addniom.blogg.se - How do i format my wd external hard drive for mac and pc

It was introduced by Apple in the year 2006 and is now the default file system of the latest Mac operating system, macOS High Sierra. How to Convert External Drive to APFS Format?ĪPFS is the short form of the Apple File System.This procedure will wipe out the entire drive. Note: I'm assuming you have already backed up your data. Assuming everyĭevice you want to use the drive with supports exFAT, you shouldįormat your device with exFAT instead of FAT32. Ideal Use: Use it for USB flash drives and other external drives, especially if you need files of over 4 GB in size. Limits: No realistic file-size or partition-size limits. Than support NTFS, but some - particularly older ones - may only Works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of Mac OS X,īut requires additional software on Linux. Ideal Use: Use it on removable drives for maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices, assuming you don’t have any files 4 Limits: 4 GB maximum file size, 8 TB maximum partition size. Works with all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, and practically anything with a USB port. If you can't decide between FAT32 and exFAT, it's simple: FAT32: I recommend FAT32 or exFAT since it will be compatible with both Windows and Mac.ĭiskpart is a very robust utility and FAT32/exFAT partitions created under Windows will work on Macs without any issues. Double click and you'll be asked to format it.

You will see an unformatted partition as large as the drive capacity.

Exit the utility and open This PC or My Computer.

Type create partition primary to create a single partition as large as the capacity.

Type clean to erase the entire drive including the partition table.

Type select disk 1 (I'm assuming the WD drive is disk 1).

Identify the WD drive by it's storage (it would be around 1000 GB or whatever the capacity is). You can identify all the disks by their storage size.

The first listed disk (disk 0) is often the computer's hard drive.

Type list disk to list the connected physical drives.

I don't know what exactly happened while you were formatting it for Mac (which caused them to be hidden) but you can recover all the space in a few seconds. There might be some hidden partitions on the drive.