Note: For help installing the WD external drive on a computer or formatting/re-formatting a WD external hard drive on Windows XP or Mac OS X, please see the answers below:. Important: Reformatting the drive will erase the pre-loaded software, if it is not possible to save the software that came with the drive, it can be found in the under each specific drive's page. However, it is required to register the drive in order to download any restricted software.
To partition and format the external hard drive with Disk Management, follow the steps below:. To begin, access Disk Management by right-clicking on My Computer and left-click on Manage. The Computer Management screen will open. If the My Computer icn is not seen on the desktop, it should be located in the Start Menu. Computer Management can also be accessed from the Control Panel under Administrative Tools. When Computer Management opens, it will have two panes. On the left pane, there will be a list of items.
Under Storage, click on Disk Management. This will load a right pane with 2 windows on the right side. It may be a good idea to maximize the Computer Management window to see all listed drives. In the lower right pane contains a graphical list of all available drives or devices. Find the drive listing that corresponds to the drive to partition and format. It typically has a black bar indicating unallocated space.
Method 1: Partition an external hard drive using Windows 10 Disk Management Step 1: Connect the external hard drive you want to add partition to your computer. Step 2: Open Disk Management. Right-click Start menu and select Disk Management. Step 3: Find the external hard drive you want to. With Disk Utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select Partition. If you want to start from scratch, you can do so by first clicking Erase, followed by Erase Free Space to format the disk. Next, under the Partition Layout column, specify the number of partitions you want to create on the drive.
Important: The drive may need to be initialized. If so, please see for more information. If there is a blue bar, then the drive has already been partitioned and formatted. Make sure, that if you have data on the drive, back it up before proceeding. When ready to proceed, right-click on the blue bar and choose Delete Partition.
You will get a pop-up window asking you if you really want to delete the partition. The bar should now be black.
Note: If the drive does not show up in Disk Management, then please see for more information. Windows XP does not support GUID partition tables, for drives larger than 2TB (Terabytes).
It's best to use the WD Quick Formatter utility and select the Compatibility check box from the XP machine. Please see for more information. Right-click on the black bar to see a menu of available options. Select New Partition. The Welcome to New Partition Wizard will come up. Click on Next to proceed to the next screen.
Choose Primary Partition and press Next. This is where you can set a partition on the drive. By default Windows chooses the whole drive so click on Next. Note: If the user would like to create multiple partitions on the drive, please type in the amount in megabytes desired for the Primary Partition, and it will partition and format only that amount. For example, using a 500 GB hard drive and it's desired to split the drive into two partitions, type in 250000 (for 250 GB's) in the Partition size in MB area. After formatting this first partition, the user will need to go back and follow the above steps again to partition and format the left-over unallocated area of the drive. The next time around, however, choose Extended Partion at the Select Partition Type window.
(Look at previous step.) Remember, to change or add partitions, will destroy any data on the drive. So, be sure to plan out ahead how many and what size partitions you want before creating them. Choose the drive letter that you want the drive to have. By default Windows will choose the next available drive letter. Then click on Next. This is the format screen. Make sure that the File System is set to NTFS.
In the Volume Label field you can give the drive a name if you want. Check the box that says Perform a Quick Format so that the drive will be formatted quickly. Make sure to leave the Allocation unit size to Default, and then click Next. This screen gives you a confirmation of all the steps that you just went through. Click on Next. The listing for the drive (Disk 2 in the picture below) will say Formatting as it formats the drive. When the drive is done (Disk 2 in the picture below) the bar will be blue and the drive will say Healthy.
In case the answer did not answer your question, you can always visit the for help from WD users.
So, you just bought an external hard drive and wanted to use it on your Mac. But somehow, macOS doesn’t allow you to write data to the drive. That’s all because it’s been initialized with Windows NT File System (NTFS), which is primarily for PCs. Apple Mac machines support a different file system.
![External External](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125441107/856739272.gif)
In this post, I’m going to show you how to format your external drive for a Mac compatible file system i.e. Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Just follow this easy step-by-step guide and you’re all set. Important note: If you have useful files stored on the external drive, be sure to copy or transfer them to another safe place prior to formatting. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good. You could use a recovery program like to retrieve them, but the odds of recovery vary. Pro tip: If your external drive has a large volume, like mine – a. I highly recommend you also create multiple partitions.
I’ll also show you how to do that below. Most External Hard Drives Are Initiated with NTFS During the last several years, I’ve used several removable drives, including a 500GB WD My Passport, 32GB Lexar flash drive, and a few others. Three weeks ago, I bought a brand new 2TB Seagate Expansion to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated to the latest macOS, 10.13 High Sierra (also see those I encountered). When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this. When I opened it, the default content was all there.
Since I wanted to use it on Mac, I clicked the blue logo with the text “StartHere-Mac”. It brought me to a webpage on Seagate’s site, where it clearly indicated the drive was initially set up to work with a Windows PC. If I wanted to use it with Mac OS or Time Machine backup (which is my intent), I’ll need to format the drive for my Mac. I then right-clicked the external drive icon on Mac desktop Get Info. It showed this format: Format: Windows NT File System (NTFS) What is NTFS? I’m not going to explain here; you can read more on.
The problem is that on macOS, you can’t work with files saved on an NTFS drive unless you use a paid app. How to Format an External Drive to Work with Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended)? Note: The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macOS Sierra 10.12.5.
They might be different if your Mac has a different version. Step 1: Open Disk Utility. The quickest way to do this is a simple Spotlight search (click the search icon on the upper right corner), or go to Applications Utilities Disk Utility. Step 2: Highlight your external drive and click “Erase”.
Make sure your drive is connected. It should show up on the left panel under “External”. Select that disk and click the “Erase” button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format. A new window will pop up asking which file system you’d like to format the external drive to. By default, it’s the Windows NT File System (NTFS).
Select the one shown below. Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select “ExFAT”. Learn more about the differences between these file systems from.
By the way, you can also rename your external drive. Step 4: Wait until the erasing process is complete. For me, it took less than a minute to format my 2TB Seagate Expansion. You can also check to see if the format was successful. Right-click on the icon for your external drive on Mac desktop, then select “Get Info”. Under “Format”, you should see text like this: Congratulations! Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with Apple MacOS, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want.
How to Partition an External Hard Drive on Mac If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive (in fact, you should for better file organization), here’s a step-by-step guide: Step 1: Highlight your drive and click “Partition” in Disk Utility. Open the Disk Utility app and highlight your external hard drive.
Make sure you select the disk icon right under “External”. If you select the one below it, the Partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable. Step 2: Add partitions and allocate volume for each one. After clicking “Partition”, you’ll see this window. Located on the left is a big blue circle with the name of your external drive together with its volume size. What you need to do next is click the add “+” button to increase the number of partitions on your external disk.
![How To Partition An External Hard Drive How To Partition An External Hard Drive](http://www.rawinfopages.com/tips/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/partition-disk.jpg)
Then allocate the desired volume to each partition. You can do that by clicking the small white circle and dragging it around. After that, you can rename each partition and define a file system for it.
Step 3: Confirm your operation. Once you hit “Apply”, a new window pops up asking for your confirmation. Take a few seconds to read the text description to make sure it reflects what you intend to do, then click the “Partition” button to continue. Step 4: Wait until it says “Operation successful.” To check whether the operation is really successful, go to your Mac desktop. You should see multiple disk icons show up.
I chose to create two partitions on my Seagate Expansion — one for backup, the other for personal use. You can find more info in this post:. That wraps up this tutorial article.
I hope you find it helpful. As always, let me know if you have any issues during the formatting or partitioning process.