WD Blue SN570 External Solid State Drives User Guide
- June 14, 2024
- WD Blue
Table of Contents
WD Blue SN570 External Solid State Drives
Product Information
The external drives may come preformatted with one of the following file systems: Windows NTFS, macOS HFS+, or exFAT. The compatibility of each file system with different operating systems is as follows:
- NTFS formatted drives have OS Compatibility with Windows OS.
- HFS+ formatted drives have OS Compatibility with macOS.
- exFAT formatted drives have OS Compatibility with both macOS and Windows OS.
If the external hard drive is not immediately recognized or appears to be read-only, it is likely formatted for a different operating system. In such cases, it is recommended to reformat the drive to the appropriate file system for your operating system.
Product Usage Instructions
To format the drive to the appropriate file system for your operating system, please follow these steps:
For Windows OS
- Select the appropriate Windows OS from the table above.
- Refer to the article “How To Format an External Drive or Memory Card to Out of Box and OS Compatibility” (Answer ID 25242) for detailed instructions on formatting the drive to NTFS.
Operating System Compatibility
External drives may ship with Windows NTFS, macOS HFS+, or exFAT file systems. Upon connecting to the computer, the external hard drive should be recognized and ready for use. If the drive is not immediately recognized (or appears to be read-only), it is likely formatted for a different OS. If this is the case it’s best to reformat the drive. Please refer to the below table for the best file system you should reformat your drive.
- The following article provides details for the drive out of the box & OS
- Compatibility, Answer ID 25242: How To Format an External Drive or Memory
- Card to Out of Box and OS Compatability
If the drive has been reformatted, it’s possible to download the software that the drive originally shipped, please refer to Answer ID 10346: Download Software, Firmware, and Drivers for WD Products.
- NTFS formatted drive.
- WD external drives that are sold as “macOS” drives, or are set up for a macOS file system, will not be recognized by any version of Windows OS.
- To make a drive compatible with a PC that is formatted for macOS, it’s best to re-partition and re-format to a Windows filesystem for the drive to work on the Windows system.
Please select the appropriate Windows OS from the table above and follow the steps to format the drive to NTFS.
HFS+ formatted drives have OS Compatibility with macOS
- HFS+ shows up as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Time Machine backups require the device to be HFS+ formatted.
- macOS computers mount NTFS formatted USB drives as “Read Only”.
- “Read Only” mounted drives cannot be written to with macOS computers.
- macOS can read but not write to NTFS formatted drives.
- To make a drive compatible with macOS which is formatted for Windows, it’s best to re-partition and re-format to a macOS filesystem in order for the drive to work on macOS.
Please select the appropriate macOS from the table above and follow the steps to format the drive to HFS+ exFAT formatted drives have OS Compatibility with both macOS and Windows OS.
- In most cases, simply connect the external hard drive to an available data port on the computer for it to be recognized.
- NTFS or HFS+ drives are normally reformatted with exFAT to be used on macOS and Windows
Details
Answer ID 8200
- Published 08/20/2018 01:10 AM
- Updated 02/07/2023 08:10 AM
References
- Download Software, Firmware and Drivers for WD Products
- Steps to Format a Drive for Use on Windows and macOS Using exFat
- How To Format an External Drive or Memory Card to Out of Box and OS Compatibility
- Instructions to Format a Drive for Use with Windows or macOS
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