Reformatting My Passport For Mac Os X

• Reformatting My Passport For Mac Os X 10 11
• Reformatting Wd My Passport For Mac Os X
• Reformatting Mac Mini
• Reformatting Mac Hard Drive
• Reformatting My Passport For Mac Os X

Summary: This guide introduces three common scenarios in which you might find your WD My Passport external hard drive read-only on Mac. If the WD My Passport read-only on Mac problem is caused by the NTFS file system, installing iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to edit, rename, delete the saved files and transfer files to the read-only WD My passport hard drive.

Aug 17, 2018  The WD Passport for Mac is one of several drives that I use for backup on my MacBook Pro, so I do not need to. Recover any information on it. In fact I think I've now wiped it. I'm not sure because it will not mount on my desktop - however, I can see it with Disk Utilities. I have tried to format it. I have tried to repair it. I have tried to. Jun 01, 2020  macOS Recovery makes it easy to reinstall the Mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. All you need is a connection to the Internet. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the Wi-Fi menu, which is also available in macOS Recovery.

Western Digital is one of the most popular hard drive manufacturers. Its product line covers WD My Passport, WD My Passport Ultra, WD My Book, WD Elements, WD My Passport for Mac and more. Among those external hard drive categories, WD My Passport external hard drives are the most widely used ones. However, many users complain their WD My Passport is read-only on Mac like the user below in WD community.

'I have a WD My Passport 320GB external hard drive that I am trying to hook up to my iMac for the first time. I'm running macOS 10.13. I'm extremely frustrated because this drive is in a read-only mode, and I can't figure out how to change it! Any suggestion to fix this?'

--A user from WD Community

If you are looking for solutions for solving read-only WD My Passport on Mac problem, you have come to the right place. This post will explain three common reasons why your WD My Passport is not writable and corresponding fixes.

Why is the WD My Passport read-only?

Sometimes, the WD external hard drive is read-only on Mac when you just got a brand new WD external hard drive. In other times, it suddenly became read-only after you have been using it for a while. The most common reasons for a read-only WD external hard drive, like WD My Passport, are listed below:

• Your WD My Passport hard drive is NTFS-formatted.
• You have read-only permission to access the WD My Passport hard drive.
• Your WD My Passport hard drive is corrupted.

If you are not sure which reason has caused your WD My Passport external hard drive read-only on Mac, check the scenarios one by one. If you know the reason already, you can jump to the scenario that best describes your situation.

Scenario 1: Your WD My Passport hard drive is NTFS-formatted

For WD My Passport Ultra and WD Elements, check if the hard drive is formatted with NTFS file system. By default, macOS can mount a Windows NTFS volume or drive in read-only mode. You can view the files saved on the NTFS-formatted partition or drive but can't make any changes to them. In addition, the WD My Passport hard drive won't let you add any files to it. To check if your WD My Passport is NTFS formatted, follow the steps:

1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities.
2. Click the WD My Passport (you may have changed its name) at the left sidebar. The file system information will be displayed on the right.

Note: You can also right-click the disk icon at the desktop and choose 'Get Info' to check the file system information.

After having confirmed that the WD My Passport is formatted with NTFS, many people will choose to convert NTFS to APFS (for macOS Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra) or reformat the WD My Passport hard drive to make the WD external hard drive compatible with Mac. But as you know, directly formatting WD Elements or My Passport on Mac causes data loss.

In fact, installing an NTFS for Mac driver is a much easier way.

Solution: Install an NTFS for Mac driver to make WD My Passport writable

The NTFS drivers for macOS - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac can help you read and write to NTFS-formatted WD My Passport drives on Mac.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac: NTFS for Mac driver and more

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is an NTFS disk management tool. It can manage NTFS drives with NTFS write support. It can easily and effectively mount NTFS drive on Mac automatically in read-write mode. It works with macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.

LaserJet 4050 Series. LaserJet 4100 Series. LaserJet 5000 Series. LaserJet 4000 Series.

Three simple steps to read and write to NTFS-formatted WD My Passport drive easily.

Step 1: Download, install and launch iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your Mac.

Step 2: Connect the NTFS-formatted WD My Passport drive to Mac.

Step 3: Write to NTFS-formatted WD My Passport drive after the drive has been mounted successfully.

Besides an NTFS mounter, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac can also open, unmount, eject, erase and repair NTFS volumes. It can list all attached external disks including USB flash drives, SD cards, memory sticks, external hard drives and so on. You can open them with one click. Moreover, you can reformat them to NTFS with iBoysoft NTFS for Mac if you need.

Scenario 2: You have read-only permission to access the WD My Passport hard drive

If your WD My Passport external hard drive is not formatted with NTFS but you have no write permission to it, it is probably because you have read-only permission to access the WD My Passport. Since your WD external hard drive is write-protected, all your write access is denied.

To know your permission to the WD My Passport, follow the steps below:

1. Right-click the WD My Passport disk icon at the desktop and choose 'Get Info'.
2. Check the information at the bottom under the Sharing & Permissions tab.

If you can see the message 'You can only read', then you will understand why you can't write to your WD My Passport drive.

Solution: Change read-only permission on the WD My Passport drive

Follow the instruction below to change permission on Mac so that you can access the WD My Passport again:

Step 1: Click on the lock icon at the right corner in the Get Info window.

Step 2: Enter password if asked.

Step 3: Check the 'Ignore ownership on this volume'.

Step 4: Click on the gear button and choose 'Apply to enclosed items…'.

Step 5: Click 'OK' when you are asked to confirm the operation.

Step 6: Click the 'Read Only' in Privilege column and select 'Read & Write'.

By now, you have regained the read and write access to the WD My Passport.

Scenario 3: Your WD My Passport hard drive is corrupted

If you are sure that the read-only WD My Passport is not caused by NTFS file system nor read-only permission, another possible cause might be the disk corruption. When an external drive is corrupted, people suddenly have trouble reading or/and writing to the disk. Then you will have to fix the corrupted WD My Passport external hard drive to make it writable again. We will introduce two solutions here:

• Fix the read-only WD My Passport in Disk Utility on Mac
• Reformat the WD My Passport on Mac

Solution 1: Fix the read-only WD My Passport in Disk Utility on Mac

This solution might help you solve the read-only external hard drive problem without formatting. You will utilize a built-in tool on Mac called Disk Utility. It is used to manage internal and external disks on Mac. There is a function called First Aid in Disk Utility that can be used to check for and repair errors on the selected disk or volume.

Here is how to fix the read-only WD My Passport in Disk Utility:

Step 1: Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

Step 2: Select the WD My Passport drive at the left sidebar.

Step 3: Click on First Aid and click on 'Run' to repair the WD My Passport drive.

Step 4: Click 'Done' after the operation completes.

If First Aid fails to repair the WD external hard drive, your disk might be seriously corrupted. You will have to reformat the WD My passport to make it not read-only.

Solution 2: Reformat the WD My Passport for Mac

Reformatting the corrupted WD My Passport drive is the ultimate solution for fixing the read only file system on Mac. Follow the steps below to know how to make the WD My Passport compatible with Mac and PC.

Step 1: Make sure you have a copy of your important files on WD My Passport hard drive, or recover lost data from the external hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

Step 2: Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

Step 3: Click on the WD My Passport drive at the left sidebar.

Step 4: Check Click 'Erase' on the top of the Disk Utility window.

Step 5: Input a name.

Step 6: Choose FAT or exFAT as format for convenience because either of them is compatible with both Windows and macOS. Then, how to format the WD My Passport for Mac exclusive use? Simply choose APFS or Mac OS Extend format in Disk Utility, which also works if you want to format WD Elements for Mac.

Step 7: Choose 'GUID Partition Map' as Scheme.

Step 8: Click on 'Erase' button.

You can reconnect the WD external hard drive to Mac again to see if it is writable now.

Reformatting My Passport For Mac Os X 10 11

Conclusion

The external hard drive read-only on Mac problem doesn't happen to WD external hard drives only. Any external hard drive could be write-protected on Mac. It is quite common to see other notable external hard drive brand get the same complaint like Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, etc. When you come across the read-only disk problem on Mac, the post is always helpful.

Reformatting Wd My Passport For Mac Os X

Source: iMore

• Prepping your Mac for Sale

It is that time again. Time to decide whether to keep or replace your Mac laptop or desktop computer. If you are reading this article, chances are you've already come to the decision to replace your Mac with the newes model (or maybe you just got a new Mac as a present!), and you're thinking about selling your old one.

The first thing you should do before hitting the streets to sell your old Mac is clear it of any and all personal data. You don't want to accidentally sell your computer to a stranger when you are still logged into iCloud.

The next step is to reinstall the Mac's operating system so that the new owner can get started without having to figure out how to start up in recovering mode. Believe me, that can be a pain.

If you're going through the process of erasing your old Mac and reinstalling the operating system, we've got some common troubleshooting tips to help you out. Don't forget to follow the additional steps if you're selling a MacBook with Touch ID.

Clean the Mac of your personal data before erasing it

If you're about to sell your old Mac, the one thing you don't want to do is to give away the data you've been storing on it all these years. It's a security and privacy thing for you, but it's also important for the buyer. If you leave behind anything that needs to be logged into with a password, that buyer is going to have to track you down and get your password in order to change ownership. A completely fresh-from-scratch Mac is the best way to do this.

Step 1: Back up your Mac

If you already have your new Mac on hand, you can transfer all of your data from your old Mac or use an older Time Machine backup. If you don't have your new Mac yet, well .. then you probably shouldn't be selling your old one yet. But, if you really don't think you'll need your old computer before getting your new one, just make sure to back up your data so that nothing happens to it before you get what you need onto your new Mac.

Step 2: Sign out of everything

The software you have on your Mac is licensed to you, which means it doesn't get transferred to the new owner of your computer (except the operating system). In order to avoid complications with the new owner attempting to download and install software that is licensed by you, make sure to sign out of everything your personal information is connected to.

How to sign out of iTunes (macOS Mojave and older)

1. Open iTunes on your Mac.
2. Click Account in the Menu bar on the left side of your screen.

3. Click on Sign Out.

   Source: iMore

How to sign out of iMessage

1. Open Messages on your Mac.
2. Click Messages in the Menu bar at the top left corner of your screen.
3. Click Preferences from the drop-down menu.
4. Select your iMessage account.

5. Click on Sign Out.

   Source: iMore

How to sign out of iCloud

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Click System Preferences from the drop-down menu.

3. Click on Apple ID (on macOS Mojave and older, click on iCloud).

   Source: iMore

4. Un-tick the box for Find My Mac.
5. Enter your system password when prompted.
6. Click on Sign Out.
7. Click Remove data from this Mac when prompted.

Step 3: Unpair your Bluetooth devices

If you're keeping your Bluetooth devices, you don't want to leave them paired to a Mac that you're getting rid of. It isn't really that important of a step, but if you sell your old Mac to, say, a roommate or someone living in the same house as you, you may experience accidentally connecting back to it.

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your Mac's screen.
2. Click System Preferences from the drop-down menu.
3. Click on Bluetooth.
4. Hover over the device you want to unpair.
5. Click on the X next to the device.

Note: If you're unpairing a keyboard, trackpad, or mouse on a desktop Mac, be sure to have a wired one plugged in or you won't be able to type or use a curser and you'll have to repair it all again.

Step 4: Erase your hard drive

Once your data is backed up and you've signed out of everything that might connect your old Mac to your personal information, you can erase everything on it by reformatting the hard drive.

1. Restart your Mac.
2. While the startup disc is waking up, hold down the Command+R keys simultaneously. Your Mac will boot into macOS Recover.
3. Select Disk Utility.

4. Click on Continue.

   Source: iMore

5. Click on View.
6. Click on Show all Devices.
7. Find your Startup disk (it should be named 'Machintosh HD' unless you renamed it) in the sidebar.
8. Select the data disk under the startup disk.
9. Click Edit.
10. Click Delete APFS Volume from the menu bar or click the Remove button in the disk utility bar.
11. Confirm by clicking Delete when prompted.

Repeat this process for all data disks under your startup disk. Do not use Delete Volume Group. Once you've deleted all of your data drives, you'll move on to erasing your startup disk.

1. Select your Startup Disk (it should be named 'Machintosh HD' unless you renamed it) in the sidebar.
2. Click the Erase button at the top of the Disk Utility window.
3. If your Mac is using HFS+, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the format list. If your Mac is using APFS, select APFS from the format list. See Troubleshooting for more information on which format to select.
4. If Scheme is available, select GUID Partition Map.

5. Click Erase.

   Source: iMore

   2tr internal ssd for mac os x 10 11. Feb 02, 2017  I have a 2013 iMac with an internal 1TB 5400 RMP drive. I've become spoiled with my macbook pro's SSD drive. I have considered replacing the internal drive with an SSD, but one, it is very expensive (including the labor), and two, if someday I get a new mac (this is my 5th iMac since they first came out), I'll have to pull it out, etc. Your Mac’s hard drive can be cloned onto an SSD using just Disk Utility, yes, just Disk Utility, a utility module that comes default in your Mac’s OS X. That should allow you to breathe easy, now that you don’t have to worry about using suspicious third party software to get the job done. Steps to clone OS X to SSD on your Mac. Oct 18, 2015  With the SSD plugged in to your system you'll need to run Disk Utility to partition the drive with GUID and format it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. The next step is to download from the Apps Store the OS installer. Run the installer selecting the SSD drive it will install a fresh OS onto your SSD. May 09, 2016  How to clone Mac OS X El Capitan to other/new HDD or SSD. Also this method work with other OS X versions and will make your disk Bootable. Cloning disk will save all your files, apps, games.

6. After the process is complete, select Quit Disk Utility from the Disk Utility drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the screen.

   Source: iMore

Source: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore

After you erase your hard drive it will be ready for a clean installation of the operating system. You should already be in the Utilities window after erasing your Mac. If not, restart your computer and hold down Command and R at the same time until you see the Apple logo.

Make sure to reinstall macOS through Recovery Mode, holding down Command+R. You may be asked to sign in with your Apple ID.

If you get stuck during reinstallation, see our troubleshooting section for additional help.

Note: Make sure your Mac is connected to the internet in order to verify the software. You'll be asked to do so during the installation process.

If, while reinstalling macOS, you're asked to enter a password, enter the password you use to unlock your Mac, not your Apple ID.

Reformatting Mac Mini

1. Restart your Mac.
2. While the startup disc is waking up, hold down the Command+R keys simultaneously. You're Mac will boot into macOS Recover.
3. Click on Reinstall macOS (or Reinstall OS X where applicable) to reinstall the operating system that came with your Mac.
4. Click on Continue.
5. Select your hard drive ('Machintosh HD), when asked to select your disk.

6. Click on Install to install the latest operating system that was on your Mac. Your Mac will restart after the installation is complete.

   • Make sure you don't close the lid on a MacBook or put your Mac to sleep during this reinstallation period, even if it takes a while. If the computer goes to sleep, it will stop the installation process from continuing and you'll have to start over. Your screen will go blank, show the restart Apple logo, and show a progress bar several different times.
7. Hold down Command and Q after the installation is complete. Do not follow the setup instructions. Leave that part for the new owner.

8. Click Shut Down to shut down your Mac.

   Source: iMore

Your Mac is now clean and ready for a new owner. They will complete the setup instructions to get started using the Mac, as well as download the latest macOS operating system that is available and supported on their Mac.

Troubleshooting erasing your hard drive or reinstalling macOS

I've gotten a lot of very specific questions about issues some readers have with erasing or reinstalling macOS (usually reinstalling). Sometimes, the easiest way to fix issues with reinstalling macOS is to start by holding Shift+Option+Command+R which will put your Mac into an alternate version of Recovery Mode that allows you to install the original macOS that came with your Mac. From here, you can either keep that operating system and let the new owner update to their preferred macOS, or go through the macOS update process.

If, during the macOS reinstallation process, the installer doesn't see your disk or says you can't install the operating system on the disk, you may need to try erasing your hard drive again. Restart your Mac and hold down Command+R to bring up Recovery mode and repeat Step 4.

Since macOS changed to APFS, some readers have struggled with which format option to choose when erasing their disk. Here are some other possible troubleshooting issues from Apple's support document that may help you.

Are you formatting the disk that came built into your Mac?

If the built-in disk came APFS-formatted, don't change it to Mac OS Extended.

Are you about to install macOS High Sierra or later on the disk?

If you need to erase your disk before installing High Sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). During installation, the macOS installer decides whether to automatically convert to APFS—without erasing your files:

• macOS Mojave and Catalina: The installer converts from Mac OS Extended to APFS.
• macOS High Sierra: The installer converts from Mac OS Extended to APFS only if the volume is on an SSD or another all-flash storage device. Fusion Drives and traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) aren't converted.

Are you preparing a Time Machine backup disk or bootable installer?

Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for any disk that you plan to use with Time Machine or as a bootable installer.

Will you be using the disk with another Mac?

If the other Mac isn't using High Sierra or later, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Earlier versions of macOS don't mount APFS-formatted volumes.

To learn which format is currently in use, use any of these methods:

• Select the volume in the Disk Utility sidebar, then check the information on the right. For more detail, choose File > Get Info from the Disk Utility menu bar.
• Open System Information and select Storage in the sidebar. The File System column on the right shows the format of each volume.
• Select the volume in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info from the menu bar. The Get Info window shows the Format of that volume.

If you're still having trouble with either erasing your hard drive or reinstalling macOS, please reach out to us in the forums. We have a wonderful community of Apple users that are happy to help someone in need.

If you're selling a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Reformatting Mac Hard Drive

If you follow the steps above, the information stored in the Touch Bar of your MacBook Pro will be securely erased. However, if you've decided to use a third-party program or used Target Disk mode to erase your Mac, you should follow these additional steps to ensure that your Touch Bar data is also erased.

1. Turn on or restart your MacBook Pro.
2. Hold down Command and R at the same time right after you restart your Mac. Keep holding down the keys until your Mac finishes loading and you see the macOS Utilities window.
3. Click on Utilities in the Menu Bar on your MacBook Pro. It's in the upper left of your screen.
4. Click on Terminal from the drop-down Utilities menu.

5. Enter the following command into the Terminal window:

   xartutil --erase-all

6. Press Return.
7. Type Yes when asked to confirm.
8. Click on Terminal in the Menu Bar. It's in the upper left of your screen.
9. Click on Quit Terminal.

This will clear all the information from your Touch Bar.

Any questions?

Reformatting My Passport For Mac Os X

Is there anything about resetting your Mac to prepare it for sale that you need help with? Let me know in the comments and I'll get you squared away.

Updated May 2020: Updated for macOS Catalina.

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