I Was Ble to Write to Wd Easy Store Now Cant
When you've got a WD Easystore. And you have files that you need to use on a Mac and a Windows PC.
What's the best way to go about doing this?
Format.
There is a quick, easy way to format. – Create a file system on your Easystore WD drive.
So that you can store, read and write your key files to both PC and Mac.
And you use your Mac, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air to do it.
Read on and find out how to format WD Easystore for Mac and Windows.
Format WD Easystore For Mac And PC The Key Steps
1. Plug your WD Easystore external storage into your Mac.
2. Open Disk Utility. First format your Easystore to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
3. After. You format to ExFAT.
Why Use Your Mac To Format Your Easystore External Drive?
Because Macs are very particular about their external hard drive's formatting.
Formatting your Easystore using WD Drive Utilities. Or on a Windows PC risks your WD Easystore drive working unreliably on your Mac.
And a reliable drive is important when. You've valuable shared files on your external hard drive.
How To Format WD Easystore For Mac And PC
Your Easystore drive ships with a USB cable that has a type A connector on the end that plugs into your Mac. And a MicroB on the end that plugs into the Easystore hard drive.
Modern Macs have a type C USB port on them.
To plug into your Mac, you'll need to buy yourself a MicroB to USB C cable. Or a Type A to USB C adaptor.
Follow the following steps to format your Easystore. So, you can share your whole USB drive between a PC and a Mac.
Formatting wipes all the files you may have on your Western Digital drive.
And this includes the installation files shipped on the Easystore NTFS drive. The Easystore external HDD ships with WD Discovery install files.
If you plan on using that software in the future copy these files off first.
This also includes any other files on the hard drive you've put on with a Windows computer.
If you don't. Then you'll need the help of data recovery to get those files back. And there's no guarantee data recovery would work.
Now you're ready to start.
1. Log In. And Plug In Your Easystore Hard Drive.
And in a few moments your Easystore external drive's icon appears on your Mac's desktop.
If no drive icon shows up then check your finder preferences.
In a finder window. Click on the menu option for your finder window preferences.
Then from the pop up window. Check mark the option to show 'External Disks' on your desktop.
You'll find the option under the General tab.
2. Start Disk Utility.
Your Mac computer has its own disk management software. And that software is called Disk Utility. It's a standard part of your Mac OS X operating system.
Start a spotlight search.
Type in Disk Utility. And click to start up the app.
When your Disk Utility window opens. Look to the left. In its sidebar you'll find listed all the drives on your Mac. Your internal drives under the Internal heading. Don't touch those.
You'll see your Easystore external hard drive listed under External.
3. Click To Select Your WD Easystore Hard Drive.
Click on your Western Digital Easystore hard drive.
You'll want to click on it at the top level. You may need to click on the arrow to the left of your external hard drive to expand the list. So you can pick your drive at the top.
If you can't see the 2 levels. You'll need to set your Mac to see that option.
At the top of your Mac's desktop. Click View from the Disk Utility menu.
And from that menu click on 'Show All Devices'.
It's important you choose your WD Easystore drive at the top level. If you don't. You'll have all sorts of problems formatting and using your Easystore drive.
4. Click Erase in the Button Bar.
In the Disk Utility pop up window. Across the top you'll see the Erase button. Click on that.
Don't be concerned. Nothing happens yet. You've a few more things to set up.
5. Enter Your Format Settings.
In the name field you give your external hard disk a name. It's best to pick a name that'll remind you right away what your USB drive is for.
– A shared drive for your Windows computer and Mac.
Next you put in your file system format setting. Pick Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the list.
You're going to format your Easystore external hard disk twice.
The first time to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
The next time round to ExFAT.
It's what you need to do when you're converting the Easystore hard drive. From its current Microsoft NTFS file system to a shared drive you can use on your PC and Mac.
The next field to fill in is Scheme.
You set to GUID Partition Map.
Double check. You've given your hard drive a name. The format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Scheme is GUID Partition Map.
Then click the Erase button. Bottom right of the pop up window.
And shortly your Mac formats your WD hard drive.
6. Then Format Your WD Easystore Drive As ExFAT.
Next do steps 3 and 4 again. Pick your drive at the top level and click erase.
This time on the format pop up window. Enter your drive's name.
Click on ExFAT for the file system format.
And again you enter GUID Partition Map for scheme.
7. Click On Erase.
Just like before. You click the Erase button bottom right.
In a few moments you've done the job. You've formatted your Easystore's file system in ExFAT to share.
So, your Mac computer and Windows PC can share data and files.
Click on your Easystore's drive icon when it appears on your Mac's desktop and you can create folders. Copy and paste your data. And drag and drop.
When you're done with your WD external hard drive, don't forget to Eject it from your Mac. Before you pull out your USB cable.
Things To Remember About A Shared ExFAT Drive
The ExFAT format is a great file format. When you want to use your Western Digital Easystore under Windows explorer. Or File explorer on your PC.
And see the same data in a Finder window on your Mac.
But remember the applications you use to view that data needs to be able to read those files.
And know you can't use an ExFAT formatted Easystore external drive for a Time Machine backup of your Mac.
But if you've a large enough Easystore external drive you can partition it. And have a partition you backup your Mac to. And another partition you format as ExFAT to share your data on.
In Closing
You've smashed it!
Now you know how to format a WD Easystore for PC and Mac.
While you're here why not check out the other Easystore external drive articles.
Or check out the other drive related articles on the site.
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