Click on the first aid button, or rightclick the external hard drive and choose first aid from the options. Apr 14, 2020 by this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Issue formatting seagate external in high apple community. Also, there are two versions of mac products freeagent go pro for mac has usb and firewire 800, and freeagent go for mac usb usb 2. Well show you everything you need to know about the.
Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Do this to connect up your seagate expansion drive. How to set up seagate external hard drive on macbook pro, mac mini, mac. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. How to format seagate external hard drive for both mac. The drive should automatically mount on your macs desktop if the finder preferences are set to show external drives. It is obvious that you can use seagate external hard drive or flash drive with mac and windows computer as long as you format seagate drive for mac and pc.
Choosing the right format for your external hard drive. Sep 28, 2019 the best format to choose when you plan to use your seagate expansion only for your mac is mac os extended journaled file system. Chris besides the formatting difference, there is software on the pc version and no software on the mac version. The best format to choose when you plan to use your seagate expansion only for your mac is mac os extended journaled file system. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility.
However, if you want to convert ntfs to exfat to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc, 3 steps are required. Seagate expansion on mac, want it but can i use on my mac. Feb 21, 2012 the drive should automatically mount on your mac s desktop if the finder preferences are set to show external drives. Issue formatting seagate external in high sierra i have been using seagate external hard drives for years to store data on them, and as an external time machine. I am planning to get a macbook next month and would like. Seagate external hard drive how to set up on mac macos sierra. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup.
Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Back up using seagate with time machine, formatting seagate. I assume it is but i am new to osx and like to check. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. Among several external hard drives, seagate external hard drive is mostly used by a large number of people all across the world, because of its good performance. I have always formatted them to mac os extended in disk utility. Hey all i got a seagate external hard drive so i can back up my first laptop which runs on windows vista yes, i know its the worst operating system but its a long story as to why i am still using it. The steps below help you format and partition a storage device. External seagate hard drive for mac compatibility ask different. Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive before formatting it. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pc mac, or to cloud storage service. After recovering your important files from the raw external hard drive, you can now directly format the hard drive into ntfs.
In a few moments youll see the drive icon on your desktop. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. The products claims it works only with pc windows, however, i have read multiple places that i can just format the drive and it will work fine with a mac. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with apple macos, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want. Remember, once the data is gone, theres no way to recover it. Mac os x and windows can both read and write to disks in the fat or exfat format. You can get rid of all the malware and bad sectors by just formatting the device with macs disk utility. This wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. Sep 26, 2018 after that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine.
How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. How to fix raw external hard drive without formatting. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your pcmac, or to cloud storage service. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Apr 21, 2020 when your seagate drive is formatted as exfat or fat32 successfully, you can type exit to close this window.
It can recover multiples of file formats and file types including documents, videos, audios, archives, email, photos, etc. But in order for the computer and drive to talk to one another, the drive has to be formatted. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.
Mac free seagate external hard drive recovery for mac. Open the window explorer,and select the my computerthis pc section in the sidebar, then locate your drive. Tips to fix mac doesn t recognize external hard drive on. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. You can format a drive using the disk utility in mac. How can i reformat my external hard drive without losing. Give your drive a name and select the file system you want from the format dropdown. Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Your backup plus desktop is formatted as ntfs for compatibility with windows out of the box. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility.
To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Seagate backup plus hub user manual optional formatting and. If you see the messages telling you that the first aid failed, the external hard drive is too corrupted to be fixed by first aid. How to reformat seagate portable external hard drive. This will format the drive as exfat format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms. However, ntfs is not fully compatible with mac computers. After that, you can use your external hard drive on both mac and windows machine. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Based on your specific needs and select a proper way to achieve. Then, you can share external hard drive between mac and pc. After youre done, dont forget to remove the external hard.
Under file system, choose the file system you want to use. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pc mac hard drive. Aug 30, 2019 select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. A seagate external hard drive can occasionally not be detectedrecognized by the pc. The following is based on the latest version of macos. How to fix seagate external hard drive not showing. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. How to format an external hard drive on windows formatting a hard drive on windows is a simple affair, especially if you leave everything as default. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac.
This is because when you initially connect an external hdd made for mac to a mac computer, you wont be required to format it before you begin transferring files. Click start button and search commond, then rightclick one it and afterward press run as administrator. Dont worry, apply my task, im sure that you will get rid of on this issue. When your seagate drive is formatted as exfat or fat32 successfully, you can type exit to close this window. One way to do this is to convert the raw hard drive to ntfs using the cmd command method. Because mac os x mountain lion does not natively support writing to an external ntfs drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it using a compatible file system. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities.
Besides, you can use it to manage your hard drive partitions such as resize partition, delete partition, split partition, merge partitions, etc. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. In the format partition section, select the file system. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
If you notice any data loss once your hard drive is recognizable again, download reliable data recovery software to recover the lost data. Transferring data from a mac to pc via an external hard drive. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since macs treat them the same way as. When you take into account price, ease of use, and portability, the seagate backup plus slim is the most reliable hard drive you can carry around with you at all times. However, sometimes when you plug seagate external hard drive into the usb port of pc or. The reason is perhaps that seagate external hard drive has been well known for a long time as one of the most reliable drives for storing data. The reasons why this can happen and several solutions are provided. Time machine and seagate external hard drive how to format how to use set up duration.
Mar 07, 2020 external hard drives are not only useful for storing data but are an excellent way to transport files from one location to another. To format an external hard drive on your mac paraphrased from here connect the drive to your mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Seagate backup plus portable user manual optional formatting. How to format a windows disk drive for a mac seagate blog. Seagate backup plus hub for mac 8tb external hard drive desktop hdd usb 3. Read on as we have thoroughly explained the secure method of formatting seagate drive using mac s disk utility. Connect the raw external hard drive to your pc step 2. Fix seagate external hard drive not detectedrecognized error.
Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. Manual formatting, use disk management windows or disk utility mac to format your. Also, if your current hard drive is more than 5 years old, it probably is nearing the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. Therfore, you can connect backup plus desktop to a windows pc without formatting the hard drive. External hard drives are not only useful for storing data but are an excellent way to transport files from one location to another. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for mac and pc without losing any data. Package contents package contents seagate backup plus slim portable drive for mac 18inch 45. How to backup mac to an external hard drive 5 steps. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. Formatting an external drive comes in handy when a virus infects your disk, your mac is unable to read the drive, or when it is shutting down consistently. How to format a seagate external hard drive on mac using disk utility. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. If the drive is not formatted, you may get a message saying that the drive.
A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. Select the external hard drive in the left hand sidebar and click on the erase tab. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. How to fix a corrupted external hard drive on macmacbook. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. I am looking to purchase a seagate external hard drive for my macbook air. While mac os x can read hard drives formatted as ntfs, write access is not available. Install the free seagate mobile backup app on an ios or android mobile device to back up all of the pictures and videos from the device to your external drive or the cloud. Dec 12, 2016 time machine and seagate external hard drive how to format how to use set up duration. Mac doesn t recognize external hard drive anymore and why your mac is not mounting or wont detect specific popular brand drives including seagate, wd, toshiba, iomega, lacie, and exfat.
All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. Format your drive for optimal performance with just a few simple clicks. Seagate branded external drives come preformatted, some for pcs, some for macs, and some of them have special utilities allowing them to work between both without. Nov 14, 2019 get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. For mac users, buying an external hdd already formatted for your system makes getting started much easier. For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away.
First of all, as i said before, reformating will erase all your data that stored on the hard drive permanently. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also. Dec, 2019 now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select exfat for format option and click on the erase. Aomei partition assistant is such a great simple tool for formatting external hard drive for mac and windows. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. I got a seagate external hard drive so i can back up my first laptop which runs on windows vista yes, i know its the worst operating system but its a long story as to why i am still using it. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save.