The Scenario
“I have a 1TB My Passport drive that works just fine. Recently, I’d like to back
up all contents on the external drive, format it and then send it to my sister.
Actually, either format or erase would be fine. However, when I use the WD Quick
Formatter to format the drive, it running smoothly at the beginning yet gives me a
prompt after a while. It reads: WD external drive format failed. Program exiting.
Why would it be like this? How could I successfully format the drive? Please
help.”
Have you encountered WD Quick Formatter failed problem during the format process in
Windows? Other similar situations like WD Quick Formatter error, WD Quick Formatter
doesn’t work, WD Quick Formatter cannot open device etc. are listed by a part of
users.
The Causes
Many factors account for WD Quick Formatter not working, from poor external drive
contact to hard drive corruption. In general, you might in one of following
situations.
Hard drive is not setup correctly in BIOS, which may result in that Windows
cannot detect it correctly.
Software confliction. Some viruses or spyware program is conflict with this
format utility.
Hard drive confliction. The WD My Passport or other external drives may
conflict with another device (on the same IDE cable).
The drive is taken by other applications.
If you’ve encountered the WD Quick Formatter Runtime error, it stands for a
software or hardware problem that prevents the program from working
correctly.
The partition you want to format to FAT32 is larger than 32GB in Windows
2000, XP, or 2003.
The partition you plan to format is corrupted or damaged.
The external drive you attempt to format is physically damaged or
defective.
How to Fix the WD Quick Formatter Tool Failed Issue?
It is easy to fix if you have find the right cause. For example, If WD Quick
Formatter says the drive is in use and you’re sure that you have closed all
applications and still get this error, try to disable the automatic backup program
like WD SmartWare, anti-virus or remote access application. Nevertheless, if you
find the WD Quick Formatter works fine and only gets an error at the end of
formatting external drive, it may be hard to check out the causes. What’s worse,
Quick Formatter can only used to format external drive. Therefore, it is not a bad
choice to turn to powerful third party format tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant
Professional.
This format utility allows you to format external drive to NTFS, FAT32, EXT2, EXT3,
or FAT. You are able to change the cluster size of file system, from 0.5KB to 64KB.
Further, it can format
bootable USB drive to normal, so does to bootable external drive. You can
use this software to format internal hard drive as well. Besides, if you plan to
resell the external drive, hard drive or partition erase is also available with
“Wipe Hard Drive” or “Wipe Partition” functions. Downloadthe free Demo to have a try.
Solve WD Quick Formatter Doesn’t Work by Formatting via AOMEI Partition
Assistant
Note: All data will be erased, so backup files before
reformatting.
1. Connect the drive to your computer. Download, install and launch AOMEI Partition
Assistant.
2. Select the drive you want to format and right click it. Then choose “Format
Partition”.

3. In the pop-up window, specify the partition label, select file system as well as
cluster size. Then click “OK”.

4. What you see now is virtual result. Click “Apply” in the up-left corner to execute
the operation.
When you meet WD Quick Formatter failed issue and cannot find the exact cause, why
not change your mind and use another format tool? As you can see from the
screenshot, AOMEI Partition Assistant can help you solve many other practical
issues. For example, you can use it to remove Intenso USB
write protect, solve conversion
from FAT32 to NTFS is not available problem, format Kingston Windows
To Go USB drive DataTraveler Workspace and so on. What’s more, you can
create a bootable device using this software and format the hard drive under Windows
PE mode. This limits the software conflict to a large extent.