How To Reformat WD Easystore For Mac [Change It Up To Work]

Your new WD Easystore says on the box. ‘Reformat for other operating systems’.

And that must mean your Mac.

Now you’re scratching your head wondering. But how do I reformat Easystore for Mac?

It makes no difference if you’ve had your WD Easystore hard drive for a while. Or if it’s shiny new. The way you go about reformatting is the same.

Read on and find out how.

How To Reformat WD Easystore For Mac Outline

1. Connect Your WD Easystore drive to your Mac.

2. Start Disk Utility.

3. Click your WD Easystore hard drive in Disk Utility. Click On Erase.

4. Pick the format you want. Pick GUID Partition Map for Scheme.

5. Click On the Erase button.

Continue on for a fuller explanation.

Why Reformat Easystore For Mac?

Your Easystore external hard drive from Western Digital as an NTFS drive. NTFS is plug and play on a Windows PC.

Because it’s a PC file system.

And so you need to reformat. Turn it into a Mac drive. So that you can use it on your Mac, your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

Warning: Reformatting your Easystore WD external hard drive. Will clear any files on the drive.

And this means the already installed WD Discovery installation files.

If you intend to use the WD Discovery software. Copy those files off first.

And if you’ve used your WD Easystore external drive on a Windows computer. And you have some of your PC files on there.

Then save those files somewhere else. Because reformatting will delete those files. And then the only way of getting them back would be to use data recovery software.

The Easystore WD drive’s box has a USB cable inside. That cable has a type A connector at the end that plugs into a Mac. When you’re using on a modern Mac, you’ll need an adaptor for your Mac’s USB port.

Invest in one of those before you begin your reformat.

How To Reformat WD Easystore Drive For Mac

With your Easystore hard drive on a firm steady surface.

After all this is a portable hard drive. With mechanical parts inside. A knock while your drive is working could damage it.

Then log into your Mac computer.

1. Plug Your Easystore’s Cable Into Your Mac’s USB.

Wait a short while. Then your Mac will show your Easystore external hard drive on your Mac’s desktop.

It should appear as a drive icon.

No Easystore Drive Icon?

Check your Finder window Settings (since Mac OS Ventura). In earlier Mac operating system releases it’s called Preferences.

Open a Finder window. From your Finder window menu pick Settings or Preferences depending on your Mac OS X release.

Click on the General tab. Be sure ‘External Disks’ has a check against it in the Settings or Preferences window.

2. Open Disk Utility.

Your Mac’s operating system has its own disk management software called Disk Utility.

Disk Utility is there free for you to use in your Mac operating system. And that’s what you’ll use to reformat your Easystore WD drive.

To start Disk Utility. Got to your Applications folder. Inside there you’ll find the Utilities folder. Inside the Utilities folder is Disk Utility. Double click to start.

Alternatively, you can do a spotlight search.

Type in the words Disk Utility and start the app from there.

3. Check You Can See 2 Levels On Your Easystore Drive.

Look down the left side of your pop up window.

In Disk Utility if you’ve never formatted or reformatted before. You’ll see your pop up window looks like this.

Your Easystore hard disk shows under the External heading. And you’ll see just the one entry in there.

You’ll want to change that view so you can see at least 2 levels.

Look at the top of your Disk Utility window. And click on the view menu option.

From that menu pick show all devices.

Then you click the arrow to the left of your Easystore storage device to expand the list.

4. Next Click Your Easystore WD Hard Drive.

Click on your Easystore external hard drive at the 1st level.

Right where it appears under the external heading. The picture above shows you where.

Don’t click on anything under the Internal heading. That’s to do with your Mac’s internal drive.

You’re interested in where your Easystore is. Right under the External heading in the sidebar.

5. Click Erase Along The Top Of The Pop Up Window.

When you’ve selected your Easystore drive at the top level.

Look across the top of your Disk Utility pop up window. Click on the Erase in the button bar there.

Don’t worry. You’re not doing anything to affect your Easystore WD hard drive right now. You’ve a few more things to set yet.

6. Set The Reformatting Options For Your Easystore Drive.

The next pop up window is where you set your reformatting options.

In the name field. You’ll type in a name you want to give your Easystore external hard drive.

This name will show under your Easystore drive icon. So it’s useful to put in a name that makes it easy for you to not only find your WD drive.

But when you have several external drives, give a name that makes it easy to know what you’re using your WD Drive for.

The next field for you to fill in is your file system format.

You click on the up down arrows at the end of the format data entry field. This expands the list.

Picking The Best Format For Your EasyStore Filesystem

Choose:

APFS (Apple File System). The APFS files system was originally made by Apple for SSD’s (a solid state drive). APFS at the start didn’t support a Time Machine backup.

But that’s now changed. Since Mac OS x update Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and above Apple changed all that. You can now use APFS on a hard drive. And for a Mac backup with Time Machine.

But you still don’t have support on older versions of Mac OS. Just be aware when using APFS if you plan to share your drive with Mac’s running older Mac OS x versions.

Mac OS Extended (Journaled). For Easystore compatibility with older Mac OS versions. You can pick Extended Journaled to copy and paste your files. Or drag and drop files to. Or for your Time Machine Backup.

ExFAT. To use your Easystore portable hard drive between a Mac and a Windows PC. Both a Mac and a PC can read ExFAT.

When reformatting your Easystore drive for the first time. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) first.

Then you can go through the reformatting process a second time and pick ExFAT or APFS.

In The Scheme Field

Next fill in the Scheme field. You pick GUID Partition Map for the Scheme.

Check your settings.

And if you’re sure you have nothing you want to save on your Easystore WD drive.

7. Click Erase.

Next you click the Erase button at the bottom right of your popup window.

Then your Mac. MacBook Pro or Air starts your reformatting

It doesn’t take long.

Exit Disk Utility when it’s done.

Your Easystore external drive will show up on your desktop as a drive icon.

It’ll have the name you gave it on your Mac reformat screen.

And now you can use your Easystore hard drive.

Just as you’re used to using your Mac’s internal drive.

Double click on your Easystore drive icon. This opens a Finder window on your Easystore drive.

And when you copy and paste files into that Finder window they go onto your external drive.

Or you can use your Easystore as a place for your backup files with Time Machine.

Eject Easystore WD Drive When Done.

Don’t forget to eject your Easystore external hard drive when you’ve finished using it. That way your Mac computer can write anything it is holding in memory. Down to your WD hard drive.

To eject your Easystore storage device. Right click on your Easystore drive icon.

Then from the menu pick Eject.