How to erase wd my passport external hard drive in windows. By default, wd quick formatter will format the drive to fat32 or ntfs and after formatting, a partition used to optimize the performance of the drive will be left. Like its predecessors in the essentials line, the my book is marketed primarily as a backup storage device. Wd smartware for windows supports the following operating. Mar 06, 2020 wd smartware is another great tool for recuperating access to your hard drive. Feb 04, 2020 the wd drive utility lets you reformat, diagnose the drive condition, and manage the drive s power use. Sep 17, 2008 i want to reformat my external hard drive but have no idea how to. There was nothing on the passport which was formatted with the wd smartware, but was reformatted with the dish formatting needed to save the dvr media recordings. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually come formatted for windows using fat32. Benefits of wd my passport the simple fact is, youll be very happy with the shape, weight, look and even feel of the wd my passport drive. I think it is necessary to reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase my private data. Aug 16, 2014 there was nothing on the passport which was formatted with the wd smartware, but was reformatted with the dish formatting needed to save the dvr media recordings. The drive comes with mionet driveaccess software that allows you to access the drives content from anywhere.
It is possible to reformat the drive and keep your files by formatting your drive and then using a data recovery tool to restore your information. Wd discovery can download data from cloud storage and social media accounts. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Here, you will find more information on how to erase the drive and unlock it. This article explains reformatting is required for macos compatibility. The best external desktop drive is the wd 4tb my book desktop external hard drive usb 3. I have wd smartware installed and would like to re format my drive and continue using the smartware but be more selective as to what gets backed up. Western digitals my book office is the latest evolution in their long history of back up devices. The twonky seems fine and i can put files into it and acces them form my other computers.
Locate the icon assigned to western digital my passport drive and rightclick the connected drive icon and click format in the popup menu. I installed the wd software bundled with the drive but i chose to not have it start with windows. How to reformat an external hard drive without losing your. Raid0 mode provides superfast performance with up to 360mbs2 sequential read speeds using the usb typec port. The wd elements desktop hard drive and the wd my book desktop hard drive and plug and play for windows, so this means it is ready to use as soon as you take it out of the box. How to use wd quick formatter to format external drive in. R9000 readyshare does not recognize wd mybook netgear. If you are running on mac, you will have to reformat the hard drives.
Super eraser will reformat the wd portable hard drive and permanently erase all data on the wd portable hard drive. Switch to raid1 configuration for redundancy and to mirror data on the wd red drives inside. However, it has twonky preinstalled on it and i cant find 99% of my stuff when trying to watch movies from my ps3. The plastic casing is certainly not as nice as the aluminum finish on the wd my book drives that i have for my macs, but it is similar to the black of the synology unit and overall looks good.
Click the wd smartware icon to display a list of drives and select the my book drive. Western digital mybook drive lock encryption failure and. I recently downloaded something with a virus in it onto my 80gb my book and now its messing everything up on my computer. Our latest edition features visual, easytouse, automatic, continuous backup software and drive lock security protection. The wd quick formatter is only for external drives, like wd my passport ultra. Wd backup sw could not find device repeatedly, even w tech support. However, you need to make doubly sure that you complete a quick format. How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and macos. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my.
For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. Western digital produces a line of external hard drives called the mybook. My book essential edition user manual about your wd drive 3 about your wd drive drive format this wd device is preformatted as a single fat32 partition for compatibility with all updated windows and macintosh operating systems. The data recovery tool in question supports all western digital hard disk drives, such as my book pro, my book, wd elements, my book studio, etc. The 2tb drive that i thought was done is now connected to my laptop and amazingly still working just fine. My book essential user manual about your wd drive 1 about your wd drive welcome to your my book essential external hard drive, an elegant, highcapacity storage solution for all the chapters of your di gital life. Oct 05, 2010 i have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers.
Her files are backedup on a wd my book essential external hard drive. Yes, you will need to download the software again make sure you can still download it before formatting if you cant, then back it up first. I recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. A western digital wd external hard drive can be used with any computer once it has been formatted by the computers operating system.
My book for mac user manual checking drive status use the wd smartware icon to determine whether the drive is encrypted locked, how full the drive is, the drives serial number, and the temperature condition of the drive. Formatting a my book external drives for pc wd community. I want to use time machine software to backup my macs to the network drive. User manual restoring the wd smartware software and disk image in addition to deleting all of the data on your my book drive, erasing or reformatting the drive also removes the wd smartware software and all of the support files, utilities, online help and user manual files. How to recover files from wd my book external hard drive. Western digital my book is a sleek series of western digital wd external hard drives. The top model features a single 4tb drive and a usb3. Nov 19, 2019 formatting a hard drive will wipe all software and all data you have stored on the hard drive. It also has a lot of additional features, such as security permissions to files and folders, hard links, a change journal, and more. Is there any fast way to reformat the wd portable hard drive and erase all the data on the hard drive. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. However, you may have run into a problem trying to use your western digital hard drive with multiple operating systems.
Purchasing the best hard drive is all about what you need out of it. Western digital my book troubleshooting, repair, and service manuals. The same goes for using any kind of wd drive on mac. It does offer a scan to fix it but wd does not recommend it without backing everything up on the laptop hard drive first. My book essential full how to reformat wd community. How can i reformat my external drive with the pc after it. Anyone know how to reformat it i know i will lose everything i already have. The program to restore is password protectected and we have no way of getting that information.
My book essential is almost full and is now not saving some of my files. Or can i scan and fix without losing any of my documents all my research for a book and about 10,000 pictures help. My book drive, with the wd backup, wd drive utilities, and wd security. Once wd drive utilities is running, click on the drive erase option. Western digital my book connection to windows 10 microsoft. Wd smartware is another great tool for recuperating access to your hard drive. I would like to use the mbl as a backup to the computes but not with the categories as in the wd software. Using win 10 on new ssd, wd my book backup sw does not work. But with the new windows 10 i get a black window in the lowerright that says the drive does not work. A quick format only deletes the organizational structure of the files on the drive, without removing the actual files. Feb 28, 2009 i recently downloaded something with a virus in it onto my 80gb my book and now its messing everything up on my computer.
How can i reformat the drive to fat32 so i can see it as a standard windows file system and folder structure rather than twonkys predetermined categories. Since i use a mac, i need to reformat the hard drive in order for it to be used. By this time i had purchased a 3 tb drive to expand my storage area, but since i have been burned by 2 my books i want to just reformat the 3 tb drive and use it without the encryption board. How to reformat a mybook external hard drive on mac osx. The wd drive utility lets you reformat, diagnose the drive condition, and manage the drives power use. This answer explains how to setup and use wd security and wd drive uti. This is a partition on the my book drive that contains the software that will allow you to unlock the drive. With the limited information you have presented, formatting drives with mac os 10. Using the western digital my book hard drive facilitates our lifes, you can take your favourite media data or any important files to anywhere when you need them. A notification will be displayed when the process has finished. Wd discovery can also be used to manage your drive with wd drive utilities. Aug 28, 2015 it does offer a scan to fix it but wd does not recommend it without backing everything up on the laptop hard drive first.
How can i reformat my external drive with the pc after it had. How to format my my book live home network drive my. The secret to reformatting a western digital wd 1tb my book. This was partly due to it saving 5 backup copies of files by default. How to format external drives using wd quick formatter in windows. Im having a hard time transferring my movies to it because after a certain amount it tells me that its either protected or in use, but if i turn the drive off than back on it lets me start up where i left off, only problem is this takes forever, and i heard that if i reformat it. Although mybook hard drives are capable of working with both macs.
I want to reformat my external hard drive but have no idea how to. How to reformat western digital portable hard drive. After having confirmed that the wd my passport is formatted with ntfs, many people will choose to convert ntfs to apfs for macos catalina, mojave and high sierra or reformat the wd my passport hard drive to make the wd external hard drive compatible with mac. This answer explain starting macos time machine backups to my passport. Now when i try to backup my laptop with the passport, it is not recognized at all. Sometimes, there will be a need to learn how to reformat my passport for mac, so once youre acquainted with formatting, you should enlighten yourself on how to reformat wd my passport for mac. When i upgraded the software mbl would not recognise the partitions previously created. It will not shorten the service life of the wd portable hard drive even the wd portable hard drive is erased 35 times by this software. Wd my book hw recognized by cpu, could manually copy files, but unable to do full backup. Restore the software on a mybook world edition hard drive. I cannot format it as a writable drive because the passport is not even recognized on an external drive.
If you arent, open my computer and look for a cd drive called wd unlocker. So, if you dont want to lose any of it back it up on another hard drive. Nov 19, 2012 mac users who want to take advantage of the usb3. A line of external hard drives by western digital, styled after hardbound books. May 15, 2020 the wd quick formatter is only for external drives, like wd my passport ultra.
That just goes to show that wd my book external drives are truly workhorses that give you years of use. However, anytime that i try to format the drive im told by the computer that there is no media on that drive. If you set the security password on the drive, you will be prompted for it if you connect the drive to a different computer. Tips for getting started with the wd my book backup drive. This, without access to the wd external drive, is impossible. Formatting a wd external hard drive does not require any additional software. I am wondering if there is a way to manual reformat it or something of. Yes, you will need to download the software again make sure you can still download it before formatting. Learn how to format your external hard drive, and what file systems are best for windows file history and macos time machine. Then, click on the erase drive button below to begin erasing the drive.
This drive connects directly to your mac through usb. If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. Select the file system from the dropdown list, which is available in the format expansion and choose either exfat or fat32. This answer explains how to format a wd drive for use on windows and macos. The presence of the additional partion not removeable as per wdc optionally mounted as a virtual cd, holding optional software like the wd sds permitting some other wdc software tp establish a special communications channel scsi between the pc and the hard drive to enable certain features such as password protection, led control, and access to the drives label if applicable. Western digital has taken a more is better approach with its latest iteration of the wd my book essential hdd. Reformatting a external western digital my book drive ask different. Nov 14, 2017 i recently purchased a 4tb wd my passport external hard drive from costco. Formatting a hard drive will wipe all software and all data you have stored on the hard drive.
My dvr reformatted the drive, only to tell me that i couldnt use it. The power adapter is reasonably sized not a brick, and the unit comes with a usb 3. I have a wd mybookworld 2tb network drive that was purchased and installed on my network as a backup drive for windows computers. When you buy a western digital wd 1 tb my book external hard drive, they usually. I just got a wd my book live and loaded all my movies, music and pictures onto it. Reformat and repartition the external drive are also available. I would suggest to use wd data lifeguard diagnostic and see if the drive passes both the quick and the extended tests.
External drive failure wd my book essential 2tb my workaround duration. You store your vital data in the wd my book hard drive, if you encountered the data loss, you. Available in various editions from essential, to premium to world edition. How to unlock a wd external drive without a password ccm. Wd my book essential not being recognized in windows 10. Reformatting a drive on windows is a pretty straightforward process. I need to use it for iphoto and it has the wrong format. To use a wd my passport on mac, you need to know how to reformat it.
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