Going from a Mac to a Windows Laptop

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
1

Hi

I currently use my hard drive with my Mac laptop and so it’s obviously formatted for Macs, but I have recently bought a laptop that runs Windows and this will soon become my only laptop.

I’ve read all the tips about partitioning the hard drive so it can be read by both Mac and Windows computers but as I will no longer have access to a Mac computer that won’t be necessary for me.

I’m looking for the easiest way to change the hard drive formatting from completely Mac to completely Windows (I’d really rather not have to copy everything from my hard drive on to my new laptop and then erase and reformat the hard drive…!) Please let me know if there is an easier way to do it!!

Thanks very much.

2

Mac’s file system HFS+ or HFSJ cannot be read/used by Windows. You have to reformat the drive to make use of it - reformatting is done within disk management console of Windows and lasts some minutes in Quick Format.

3

Hello,

Follow this link for information on how to format a drive for Windows.

How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows and Mac OSX