How do I reformat a WD external hard drive?

Plug in the drive and open Windows Explorer. Right-click the drive and choose Format from the drop-down menu. Select the file system you want, give your drive a name under “Volume label,” and make sure the Quick Format box is checked. Click Start, and the computer will reformat your drive.

How do I partition my passport external hard drive for Mac?

Type the letters Disk Utility.

  1. Disk Utility In Spotlight Search.
  2. Select Drive At The Right Level.
  3. Select Partition.
  4. Partition Pop up window.
  5. Click Plus.
  6. Second Partition Screen.
  7. Partition Circles.
  8. Click Partition to Create Partitions.

How do I wipe and reset my WD My Passport?

Insert your paperclip into the hole and depress the “Reset” button. Hold the button down for 10 seconds and release. After 40 seconds the drive will reboot. This is a “long” reset and your drive will be completely reset to factory settings.

What happens when you partition an external hard drive?

When you partition, you are dividing the hard drive’s storage space into sections. For example, you can partition a 1TB hard drive into two 500GB sections. Each section would appear on your Mac’s desktop like a single hard drive would. Partitioning can help organize your data.

Does partitioning HDD reduce performance?

No, the drive does not get faster. The track to track, full seek times, and transfer rate remain the same. However, you can partition a drive in most cases to ensure more consistency, and reduce worst case seek times.

Will formatting external hard drive erase data?

The answer is no. Formatting does not erase data on the disk, which only makes file recovery much more difficult.

Why can’t I partition my external hard drive Mac?

2020: many of you reported that the “Partition” button is always greyed out. That’s because your external drive hasn’t been formatted/erased to a Mac-compatible file system yet.

How do I reset my passport to factory settings external hard drive?

On the Admin tab of the Dashboard, under “Restore Factory Settings” section, there are two options, “System Only” and “System and Disk”. The second option DOES wipe all the data on the MPW, so be careful with that one.

How do I delete data from my WD external hard drive?

Delete Files from WD Portable External Hard Drive

  1. Connect the WD external portable hard drive (decrypt the storage if encryption is enabled)
  2. Run BitRaser File Eraser software.
  3. Go to Tools and choose the desired Erasure Algorithm and Verification method from the respective dropdowns.