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USER MANUAL
TROUBLESHOOTING – 66
Troubleshooting
This chapter includes the following topics:
Installing, Partitioning, and Formatting the Drive
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have problems installing or using this product, refer to this troubleshooting section
or visit our support website at http://support.wd.com and search our knowledge base fo r
more help.

Installing, Partitioning, and Formatting the Drive

*The FAT32 file system has a maximum individual file size of 4 GB and cannot create par-
titions larger than 32 GB in Windows. To create partitions larger than 32 GB in FAT32
when reformatting the drive, download the External USB/FireWire FAT32 Formatting Util-
ity from http://support.wd.com/product/download.
Windows users can avoid these size limitation by formatting the drive to NTFS using
either the Windows Disk Management utility or similar third-party software. For further
details, see:
• Answer ID 291 at http://support.wd.com
• Article IDs 314463 and # 184006 at support.microsoft.com
• The appropriate third-party software documentation or support organization

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why is the drive not recognized under My Computer or on the computer desktop?
A: If your system has a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 PCI adapter card, be sure that its drivers
are installed before connecting your WD USB 3.0 external storage product. The drive
is not recognized correctly unless USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 root hub and host controller
drivers are installed. Contact the adapter card manufacturer for installation
procedures.
Q: Why won't my computer boot when I connect my USB drive to the computer before
booting?
A: Depending on your system configuration, your computer might try to boot from your
WD portable USB drive. Refer to your system’s motherboard BIOS setting
documentation to disable this feature or visit http://support.wd.com and see
Knowledge Base answer ID 1201. For more information about booting from external
drives, refer to your system documentation or contact your system manufacturer.
How to Answer ID
• Partition, and format a WD drive on Windows (8, 7, Vista, XP) and Mac
OS X
3865
• Convert a Mac OS X GPT partition to an NTFS partition in Windows XP 3645
• Convert a Mac OS X GPT partition to an NTFS partition in Windows 7
or Vista
3647
• Download software, utilities, firmware updates, and dr ivers for WD
products (from the Downloads Library)
1425
• Format a WD external hard drive in FAT32* (to use Windows or Mac
OS X)
291
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