You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both Mac and Windows by using the ExFAT file system. You can select the ExFAT format when using the Disk Utility to format the drive. The ExFAT format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated FAT32 format.
There are many reasons why you may want to format an external HDD or small flash drive. For instance:. You brought a new unformatted hard drive. If the drive is not properly formatted, it won’t work.
You want to use your external hard drive in both MAC, PC and Linux (use FAT32). Before you sell your SDcard or Pendrive, you should format it to erase its data.
Your camera’s SD card (FAT32) can only hold a file up to 4GB file. To get larger file size format it to exFAT.
Warming: Formating a drive, also erase its data. Although you can still get it back, but it’s much harder after formatting. So if you can’t afford losing you data, take backup. NTFS: This is windows propriety file system. Most external drives come preformatted in NTFS so that they can be used easily with Windows.
However, NTFS drives are read only in MAC, but you can get write access by using software like. It also works in Linux. And to support NTFS on Android use. HFS+: This MAC propriety file system and is used in iOS and MAC. If you format your external hard drive to HFS, you can use it on MAC and Linux (by removing journaling). However, to use it on Windows you can (read only). Ext4: This is a default file system for linux OS (including Raspberry Pi).
To read an ext4 drive on Windows, you can and OSXfuse for MAC. However, I have not really use this format much, so we just skip it. FAT32: This oldest file system and work with all OS i.e. Windows, MAC, Linux, Android, even TV, and PS3 etc. This is why it’s used in all small flash drive. Although it lacks all modern features and comes with 4 GB limit for single file size.
ExFAT: is the extended version of exFAT. It works fine with Windows and MAC (all the modern version). For Android, you can use Stick mount app (root needed). However being a windows propriety file system, it does not play well in open source environment. But unlike FAT32, it does not have 4GB limit for single file size. Thus making it ideal for SDcards of the high-end camera.
How to Format an External Hard drive or Pen drive Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in Windows, MAC, and Linux. Windows Formatting a drive on Windows is quite simple. Plug in your external HDD to the USB port of your computer then go to my computer find your external drive right-click it and select format. A new window will open, select the desired file system, keep the allocation unit size to default and check mark quick format (or it will take more time). Once done hit the format button and that’s it.
Within seconds, you will have your drive in the new format. Note: While formatting a pen drive you will see FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS as the available file system.
However for external HDD you won’t see the FAT32 (windows don’t suggest fat32 for bigger drives) However to get other format option you can use third-party software. MAC Start by connecting your external HDD to MAC’s USB port. Under the finder men, go to Go utilities Disk Utility or type disk utility in the spotlight and hit enter. Once under disk utility.
Select your external HDD on the left side and then select partition option. Now in the Partition area, click under Partition Layout and select 1 Partition. Then, click on Options. A new window will open, here select Master Boot Record and then click Ok. Now in the right side of windows, give a name to your drive, from the drop-down select desired file system format.
Make sure the size is set to an entire volume of your external drive. And once done, click on Apply. Note: Here you will also see an option to format a large hard drive to FAT32 which is not available in Windows. See (Imgur) Linux Unlike windows and MAC, Linux does not a have built-in partition tool. So, you will have ti install a GUI tool called GParted and then plug in your external drive in the computer. Open your terminal and type in the following command to install GParterd.
Sudo apt-get install gparted Once installed, type the following command to launch the program. Sudo gparted A new window will open. Click on the top right side, select the volume you want to format. Once you see the volume you want to format, right click on the block and select format choose the file system you want and click OK to confirm. Note: Since, I am running Linux in a virtual machine, in final step my Format to option is not highlighted, But in your case, you will be able to click it and select the file system you to format in. To see the final step, I suggest you check out this article. Android Say you don’t have any computer with you, now can you still format your external HDD?
Well, if you have an Android (ROOT) then yes, you can still format your drive to popular formats like NTFS and HFS. To do this, install from Play store. The main function of this application is to mount NTFS or HFS formatted HDD on Android, but there is another useful option hidden under settings — i.e.
Formatting a drive. Once installed, open the app, mount your drive and then go to the settings, There select the new file system for your drive, give it a name and hit format. # Top image from.
This answer explains how to format a drive in the exFAT or FAT32 file system. This allows the drive to be used on both Windows and macOS.END A Western Digital external hard drive can be used on both Windows and macOS. This is useful if a drive is being used under both to move files between the two environments. Most WD Drives come formatted in the NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (macOS) format. For a hard drive to be able to be read from and written to on both a Windows and macOS computer, it must be formatted to or file format. FAT32 has several limitations, including a 4 GB per-file limit. This is a file system limitation that affects both macOS's and Window's, and the only workaround is to format the drive to exFAT.
For more information about what these limitations are please see. The easiest way to format the drive to or is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility for FAT32, or both macOS and Windows' built-in tools, Disk Utility or Disk Management respectively for exFAT. Critical: Never attempt to connect any external drive to multiple computers at the same time. This could quickly damage the drive's partition and corrupt the data on the drive. ExFAT in macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) and above There are two easy ways to format a drive to use is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility; using Erase (Step 4) or Partition (Step 7).
For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:. Connect the WD drive to the Mac computer. Double left-click on the Mac HD, the internal Mac hard drive visible on the top-right corner of the desktop screen. Choose Applications from the left-side panel. From the Applications folder, open Utilities, and lastly double-click on Disk Utility. Disk Utility will now be open. From the left-side pane, choose the drive that is to be re-formatted.
Typically there are two listings for each drive unless more than one partition exists on a particular drive. Choose the drive listing that is farthest to the left (Not indented) for the drive to be formatted. It is usually directly above the name of the drive.
In the example below, the one to be selected would be WD Elements SE. Erase. After selecting the appropriate drive, additional option buttons will become available on the top part of the Disk Utility window. Click on Erase. The Erase dialog window will now appear.
Assign the name that will be given to the drive. Select the Format (file system) from the drop-down menu. For this article, we chose exFAT, see image below. Select the Scheme (Partition Table Scheme) from the drop-down menu. See image below.
Note: Only legacy macOS systems, using non-Intel CPU's, will utilize the Apple Partition Map. It is best to use Master Boot Record only for MS DOS format. All Intel-based macOS computers and drives larger than 2 Terabytes should use the GUID Partition Map. Click Erase to begin the format process. When the Erasing process is completed, click on Done. Partition. Click on Partition on the top menu of the Disk Utility window.
The Partition window will now appear. Click next to Format to display a drop-down menu, and select exFAT. This is the format that the drive will be formatted to. Confirm that the name of the drive is correct in the Partition area, and update it if necessary. When ready, click Apply. Disk Utility will begin the formatting and repartitioning process. This may take several minutes.
Note: If an error message is received stating that the drive is unable to be unmounted, this means that there is a program or service currently reading or writing data on the drive. Determine what program is accessing the drive and shut it down before trying to format the drive again. If the error message persists, restarting the computer may resolve the issue. If additional assistance is required, please. When finished, the drive will be formatted and repartitioned successfully. Click on Done.
ExFAT in macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier One of the easiest ways to format a drive to use is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility. For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:.
Begin by connecting the WD drive to the Mac computer. Once the drive appears on the desktop, click on Go on the top tool bar.
From the drop-down menu, click on Utilities. In Utilities, select and open Disk Utility. When Disk Utility opens, select the drive that is to be partitioned and formatted from the left-side panel. Typically there are two listings for each drive, unless there is more than one partition on a particular drive. Choose the drive listing that is farthest to the left for the drive that will be formatted. It is usually directly above the name of the drive, and is the drive selection that has the total size being displayed.
Once selected, click on Partition on the right-side area. In the Partition area, click under Partition Layout and select 1 Partition. Then, click on Options.
In the Options window select Master Boot Record and then click Ok. To the right, insert a name for the drive, and click on Format. From the drop-down, select ExFAT. When done, click on Apply. A window will come up showing that formatting and partitioning the drive will erase all data that is on the drive. If there's no needed information within the drive, then click on Partition.
If there is data on the drive that is needed or is not backed up, it will need to be copied to another location before proceeding. The drive is now formatting and a status bar will be seen at the bottom that says formatting the disk and gives the name of the drive, the format it is applying, and the name that was specified.
When it is done, this bar will go away and the drive should now be listed on the desktop. ExFAT in Windows 10 Another easy way to format a drive to use is by using Windows' built-in Disk Management. For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:. Right-click on Start, the Windows logo on the bottom-left of the screen, and click Disk Management. In the Disk Management window, the lower pane will display a list of available drives. Identify the drive that needs to be partitioned and formatted, and make sure that all critical data on this drive has been backed up elsewhere. If there is already a partition on the drive, the bar above that drive will appear blue.
If there is no critical data on the drive, or the data has been successfully backed up, right-click the bar and click Delete Volume. Important: If Disk Management shows the drive as Not Initialized, the drive will have to be initialized.
For assistance initializing a hard drive, please see. If there is no partition and data on the drive, it will appear as Unallocated, with a black bar on top. Right-click the Unallocated space or the black bar, and click New Simple Volume. The Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard will open. Click Next to proceed. Choose the volume size and click Next.
By default, the maximum disk space is already selected and it is recommended to leave it at the maximum disk space. Note: To create multiple partitions, select or type a specific number of megabytes (MB) for the first partition and continue to the next step.
Once done with this process, the remaining space will display as unallocated space. Now, create another New Simple Volume in the remaining unallocated space for the next partition. For example, on a 2TB drive, set the volume size to 1000000 (1 TB) and continue to the next step. When done, begin the New Simple Volume process again and select the remaining capacity, the unallocated space, for another 1TB partition. Assign a drive letter to represent the volume being created, and click Next. By default, this is the next available letter.
Next is the File System, which controls how the data is read and written. Set the file system to exFAT, which is the default Windows file system, and leave the Allocation unit size to Default. The Volume Label field can be customized in order to give the volume a desired name, such as My Book or WD Black 1. Check the box labeled Perform a quick format and click Next. Click Finish to begin formatting the drive. When complete, the drive will appear with a blue bar as in the image below.
ExFAT in Windows 8 and earlier Another easy way to format a drive to use is by using Windows' built-in Disk Management. For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:. Open Disk Management. In Windows 8 this can be achieved by moving the mouse to the bottom-left corner of the Desktop and right-clicking on top of the Start menu screen. Important: On Windows 7, Vista, or XP, instead click on Start, right-click on top of Computer and click on Manage.
Then, click Disk Management right below Storage. From the menu, click on Disk Management. Note: On other versions of Windows, Disk Management can be accessed through Control Panel, going to System Administrative Tools Computer Management. Disk Management will display the various disks that are available in that system. Locate the desired drive by looking at the drive information and drive size.
When ready, right-click on top of the drive that is to be re-partitioned and reformatted, and click on New Simple Volume. The New Simple Volume Wizard will appear.
Click on Next. Leave the size of the volume to be the maximum disk space so it has only one volume.
Click on Next. Assign a drive letter for the drive to have once the process is at an end. Windows will automatically assign one, but this may be changed if so desired. When ready, click on Next.
In the Format Partition section, select the File System to be exFAT and change the Volume Label to a desired name for the drive. Make sure the Perform a quick format check-box is highlighted, and when ready click on Next.
The Wizard will display a summary of the selected settings for review. It is important to know that formatting and partitioning the drive will erase all data that is on the drive. If there's no needed information within the drive, then click on Partition.
If there is data on the drive that is needed or is not backed up, it will need to be copied to another location before proceeding. If ready, click on Finish.
The drive will indicate that it's Formatting for a few seconds, and once done, it will display as a Healthy (Primary Partition), and the drive will be available in the Computer area of Windows under the assigned drive letter. FAT32 in macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) and above The easiest way to format a drive to use is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility.
For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:. Begin by connecting the WD drive to the Mac computer. 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. Choose Applications from the left-side panel. While in there, open Utilities, and lastly double-click on Disk Utility. When Disk Utility opens, all available drives will display on the left-side panel.
From said list, select the drive that is to be partitioned and formatted from the left-side panel. Typically there are two listings for each drive, unless there is more than one partition on a particular drive. Choose the drive listing that is farthest to the left for the drive that will be formatted. It is usually directly above the name of the drive. Once selected, click on Partition on the top area of the Disk Utility window.
The Partition window will now appear. Next to Partition, assign the desired drive name for the device. Click on the drop-down next to Format and from the drop-down menu select MS-DOS (FAT). This is the format that the drive will be formatted to. Now, click on Apply. Disk Utility will begin the formatting and repartitioning process.
This may take several minutes. FAT32 in macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier The easiest way to format a drive to use is by using macOS's built-in Disk Utility. For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:. Begin by connecting the WD drive to the Mac computer. Once the drive appears on the desktop, click on Go on the top tool bar.
From the drop-down menu, click on Utilities. In Utilities, select and open Disk Utility. When Disk Utility opens, select the drive that is to be partitioned and formatted from the left-side panel. Typically there are two listings for each drive, unless there is more than one partition on a particular drive.
Choose the drive listing that is farthest to the left for the drive that will be formatted. It is usually directly above the name of the drive, and is the drive selection that has the total size of the drive being displayed. Once selected, click on Partition on the right-side area.
In the Partition area, click under Partition Layout and select 1 Partition. Then, click on Options. In the Options window select Master Boot Record and then click Ok. To the right, insert a name for the drive, and click on Format. From the drop-down, select MS-DOS (FAT). When done, click on Apply. A window will come up showing that formatting and partitioning the drive will erase all data that is on the drive.
If there's no needed information within the drive, then click on Partition. If there is data on the drive that is needed or is not backed up, it will need to be copied to another location before proceeding. The drive is now formatting and a status bar will be seen at the bottom that says formatting the disk and gives the name of the drive, the format it is applying, and the name that was specified. When it is done, this bar will go away and the drive should now be listed on the desktop. FAT32 in Windows 10 and earlier Important: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP can only (using the actual operating system itself) create FAT32 partitions that are 32 GB or smaller.
In order to format a drive larger than 32 GB using Windows OS, additional software may be required. Western Digital provides the software that allows users of our internal hard drives to format their drives.
Users of our external drives will need to find third-party software to accomplish this task. Using Acronis True Image WD Edition for Windows (For Western Digital internal hard drives) Acronis True Image WD Edition can format any capacity internal single drive unit made by Western Digital. Please see the following article on how to format a drive to FAT32 using Acronis True Image WD Edition:. Using Third-Party Software (For newer (made after 2007) external hard drives) As Windows is unable to format a drive over 32 GB in FAT32, the use of third-party software is required. Western Digital cannot assist in acquiring or using third-party software to format a drive as FAT32. There are many different applications (many of them free) that can accomplish this.
We recommend doing a search on or for more information. Should a Mac computer be available, we are able to provide support for formatting the drive as FAT32 under that OS. Another option is to ask on our for community assistance in finding or using a FAT32 formatting application.
Using the FAT32 Formatter for older WD drives Western Digital has a Windows based utility that will reformat an older Western Digital external USB or FireWire hard drive back to the factory default FAT32 partition. The FAT32 formatter software is only for older external single drive units and can only format a drive that is 1TB and below.
It will not work on an external drive that is greater than 1TB in size. It also may not work on models released after 2007. When run, this utility can only create a single FAT32 partition for the full capacity of the hard drive. Please follow the directions below to download and use the Western Digital FAT32 formatting utility. Download the (select the product being formatted from the list first). Double-click on the file named ExtFat32vs2.00.zip and follow the onscreen prompts to install this program onto the computer.
The file may need to be uncompressed using some type of uncompression or unzipping utility. Check the box labeled I accept this License Agreement and click Next. Select the hard drive that is to be formatted and click on Start. Critical: All data on the target hard drive will be erased during this process. Please remove or backup any valuable data before performing this step. A pop-up message will appear warning that formatting the drive will erase all the data on the device.
Click on Ok to continue. The final popup will warn again that this will erase all the data on the drive. If this is the desired course of action, click on Yes. Unix/Linux (All Distributions) Western Digital technical support only provides jumper configuration (for internal hard drive) and physical installation support for hard drives used in systems running the Linux/Unix operating systems. For setup questions beyond physical installation of your Western Digital hard drive, please contact your Linux/Unix vendor.
You may also wish to post on our for assistance from other users of our products who may be able to assist you with your issue. In case the answer did not answer your question, you can always visit the for help from WD users.