- #HOW TO FORMAT WD ELEMENTS ON WINDOWS XP HOW TO#
- #HOW TO FORMAT WD ELEMENTS ON WINDOWS XP SOFTWARE#
- #HOW TO FORMAT WD ELEMENTS ON WINDOWS XP WINDOWS#
It does not offer the ability to format a drive larger than 32GB to FAT32, the only available choices are NTFS or exFAT. If you want to format your WD My Passport to FAT32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32GB. If it is larger than 32GB, you can only format it to exFAT.
#HOW TO FORMAT WD ELEMENTS ON WINDOWS XP WINDOWS#
Open Windows File Explorer, locate and right-click on WD My Passport that you need to format, select "Format".
#HOW TO FORMAT WD ELEMENTS ON WINDOWS XP HOW TO#
#FORMAT WD MY PASSPORT FOR MAC HOW TO#Ĭlick "Start" to begin the formatting.ģ - How to Format WD My Passport in macOS/OS X Platform Rename the drive, reset its file system to FAT32 or exFAT. The easiest way to format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32 or exFAT. Once the process begins, all the data on the drive will be lost! Tips: The instructions below are designed to help repartition and format a hard drive. 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". Select your WD My Passport on the sidebar, choose "Erase". Rename the drive, select the "Volume Format" drop-down list and choose "MS-DOS (FAT)" or "ex-FAT File System". Wait for the process to complete and let the macOS erase data on the drive and reformat it by FAT32 or ex-FAT format. Then, you can use the drive in macOS or OS X as a regular hard drive.
#HOW TO FORMAT WD ELEMENTS ON WINDOWS XP SOFTWARE#
If you lost data after formatting your WD HDD on Mac, you can run EaseUS Mac data recovery software to get data back. Plug one end of the USB cable into the drive and the other end in your system.Plug the wall/power bar and let power enter it. Navigate to "My Machine" to see the new hard disk.If you have a USB 3.0 port on your system, use it to gain a higher transfer speed. Only follow the Program Setup prompts.Double-click it and select "Create WD Applications". Don't stray from them and tamper with instructions you don't understand.ĭifference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFSįAT is known as the File Allocation Table. The successive major versions of the FAT format are named after the number of table element bits: FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. FAT32 is the oldest of the three file systems available to Windows. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which admittedly is less of a limitation unless you’re using super-high-capacity drives.ĮxFAT, Extended File Allocation Table, is optimized for flash drives. It was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista. This file system doesn't have the limitations of FAT32. You can use it when you need a bigger file size and partition limits than FAT32 offers. NTFS, NT File System, is the modern file system Windows likes to use by default. It is packed with modern features not available to FAT32 and exFAT. However, it only works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default. #FORMAT WD MY PASSPORT FOR MAC SOFTWARE#Ĭheck The USB Port You Have On Your Mac And On Your Windows PC.What If You Bought A WD My Passport For Mac?.Plugging In Your WD My Passport Into Your Mac And Windows PC.If you want to use WD My Passport or any other hard drive on Mac and PC, you need to format a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive in exFAT or FAT32 format.