How to format WD external drive for Mac

Connect it, power it up, go to Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities), select the WD disk on the left, go to the Erase tab, and choose "Mac OS Extended". Click Erase. That should do it.

You should then a) see it mount on the desktop, and b) automatically get a prompt to use the drive for Time Machine - if not, you can go into the Time Machine menu (top right of the screen), go to TM Preferences, and select it.

Matt

Hi. Thanks for these instructions; they are useful but I'm still stuck with the final steps, i.e. I see that there are several format options as follows:

MacOS Extended (Journaled)

MacOS Extended (Journaled Encrypted)

MacOS Extended (Case Sensitive Journaled)

MacOS Extended (Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted)

Then there is also the Scheme to choose from:

GUID Partition Map

Master Boot Record

Apple Partition Map

And finally there are some security options:

Fastest vs. Most Secure

Any help anyone out there can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Choose the first option in each case. Extended Journaled, GUID.