Reformatting 3tb WD My Book for Mac to Windows

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

Hello all,

I am switching completely from mac to windows.

The backup drives I have are 3tb My Book’s for mac.  Does this mean that they cannot be converted to windows? 

Every time I go to Disk Utility and erase, the only (non MAC) option I have is “exFAT”.  But when I choose exFAT, it gives me an error message.

I don’t necessarily need this backup disk to work on MAC any longer.  Just windows.

I am using VMWare fusion to access windows for the moment on a macbook pro (OS X version 10.9.1).  I am preparing to move to a windows laptop (with Windows 8) that will be arriving later this month.  Should I just wait until I get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it?

When I attempt to connect the hd to the windows side using Fusion, it tells me “USB Device not recognized”.  Can I still initialize it on the windows side somehow?

Thanks,

Josh

2

Hello,

Please note that reformatting the drive will erase all the information on the drive.

Should I just wait until I get the new laptop and attempt to reformat the drive on it? Yes, it’s recommended to format the drive on a windows computer.

Please see the link below for instructions on how to format the drive on a windows computer.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3865/session/L2F2LzEvc25vLzEvdGltZS8xMzk3MDcxMTUyL3NpZC9iUzVkdW5SbA%3D%3D/kw/how%20to%20format/session/L2F2LzEvc25vLzEvdGltZS8xMzk3MDcxMTUyL3NpZC9iUzVkdW5SbA==

3

Try looking in the VMware forums. I think they have had issues with USB devices in the past.

Joe