Thanks to this program we will be able to format, in seconds, any drive in this format, bypassing the restrictions of Windows itself. And these are the best and fastest for it.įAT32 Format, an essential program that you should always have at handįAT32 Format is, broadly speaking, a graphical interface for the fat32format tool.
Therefore, if we have to use this old file system, it is necessary to resort to third-party programs that allow us to do so. Depending on the type of drive, we can also find some other file system, such as REFS. If we try to format any drive larger than 64 GB from Windows we will find that the only compatible file systems to choose from are NTFS and exFAT.
Operating systems, such as Windows, try to make users use different, more modern file systems that allow them to make better use of their space and have other features and improvements. This file system is one of the ones that have been with us the longest and, although it still works today, the truth is that it has many limitations
“I have a 1TB WD Elements Portable USB 3.0 hard drive, formatted with NTFS and used with PC running Windows 10.Surely we have all heard of the FAT32 file system.
I wonder whether I can just use it with Mac directly or need to reformat it for Mac? If the WD Elements drive needs reformating for Mac? If it is necessary to reformat the hard drive, what kind of file system should I reformat it as? Can I format it for Mac on PC? Need to reformat WD hard drive for Mac Now, I need to use it with my Mac to save some files. If you connect your WD hard drive without reformatting, you’ll be unable to copy files to the disk as Mac read only supports NTFS file system. In such a case, it’s necessary to reformat WD hard drive to make it compatible with Mac operating system.
Mac OS X is able to support HFS+, FAT32 and exFAT drives and Windows can support NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT. Here I recommend you to change the file system of the WD hard drive from NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT, thus the WD hard drive is able to be used not only with Mac, but also with Windows. And if there is a large file beyond 4GB in file size, exFAT file system will be the better choice as FAT32 is with file size limit.
Two ways for reformatting WD hard drive for Mac and PCĪfter realizing that you can reformat WD hard drive to FAT32 or exFAT to make it compatible with Mac OS X and still can be used under Windows, it is time to check out how to reformat WD hard drive for Mac and PC in Windows successfully. #How to format wd external hard drive to fat32 how to# Here are two ways offered and you can choose based on your own situation. Warning: Format will erase all data on the partition of WD hard drive therefore you need to back up your important data at first. The first tool that occurs to your mind to format WD hard drive might be File Explorer.