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  • Formatting Western Digital External Hard Drive Using Disk Utility

You can format your Western Digital drive before using it on your computer. The Disk Utility for Mac and the Disk Management for Windows allows formatting the hard drive. Consider the guidelines that are given below to use the Western Digital external hard drive format utility.

Western Digital External Hard Drive Format Utility

Formatting Western Digital External Hard Drive Using Disk Utility:

  • First, connect the Western Digital external hard drive to your Mac computer using a USB cable.
  • Verify whether the computer detects the hard drive.
  • Click the Applications folder and then select the Utilities folder.
  • Locate the Disk Utility program and then double-click on it to open the interface.
  • Select the hard drive icon and click the Erase button at the top of the page.
  • Now, type the name and choose the format from the drop-down list. Click on the Erase button twice.
  • When you see a confirmation message on the computer screen, exit the drive format utility.
  • You have now successfully formatted the Western digital external hard drive using the utility.

Formatting Western Digital External Hard Drive Using Disk Management

  • If you want to format your Western Digital hard drive using the Disk Management application on your Windows computer, continue with the instructions given below.
  • Make sure to back up the data on the hard drive before formatting.
  • Right-click on the Start icon and select the Disk Management option.
  • When the Disk Management screen appears, select the hard disk drive you want to format.
  • Make sure to check the contents on the drive.
  • In case of the drive has a partition, a blue bar appears at the top of the drive.
  • If the drive has no data, right-click on the bar and select the Delete Volume option.
  • For no partition drive, you can see the Unallocated message. Right-click on it and click the New Simple Volume option.
  • Click Next in the Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard dialog box.
  • Choose the volume size and click Next.
  • Choose the NTFS option from the File System drop-down list on the Format Partition screen.
  • Checkmark the Perform a quick format box. Now, click on the Finish button.
  • You have now successfully formatted the Western digital external hard drive using the Disk Management utility. If you have any query regarding Western Digital external hard drive format utility, click the call button available on the screen.