Format Wd 1tb Hard Drive For Mac

1. Wd External Hard Drive Mac
2. External Hard Drive For Mac
3. How Do I Format Wd External Hard Drive For Mac

Hi all, I'm in the market for a 1TB (maybe 1.5TB) external hard drive that is small, along the size of the WD My passport for example. I want to know what the best drive available is.

1. WD 1TB Black My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBFKF0010BBK-WESN. The thinnest 1TB and 2TB portable hard drive with a uniquely tough. External Hard Drive Format. Portable; Desktop; Hard Drive File System.
2. WD 2TB My Passport Ultra for Mac Silver Portable External Hard Drive, USB-C. Operating System, Formatted for Mac OS X, reformatting required for Windows.

Hi all, I'm in the market for a 1TB (maybe 1.5TB) external hard drive that is small, along the size of the WD My passport for example. I want to know what the best drive available is.

Price isn't so much of an issue but if possible I'd like to know the best with thunderbolt and the best without thunderbolt because I understand thunderbolt capability jacks up the price unnecessarily, and I'm not sure if it's worth it. I am familar with the G-Drive's, WD's, Lacie's, Toshiba, and Seagate's. Let me know what you guys think. Hi all, I'm in the market for a 1TB (maybe 1.5TB) external hard drive that is small, along the size of the WD My passport for example.

I want to know what the best drive available is. Price isn't so much of an issue but if possible I'd like to know the best with thunderbolt and the best without thunderbolt because I understand thunderbolt capability jacks up the price unnecessarily, and I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I am familar with the G-Drive's, WD's, Lacie's, Toshiba, and Seagate's. Let me know what you guys think. Click to expand.Yes. Unless WD is making a proprietary 1TB drive in 7200rpm, then it is superior. 7200 versus 5400.

I have never seen a WD 1TB in 7200 (I'm referring to 2.5' drives in this post). Although it is worth pointing out that HGST is owned by WD anyway. Just because it is USB3.0 does not mean it will be fast. You need a fast drive on the USB 3.0 enclosure. Clearly SSDs are fastest, but not everyone can afford a 1TB SSD.

I notice OWC even sells the empty enclosures for this drive because they extract the drive and sell it separately because it is so good (for its size). EDIT: Yes it is the drive in the Amazon link. See the reviews. There are a few complaints about the software included. I cannot comment on that as I always format the drive anyway. It seems the drive is excellent but the software is questionable.

Unless WD is making a proprietary 1TB drive in 7200rpm, then it is superior. 7200 versus 5400. I have never seen a WD 1TB in 7200 (I'm referring to 2.5' drives in this post).

Although it is worth pointing out that HGST is owned by WD anyway. Just because it is USB3.0 does not mean it will be fast. You need a fast drive on the USB 3.0 enclosure.

Clearly SSDs are fastest, but not everyone can afford a 1TB SSD. I notice OWC even sells the empty enclosures for this drive because they extract the drive and sell it separately because it is so good (for its size). EDIT: Yes it is the drive in the Amazon link.

See the reviews. There are a few complaints about the software included. I cannot comment on that as I always format the drive anyway. It seems the drive is excellent but the software is questionable. Click to expand.What's the value? See the following tests in Black Magic.HGST 7200 1TB 2.5' reads and writes at about 130MB/s in Black Magic.HGST 5400 1TB 2.5' (Apple 2012 Mac mini OEM drive) 105MB/s read 105MB/s write -WD 1TB My Passport USB3.0 reads and writes at around 75MB/s.WD Scorpio Blue 2.5' 1TB 5400rpm 110MB/s read 110MB/s write -WD WD3200BMVS 2.5' 320GB 5400rpm 59MB/s read 60MB/s write -Toshiba 2.5' 160GB 5400rpm 45MB/s read 35MB/s write -Toshiba 2.5' 120GB 5400rpm 45MB/s read 33MB/s write WD Passport drive are not fast.

They have never been fast. USB3.0 or not. The Scorpio blue is good for 5400. The Black is also good but only comes in capacity to 750GB.

Click to expand.Cnet is very likely running different tests than using Black Magic. For uniformity I am using Black Magic across all the drives so that you can compare. Also the review is on a 750GB drive not the 1TB.

The 750GB is an old model. Its not even available anymore from the manufacturer. I am assuming the drive inside is the HGST 750GB.

HGSTs 750rpm drive is SATAII and cache is only 16MB. The 1TB I am recommending is SATAIII and the cache is 32MB. Double the difference. SATAIII is not just about SATA speed. The data retrieval (and writing) from the platter is more efficient too.

The drive you showed me is not the drive, nor enclosure I am recommending. It is slower in the review because it is a slower drive. I am not sure why you think your WD Ultra is as fast as the HGST 1TB 7200? I understand you wish it was, but it simply isn't. Don't Go Thunderbolt, Too Much $$$ Don't get a Thunderbolt drive. Yes it's fast, but just as fast as it'll copy your stuff it'll drain your wallet. If you absolutely insist on a Thunderbolt drive, try Otherwise I would go with.

I actually just bought this exact same one yesterday and I love it. It has the ability to be connected via USB 3.0, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800. The drive comes with a cable for USB 3.0, a FireWire 800 to FireWire 800 cable, and a FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 cable. The drive itself has two FireWire 800 ports and a USB 3.0 port. It is bus powered which I really love and is a huge improvement over my old Western Digital MyBook. Really, don't go Thunderbolt.

The second drive is cheaper, more efficient, and the same amount of storage.

If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly. Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC?

As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Let’s take a look at them: HFS+ Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. If you’re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs – such as at home or the office – you might be interested in a program called. When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives.

This isn’t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though. NTFS The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X. Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option. However, you won’t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC. FAT32 The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system.

It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows. Case closed, right?

Well, not so fast. Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. The other limitation is the total size of the partition.

If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB. If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit. ExFAT The exFAT file system eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32: the largest partition and file sizes it supports are virtually unlimited by today’s standards. Awesome, it’s perfect! Almost since exFAT is fairly new, it isn’t compatible with older Macs and PCs.

Any Mac running 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) supports exFAT, while PCs running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows 7 are compatible. If you know you’ll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exFAT is the clear best choice. Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac. Launch Disk Utility (Applications Utilities).

Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left. Click on the Erase tab. Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive. Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting.

Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step. Format a drive using Windows. Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP). Select your drive from the list and right-click on it. Choose Format from the contextual menu. A window will pop up where you can choose the format – NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT.

Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label. Click Start to format the drive. I did exactly what you said to do in order to format a LaCie 160gb external hard drive to exFat for use on a Mac (OSX 10.7 Lion) and a PC (Windows 7).

Unfortunately, now my Mac doesn’t “see” the hard drive anymore and my PC tells me the device is not working properly (error Code 43 in Device Manager). Before reformatting from a NTFS, the LaCie worked fine on my Mac and my PC “saw” it but I couldn’t access it. It is connected via USB 2.0 and AC/DC power. Where could I go or what resource(s) is/are available for me to solve this problem? I heard using a firewire might help.

I just got a Seagate GoFlex Desk External Drive, and after reading your article, I tried to format it for ExFat but got an error: Invalid Option. Seagate tells me that they do not support ExFat. They say “Reformatting a drive in ExFAT is something that we don’t support. It can be an unstable format that can cause data corruption without warning.” Have you found that other hard drive manufactures say they don’t support this format for the same reason?

Should I turn the hard drive back in, and get a different one, where the manufacturer supports this format. Is what Seagate says true? I just got two Western Digital 3TB external hard-drives. I want to be able to use them on both Mac & PC. When i go to format it on my Mac, FAT32 is not an option, and every time i try exFAT i also get an “error: Invalid Option”. I then tried to do this on two other Macs & it still wouldn’t work, but then I tried it on a work-mate’s Mac today & it formatted in exFAT fine How unstable is exFAT?

I don’t want to lose the media i store on this drive. I don’t mind formatting it in FAT32, but it’s not an option when trying to format this hard-drive. Any suggestions? Is there a free formatting application that is good to use instead of using the “Disk Utility” on Mac.? I have an IMAC running OSX 10.7.5 I recently bought a Trekstor DataStation pocket light 500 GB external portable hard drive 2.5″ I need it to transfer 190 GB of video and audio files to give to an editor.

I received it and a small paper inside said it’s not compatible with my IMAC. Only to READ files.

I’m not sure what system the editor will use and after reading all the comments above, I’m really hesitant to re-format the disc before moving the files onto. Now the files are on another TrekStor external drive that the camera guy lent me. I am not very technical and don’t want to screw anything up. Can anyone help? I do hope you can help me with this I was using my sisters Mac temporarily and before giving it back to her I copied all my files onto a thumb drive.

Tonight I copied those files to the hard drive of my PC laptop and removed them from the thumb drive. For whatever reason I am trying to open a few of the files in a certain program, but it keeps telling me that the file I am trying to access is not supported. Someone mentioned that maybe it has something to do with the thumb drive. I have no idea what to do and I am praying that I didn’t lose any of my files. Thanks so much!!

Wd External Hard Drive Mac

I’ve read too many posts from people having all sorts of problems using exFAT to consider using it. Maybe one day, but for now, “not ready for prime time!”.

External Hard Drive For Mac

The best solution I found was: 1. Format your hard drive, or every partition on it, using NTSF. You’ll end up with a drive that is: – Stable, so your data is relatively safe (priority #1) – Capable of handling large files – Readable/writable in Win 7+ – But only readable in Mac OS X 2. Make the NTSF drive both readable and writable in Mac OS X. There are different ways to do that. Method 1: Mac OS X is actually capable of writing to a NTSF drive, just not by default (don’t ask!). So you need to activate it: 1.

Go to “utilities” and start the “terminal” app. (enter your password if prompted) 2.

Type (copy/paste): sudo nano /etc/fstab Press “return” Type: LABEL=TEST none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse Press “return”, CTRL+O to save, CTRL+X to exit the terminal. Unmount your drive, then plug it back in. It won’t show up anymore. Back in the terminal, type: open /Volumes press “return” There’s your NTSF drive! Now you can do whatever you want with it in Mac OS X. (tip: create an alias of the volumes so you don’t have to go back to the terminal every time) Another free method: “EaseUS ALL-IN-ONE Partition Manager” software I’ve not tried it myself, but I’ve only heard good things about it. You can download it here:.

Make sure to download the “free for home user” version. The other methods involve using 3rd party drivers such as: Paragon NTFS or Tuxera NTFS. They’re not free, but they won’t break the bank. I hope this helps. Thank you so much for this easy to follow and understand explanation.

I have OS X 10.7.5 running Lion. Bought the new Passport 1T today and even though the package says it can run on MAC OS X, when I tried to format with the company instructions it wouldn’t let me and stated “It will only run on 10.8 or above”. I looked at my old passport in Utilities and it was formatted as NTFS (Mac OS Extended) and wanted to follow the exact same since my old Passport has been excellent for my needs.

I formatted the new Passport with NTFS and it works like a charm. Really appreciate how you explained everything in simple terms, so not only was I able to do the formatting, I also understand what I am doing and why. I can now drag and drop files on to the new passport and they copy fast. Thanks a bunch. About MacYourself MacYourself was established in July 2008 by founders (and Apple enthusiasts) Ant and Frankie P., who wanted to create a tips & tricks site geared towards the average or new Apple product user.

The name itself was an accident, shouted by Frankie P. In a moment of frustration when he couldn’t think of anything clever.

How Do I Format Wd External Hard Drive For Mac

Immediately, a light went off in Ant’s head and he eventually convinced Frankie P. That it wasn’t as ridiculous as it first seemed. About us or send a friendly message. It's great to hear from people!

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