I have the 3TB GoFlex USB 3/2 drive and am trying to use it with Windows Backup to back up a Windows 7 Ultimate system running on an iMac (that means GPT partitioned disks and EFI boot, not BIOS). This should cover all WD drives 2.5TB and larger to correct this issue. This is how the drive appeared after the 'Factory Default' format:įinally, I should point out that this utility will probably not work for drives from manufacturers other than Western Digital as it scans for WD drives specifically on launch and is likely working directly with their drives' firmware. This is how the drive appeared out of the box:Ĭ:\Windows\system32>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo H: In my case, this is an acceptable compromise. After performing the format, the drive works fine with Windowsīackup in both Windows 7 and Windows Server, but is incompatible with Windows XP. WD support actually came through for me on this issue and pointed me to the following solution:īasically it consists of formatting the drive with their external drive formatting utility in 'Factory Default' mode rather than XP-Compatible mode which (ironically) is how the drive ships. Out of the box this drive did not work with Windows backup at all.
I would also like to add a solution that I found that has worked for my 3TB WD Elements drive.
