My Passport on your Mac, you’ll find the step by step walk through just below.Underneath the quick guide you’ll findsome advice.Advice you’ll find useful ahead of formatting your My Passport drive on your Mac. If you have time they are worth a read. Who are these Steps for?These steps are for you if you have Mac OSSierra operating system on your Mac. Or later OS versions.For earlier releases of Mac OS, you findthat the steps are the same. Your screens menus may look a bit different sobear that in mind.One more thing before you go through the steps of how to format My Passport for Mac.
Formatting your WD My Passport will eraseany documents you have on the drive. If you have files on the My Passport driveand you want to keep them. Copy them off first.A for instance for you.When you buy your My Passport NTFS drive it’s pre loaded with Windows PC software. The software is for and works on a Windows PC.If you plan on using that software, copy ifoff onto a Windows PC first.
Then you’re free to format your drive.Or if you have some of your personal fileson the drive, You’ll need to copy them off first onto a Windows PC.Or you’ll be in a world of trouble.Because they’ll be gone. The Steps: How to Format WD My Passport for MacWhether you need to know how to Format WD My Passport For your Mac. Or you need to reformat My Passport for Mac.You follow the same steps.You’ll find below the ten quick steps, using words and pictures. There is a video after that you can watch as extra help. First power up your Mac.Log in and connect up your WD My Passport drive.2.
Look for your WD My Passport drive on Your DesktopYour WD My Passport drive will appear asan icon on your desktop. You’ll find your WD My Passport driveunder the “External” heading on this list.If it hasn’t appeared, it may well be that your Mac’s USB port is confused. Plug out your My Passport drive. Then a shutdown and restart of your Mac should sort that out. Xcom 2 facility build order. Pick your WD My Passport in the external hard drive list.Be sure you’re selecting your My Passport drive.An important point.
You need to select your Passport drive at the top level. You can have problems formatting WD Passport for Mac if you don’t. Select it at the right level. Double check. WD My Passport Set the Format PopupFirst give your My Passport drive a name.You’ll find it helpful to give your drivea name to reflect what you’re going to use the drive for.Next set the format.The up and down arrows to the right handside of the format option allows you to choose a format.Pick Mac OS Extended (Journaled).This is the file system you’ll need foryour Passport drive to work on your Mac.It’s what you’ll need for copying andpasting your documents to the drive. And for using your WD My Passport on yourMac for backup with Time Machine. File System FormatsNext you choose your Scheme.Pick “GUID Partition Map” for scheme.Once you’ve put in a name, selected your format and scheme.
Click on Erase.The formatting of your My Passport external hard drive then starts.You’ll find the formatting takes a fewseconds. Or perhaps a minute or two depending on the size of your WD MyPassport drive.
Once you’ve done your formatting.Dismiss your Disk Utility screen.Your newly formatted WD My Passport driveicon should show up on your desktop. And your WD My Passport is ready for yourMac to use. Images and Video Credit: Acquevara Some Useful Advice Before you Format WD My Passport For Mac Do you need to Format WD Passport for Mac?It depends.There are two types of the WD My Passport drive.WD My Passport the NTFS VersionIs preformatted and is simply called simply WD My Passport.And often it is the cheapest version of the WD My Passport external drives to buy.So What?NTFS is designed to plug into a Windows PC.A Windows PC understands it and you can copy your documents on to it.
WD My Passport BlueYour Mac can read a WD My Passport drivein NTFS format. But you can’t update any of the documents on the drive. Or copynew documents onto the drive using your Mac.You’ll need to format the drive to be ableto drag and drop files.
Or copy and paste files. Or use the drive for a TimeMachine backup.And you only need to follow the 10 stepsabove. WD My Passport For Mac VersionThe other type of WD My Passport harddrive comes in a ‘for Mac’ version.This means your new My Passport is formattedto HFS+ (Hierarchical File System).HFS+ and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) filesystem are one and the same thing.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system ishow it’s referred to on your Mac. And you’ll see that name within your Mac’smenus.WD My Passport for Mac is made to be ‘plugand play’.Plug the external hard drive into your Macand use the drive.You’ll probably pay extra for thispreformatting convenience.And sometimes you’ll find that you end upreformatting anyway. Because.Well a Mac is a Mac and is sometimesprecious about its external hard drive.
Your Mac may prefer the drive formattedby a Mac. WD My Passport for Mac BlackI have a review article here on the site that goes into more detail on the WD My Passport for Mac. Ahead of Formatting: What do you plan to use your WD My Passport Drive For?Pause a few minutes. Before you go aheadand format your shiny new drive, think about your planned use.For example are you thinking of:.
A place to save your documents?. Using the My Passport drive as your Time Machine backup disk?. Do you plan to share files with Mac and a Windows PC?Then you’ll need your My Passport drive in the right format.I have a document for you. “” head over and have a read.
Manufacturer's motherboard name: Pegatron IPMTB-TK. HP/Compaq name: Truckee. 24.5 cm (9.6 inches) x 24.5 cm (9.6 inches) Intel X58 Express. Front-side bus speed. Processor upgrade information. Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades: Intel Core i7 9xx series (Bloomfield, includes Extreme Edition) Memory upgrade information. 
Format so that you Can Save Your Mac Files on WD My PassportYou can drag and drop. And copy and paste files from your Mac’s internal drive to your WD My Passport Drive.Once you have it in a format your Mac can read.Remember though, if your intension is to free up space on your Mac. And the only copy of your documents now lives on your My Passport drive. What will you do if something happens to your My Passport drive?You would loose all you have on there.So think about getting a second external hard drive. Just in case.You may want to check this document out ““. To find out the different ways you can use your formatted My Passport Drive on your Mac.One other thing.Formatting uses up space on any hard drive.
When you work out how much space you’ll need and your total figures are close to the hard drive capacity. You should think of buying the next size drive up.That way you’ll make sure you have theroom you need. Format Before Partitioning WD My Passport for MacWould you like to create some partitions on your MyPassport drive?Now that you have your WD My passport formatted for Mac you can take a look at my article.
Format WD My Passport on Mac Frequently Asked Questions 1. How can I format my WD My Passport Drive for Resale?You should be aware that:The formatting procedure above will not stop someone using specialized data recovery software. And use that software to recover your documents from your old My Passport hard drive.If you’re planning on reselling your My Passport drive you’ll need the formatting to go deeper.When You Format Your My Passport Drive you Should;In Disk Utility when you select the erase option.Click on the security button. Format Security Options ButtonSelect one of the security options there. And format your WD Passport drive using one of those options.
It could take several hours to fully write over the drive.It’ll be worth it.As you’ll erase as much of your data as possible.And at least you can rest easier. And know it will take way more effort to recover anything from your sold My Passport hard drive.
How to set up encryption and a password to secure your My Passport hard drive.WD My Passport has 256-bit AES hardware encryption. Along with password protection for the drive. The WD Security software controls and manages the hardware encryption.You won’t find a copy of the WD Security software on the WD My Passport – non Mac.But you can download the Mac version direct from the Western Digital website.You might not want to when I describe apossible situation. And prefer to use the options provided by Mac OS forencrypting your hard drive. And to use Mac OS to add a password.Why?Because, without the WD Security software installed. And accessible by your Mac, you can’t get to your documents on your My Passport drive.Plus when you share your My Passport drive between several Macs, the software must be on those Macs as well.Let me paint a situation for you.Imagine your Mac has failed. And you’redesperate for your backup.
But wait the backup you need is on the My Passportdrive. And to get to that backup you need the WD Security software installed.But your Mac is wiped. You need your Mac’sbackup to get to the WD security software.You see the problem?You’re then in an almighty bind. And thisexact situation has happened.Mac OS will always recognize its ownencryption and password methods.You can encrypt your data.
And set apassword by selecting Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) file system. Time Machine Auto BackupUncheck the check box and try again.Often simply retrying the formatting clears the problem. You’re having problems formatting an external hard drive since upgrading to High Sierra.There have been quite a lot of discussions on various forums with many people having problems formatting hard drives. And this follows an upgrade to Mac OS High Sierra.I am sure Apple will produce a fix soon. But in the mean time to format My Passport for Mac try these suggestions.a. If the My Passport hard drive icon doesn’t appear on the desktop when you plug in. Go to Disk Utility and expand the external hard drive list there (step 4 above).
If your My Passport drive shows up in the list go ahead and format.b. Use a Windows PC to format your WD My Passport drive first to ExFAT. Then try again on the Mac.c.
Use a Mac with an older release of Mac OS to format your WD Passport drive.d. Download the WD Discovery software for Mac from the Western Digital site. This software allows you to check the disk health and you can format to HFS using that software.There are other options which are more complex if the above has not worked for you.
Check out my resources section below to see the discussion threads. WD My Passport Erase Failed Additional ResourcesYou’ll find other documents on the site about the WD My Passport external hard drive.“““”Do feel free to check them out.
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