Partition WD Elements for PC and MAC

Hello guys, how is everything?

I just recently bought a new WD Elements 2TB. It comes pre-formatted in NTFS for Windows, which is normal and fine. The thing is, I also have a Macbook and would love to partition the HDD so it could have two separate ones: one in NTFS for my PC, and one in HFS+ for my MAC!

How can I do this?

I appreciate all the help, and thanks in advance!

Hello,

Is possible, however is better to use a partition software in order to identify the partitions and format as you desire.

1 Like

Thanks for the quick reply!

By the way is there any partitioning software you would reccomend?

You don’t need third party apps for this. Use Windows Disk Manager (type diskmgmt.msc on RUN dialogue box) to delete existing partition and create a NTFS partition with the size in your mind. Then connect to Mac and launch Disk Utilities and create a Mac compatible partition with remaining free space.

1 Like

Sure but since it’s new, isn’t that just the same as just connecting it to the MAC and doing the HFS+ partition?

That is, the HDD has 2TB, can I just plug it to the MAC and make a partition of 1TB? Or do I have to firstly make a partition of 1TB of NTFS in Windows?

I know this seems like what you’ve said but what I’m trying to ask is if I can skip your first step. I hope I’m explaining it correctly, haha.

You can use Mac to do both partitions, but I believe Mac only make MBR FAT32 partitions apart from native GUID.  Then you can format FAT32 partition with Windows formatter to make it NTFS.

To be honest, I have not used Mac lately but Mac can see NTFS partitions clearly if NTFS 3G installed on your Mac.

 You can download NTFS 3G from here.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/ntfs3g.html

Another alternative is leave it partitioned NTFS for Windows and on Your Mac go to Apple site and download NTFS-3G http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/WD-My-Book-Elite-Using-on-a-Mac-amp-PC/m-p/92308#M1894  look at post 6

Joe