
The process will take less than a minute. Select NTFS for the File System type and check the Quick Format checkbox. NOTE: Be sure you selected the correct drive icon for the My Passport external drive. PS: »Initializing WD hard drive will lead to data loss. Right click on the drive icon for the external drive and choose ' Format' from the menu. Then, you can do what New Simple Volume Wizard prompts. Right-click the disk and choose Create New Simple Volume. Choose Initialize Disk and pick one partition system between MBR and GPT. The Element also worked well with routers and media network media players. Locate the WD hard drive that going to be initialized and right-click it. On an Xbox One, the drive was recognized immediately once plugged and once formatted by the game console, I could use it to store games, apps and content for playback. Hard drives often have to be formatted to work on MacBooks and Apple Desktops, but I definitely had some difficulty getting my Windows NTFS formatted Western.
#How to format wd elements hard drive mac
The Element doesn't require anything from the host at all, other than a USB port.Īpart from Windows and Mac computers, where the Elements worked without any issues, I also tried it with a few non-computer hosts it proved to be compatible there as well.
#How to format wd elements hard drive software
A password-protected drive, for example, will need its host to run software to enable you to type in the password before it can get connected. To use them both on Windows and Mac, you need to reformat it to the exFAT file system that works with both Windows and Mac. WD Elements and WD Easystore drives are preformatted to NTFS, so they are only compatible with Windows operating systems. This type of bare-bones design means the drive can work anywhere. Tip 2: Re-format WD Elements or WD Easystore Drives.



The Elements' lack of features can be a good thing.
