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Steps to Reformat a USB Flash, Memory Card or External Drive to Required Operating System Compatibility

Steps to Reformat a USB Flash, Memory Card or External Drive to Required Operating System Compatibility

Check the Product Landing and Data Sheet for the list of supported operating systems per drive type.

IMPORTANT: Systems that are End of Support by the vendor are not supported by Western Digital.

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USB flash and External drives may come formatted with NTFS (Windows), HFS+ (macOS), or exFAT (Windows and macOS).
The drive should be ready for use when connected to the computer.

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Answer ID 25242: Format a USB Flash, Memory Card or External Drive with the Original File System on Windows and macOS


Operating System
File System
About
Windows NTFS NTFS formatted drives are Read/Write on Windows and Read Only on macOS.

macOS HFS+ HFS+ formatted drives work with macOS and not are seen on Windows.

  • HFS+ shows up as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
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  • Time Machine backups require HFS+.
  • macOS mounts NTFS formatted drives as "Read Only".
  • "Read Only" mounted drives cannot be written to on macOS.
  • macOS can read but not write to NTFS formatted drives.
  • NTFS drives must be formatted to HFS+ or exFAT for use on macOS.

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    Answer ID 8200: Steps to Format a Drive for Use with Windows or macOS
Windows and macOSexFAT exFAT formatted drives work on both macOS and Windows OS.

  • exFAT formatted drive.
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  • Reformat the drive is not needed.
  • NTFS or HFS+ drives can be formatted with exFAT to be used on macOS and Windows.

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Answer ID 20821: Steps to Format a Drive for Use on Windows and macOS Using exFat.

Details
Answer ID 3879
Published 08/20/2018 12:33 AM
Updated 01/16/2024 06:55 AM

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