When I bought the WD My Passport Ultra drive, I was surprised to see that it didn’t support OS X out of the box. Yes, it had some software specifically made for OS X on it, but even that didn’t help. Turns out, it just wasn’t in the right format. These hard drives are customized to run well on Windows (as you’d expect), and they don’t run well with OS X.
- How To Access A Hard Drive On Pc
- How To Access A Hard Drive On Mac And Pc
- How To Access The Hard Drive On A Mac
So to get it running, what we’ll need to do is format it in Journaled format, which is OS X only format or MS-DOS (FAT), which means it will run with both OS X and Windows. If you’re only going to be using the hard drive on a Mac, I recommend you stick with Journaled.
Oct 28, 2019 Plug the hard drive into the Mac using the cable that came with it. Most hard drives connect via USB, so you'll just need to plug the USB cable into an open port on your Mac. Display maestro 3 0 82. You'll typically find at least one USB port along each side of the Mac. Some Mac-specific drives may come with a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable instead. View the Contents of a Hard Drive. When you fail to access the hard drive, you can view the contents of the hard drive using Windows Explorer. This tool makes browsing through hard drive folders a breeze, but that assumes the hard drive is accessible to the computer. Pcdj dex 3 13 0 5. Convert the Internal Hard Drive to an External One.
![Drive Drive](https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/android-mounted-as-disk-drive-mac-os-x.jpg)
To connect a hard disk to a new VM: 1.Connect the external disk to the Mac via USB. Note: Make sure to select Customize settings before installation when creating a new virtual machine. In the virtual machine configuration window, select Hardware, select the Add button and then select Hard Disk. If your drive is having problems and you become aware of this before the machine crashes, or if you manage to get it up and running again (or in the case of an external drive your Mac is able to.
Why You Need to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
When I first got the hard drive, I wasn’t able to copy anything over to it (but I was able to copy from it). Disk Utility showed that it was formatted to MS-DOS (FAT) but I’m pretty sure it would have been NTFS instead. Is mac ads cleaner a virus. If you experience the same issue, your only recourse is to reformat it in one of two formats.
If you’re only going to use the external hard drive with Macs or you want to use it for Time Machine backups, format it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you’re like me who also needs to use at least a part of the hard drive from Windows PCs, you’ll need to choose MS-DOS (FAT) format. But here you won’t get great support for Time Machine. Plus you can’t make partitions bigger than 2 TB or move files larger than 4 GB around.
How to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
First, connect the external hard drive, bring up Spotlight Search by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Space and type in Disk Utility. Press Enter and Disk Utility will launch. You can also find it in Utilities folder in Applications.
Now, from the left column select 1 TB WD My Passport (or whatever your hard drive name is), and click on the Erase tab.
From here, in Format, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), give it a name if you want, and click Erase.
You’ll get a warning. Again, click Erase.
In a couple of seconds, you’ll have an OS X ready hard drive to go.
Related:How To Access A Hard Drive On Pc
Check out our Ultimate Guide to OS X Yosemite.How to Create Partitions
I’m planning on using my hard drive for both Time Machine backups and to carry media files around. I might need to use the hard drive with Windows computers so I’m going to format one of the partitions as MS-DOS (FAT), fully aware of its limitations. The other one, for Time Machine backups, will be in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
![Hard Hard](https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/format-encrypted-disk.jpg)
To create a partition, select the hard drive from the left column and click the Partition tab.
From the drop-down below Partition Layout, select the number of partitions you want. Don’t go overboard here.
Now, just below, you’ll see a visual representation of the partitions. You can use the breakpoint to change the size of the partitions by moving it up or down. You can also click on a partition, give it a name and select the format.
Once you’ve decided all the details, simply click the Apply button. From the pop-up, select Partition.
How To Access A Hard Drive On Mac And Pc
Disk Utility: Check out the two tips for using Disk Utility and 8 ways to free up space on your Mac.What Do You Use It For?
What are you planning on doing with the external hard drive? Time Machine backups perhaps? Or just storing media? Share with us in our forums section.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.