How To Format Wd Elements For Mac



  1. Open up Disk Utility.
  2. In Your Disk Utility Window.
  3. Click on your WD Elements Drive.
  4. Look at the Top of your Disk Utility Pop Up Window.
  5. Filling in your WD Elements Formatting Options.
  6. Click the Erase Button.
  7. Double Click on Your WD Elements Drive Icon on Your Desktop.
  1. The external drive for Mac to Windows 8 transition makes use of Window’s built-in Disk Management software rather than the macOS Disk Utility, but you’ll still want to format your WD Passport.
  2. Simply choose APFS or Mac OS Extend format in Disk Utility, which also works if you want to format WD Elements for Mac. Choose 'GUID Partition Map' as Scheme.

By default, a WD Elements HDD cannot work on Mac computers as they are formatted in NTFS format. This format is not supported on Mac devices and you will not be able to access the hard drive. View the manual for the Western Digital WD Elements here, for free. This manual comes under the category External Hard Drives and has been rated by 4 people with an average of a 8.7. This manual is available in the following languages: Engels, Duits. Do you have a question about the Western Digital WD Elements or do you need help?

View more on it here. Also question is, is wd elements compatible with Mac?

Yes you can use your WD Elements drive for both a Mac and a PC if you want. And particularly if you want to use for both without using special software. And its easy to do. You just connect up your WD Elements drive to your Mac and format it to ExFAT.

how do I format my Elements hard drive? To reformat a drive on Windows:

  1. Plug in the drive and open Windows Explorer.
  2. Right-click the drive and choose Format from the drop-down menu.
  3. Select the file system you want, give your drive a name under Volume label, and make sure the Quick Format box is checked.
  4. Click Start, and the computer will reformat your drive.

Subsequently, one may also ask, why won't my WD Elements work on Mac?

One of the reasons why your Mac cannot read WD external drive could be due to the loose connections. Make sure that enough power is being delivered to the drive and if the problem still persists, try connecting the drive with another cable.

Is a WD Passport compatible with Mac?

The regular My Passport Ultra is compatible with Mac OS after reformatting, but users that know that they will be using a Mac might find this model to be easier. It comes with 256-bit AES encryption for added security, as well as compatibility with Apple Time Machine.

Posted by Katrina to Mac Data Recovery Tips on January 7th, 2019

I have a 1 TB WD external HD that won't mount. I connect it via firewire to my MacBook Pro running OS 10.13 High Sierra. My mac sees the drive, it just won't mount. I've also tried to mount it via USB, but again, my system sees the drive, but won't mount it. Does anyone have any suggestion what I can do?

Generally, when you connect an WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung external hard drive to Mac, it will be automatically mounted, then you can perform read and write operation on it. Alternatively, you can also select the disk and click on Mount to make it accessible by the operating system using Disk Utility.

However, hard drive problems may happen that your WD external hard drive won't mount on Mac, usually when you desperately need to access some data stored on it. Remain calm, all data on WD external hard drive is still there. This article will explain how to fix WD My Passport not mounting/showing up/recognized/detected.

WD external hard drive won't mount on Mac, how to fix?

First of all, if your WD external hard drive is listed on the left-hand-side menu of Disk Utility, you can make sure it doesn't have any hardware problem. Why the WD external hard drive won't mount? It is because the file system of the disk has been corrupted, preventing the disk from being accessible on Mac. Just try these solutions below.

Solution 1: Run Disk Utility to repair the WD external hard drive

How To Format Wd Elements For Mac And Pc

No matter what problems you are meeting on a disk, First Aid is your first choice to repair it.

Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.

Step 2: Choose theunmountable WD external hard drive.

Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.

Solution 2: Reformat to fix WD My Passport not mounting

If Sometimes, the Disk Utility may not function as desired. In this situation, the only solution is to reformat the WD external hard drive. But reformatting will remove all data on the disk. In order to avoid data loss, you have to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drive as soon as possible.

Step 1: Recover lost data from unmountable WD external hard drive on Mac

As the best free Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is able to recover lost data from unmountable, unreadable, corrupted, inaccessible external hard drive, hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, etc. It supports to recover documents, photos, music files, videos, emails on Big Sur 11/macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.

2. Launch this program. Select the unmountable WD external hard drive and click 'Next'. The program will start scanning this drive for recoverable files.

3. After the scanning process finishes, you can click the found files and preview.

4. Choose what you want to get back and click 'Recover'.

5. Go through the recovered files and make sure all desired files are back.

How To Format Wd Elements For Mac

Step 2: Fix WD external hard drive not mounting/showing up/recognized/detected on Mac by reformatting

How To Format Wd Elements Se For Mac And Pc

How to format a wd elements for mac

1. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

2. Select the unmountable WD external hard drive and click 'Erase' on the top.

3. Provide a name and a format to erase the drive.

4. When finished, you can mount your WD external hard drive on Mac and use it again.

Also read: Other ways to erase external hard drive on Mac

Hope this tutorial can help to fix WD external hard drive not mounting/showing up/recognized/detected on Mac. If your WD external hard drive not recognized on Windows, it is also easy to be fixed. If you have any question, please feel free to contact us.

Also read: Can't See External hard drive showing up on Mac, What to do?

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