How to format a windows disk drive for a mac seagate blog. On the left hand side of disk utility youll see a list of drives. Connect your external hard drive to the computer, select it while. Click erase to begin erasing your disk and every container and volume within it. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and securely. So if you are formatting a drive that has already been used, be sure to copy any files you will ever want to see again onto a computer or backup drive. This is for the goflex mac but it will probably work on the freeagent drive. If the above steps fail i would suggest you to try to format the hard drive. Then, if you never plan on using the drive with a pc ever again, you can use the disk utility on the mac to format it specifically for. Seagate external hard drive how to set up on mac macos sierra. My computer wont recognize the hardware, and im not sure what to do.
Oct 09, 2019 this wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. I just tried to copy some files from my mac to this drive. If you are a personal user, you can try its professional edition. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well.
In a few moments youll see the drive icon on your desktop. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pcmac hard drive. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Dec 29, 2015 you can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. And yes, it does handily format the freeagent desk usb 2. Fix seagate external hard drive not recognizeddetected on mac. Hard drives in seagates freeagent line except for the go pro for mac and the go for mac ship with ntfs, a file system designed for windows. I can read and write when i connect back to the pc, and i even. Usually, you can use windows builtin tools like diskpart to format seagate drive. Seagate external hard drive not showing up mac solved. Choose files you need and click recover to get them back and save the recovered files to another usable disk drive.
I was leaning toward getting a wd my passport essential because its compatible with macs and pcs. Apr 21, 2009 and yes, it does handily format the freeagent desk usb 2. It should without a doubt be able to take and use those files as long as you have the right applications ex. Reformatting seagate freeagent external hd hardware. Unable to write to seagate freeagent goflex macrumors forums. Seagate freeagent desk external drive on mac page 2. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Windows 7 requires me to format seagate freeagent external. How to reformat seagate portable external hard drive. Seagate external drive does not appear in apple finder. Dec 12, 2016 seagate external drive does not appear in apple finder. I just got this message with the permissions repair. To format an external hard drive on your mac paraphrased from here connect the drive to your mac.
In disk utilities with the external drive subset highlighted, the owner enabled shows up when you click the info button. The best format to choose when you plan to use your seagate expansion only for your mac is mac os extended journaled file system. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. I used the troubleshooting tutorial on their website, but i dont really understand how to format the hard drive, and i think that may be my problem. One of the reasons you cant add files to a seagate hard drive on your mac is that its formatted with ntfs.
Then drop your files onto the freeagent go, and connect to your mac. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. How to format a seagate freeagent for a macbook synonym. Jan 11, 2009 i want to get an external hard drive for my ibook g4 mac os x 10. The permission repairs on the start up drive as as you list. After du loads select your hard drive this is the entry with the mfgr.
Owner enabling an external hard drive apple community. Oct 04, 2010 mac os extended journaled format can be used only with a mac, or with a windows computer that has macdrive software installed. Reformatting seagate freeagent external hd posted in hardware, components and peripherals. How to reformat a seagate external hard drive for both mac and a pc. Windows 7 requires me to format seagate freeagent external harddrive that ive been using for over a month i have been using seagate freeagent as my external harddrive for over a month now but recently i am unable to access it for windows 7 is asking me to format it in order to use it. Exe windows software to allow a goflex for mac, goflex desk for mac, or goflex pro to mount as a drive letter in windows without having to reformat.
It was formatted by seagate in a way that it can be used under both mac os and windows. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Shop for seagate external hard drive for mac at best buy. External seagate hard drive for mac compatibility ask different. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. 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. Seagate freeagent desk external drive on mac mac support. Just plug it in and it should appear on your desktop. On macos, you can only read disks in this format, not.
Funny in going through this to give you instructions i noticed both of my free agents are formatted msdos fat. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Absolutely easy, and yes it will be done in disk utility. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Once it appears mounts on your mac desktop, doubleclick on it to open it. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. 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. After a reinstall i erased the drive with mac disk utility, format is mac os extended journaled. Seagate backup plus hub user manual optional formatting and. Ive used my 1tb drive on my mac with lion, then connected the drive to my pc for some work. This wikihow teaches you how to format a seagate hard drive on a mac computer. As far as i recall, i was able to write to the drive under mac os.
Back up using seagate with time machine, formatting seagate. How to format your freeagent drive in mac os 10 youtube. And youll detailed tutorial on how to format seagate drive for mac and windows computer in the following text. Three weeks ago, i bought a brand new 2tb seagate expansion to backup my macbook pro before i updated it to the latest macos. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. If you intend on using the drive solely with macintosh computers and do not need to access the drive locally via usb, etc. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save before formatting. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Also the external drive shows a lock next to the drive icon. If the drive is secondary storage and hasnt been initialized previously.
The extra cost for a mac formatted drive is sometimes for more than formatting. In the pane on the left, under storage, click disk management. Purchased 3 months ago, and not knowing any better, i allowed it to setup and install the windows and mac software. To format hard drive for mac and windows without data loss, we suggest using minitool partition wizard and its convert ntfs to fats32 function. For some reason i lost half of my space on this hard drive once i. Feb 07, 2009 absolutely easy, and yes it will be done in disk utility. Seagate expansion on mac, want it but can i use on my mac. Ive been told that it doesnt work with the windows os if i want to use it to reformat this external hdd, but my sister and i use different computers me a pc, and she a mac and ive been told that fat32 is the only one that can be used by both our computers. A hard drive can be used on any type of computer pc or mac. Connect the freeagent to any open usb port on your macbook. Heres a marginally related word to the wise about external drives, seagate included.
Select the seagate external hard drive and click next button to scan for all the lost data. As long as the drive connects to your macbook air via a connection protocol that the air supports like thunderbolt or usb 2 or usb 3 you can format the drive and use it with your mac just fine. In diskpart window, input the following commands and hit enter after each command. 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. Format the other on your pc using ntfs if you wont need to write to it from the os x side or use exfat if you do.
One day it is recognized and listed as drive f, the next day it is not listed. By doing these ways you will definitely solve the issue seagate external hard drive not showing up mac. Selectionnez os x extended journaled dans format 6. However, if you want to use part of the drive for os xs time machine backups, you should do this from the mac, since theres. How to format seagate drive for mac and pc quickly and. You can format a drive using the disk utility in mac. When i tried using the freeagent drive back to the macbook i can only read the files. Your computer filesespecially music, photos and moviesneed to be periodically rotated to an external drive to keep them aired out and healthy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup.
How can i regain read and write permissions on my seagate. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. To format an external hard drive on your mac paraphrased from here. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb. Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. Jul 19, 2007 learn the mac in under an hour see notes for updated class duration. I want to get an external hard drive for my ibook g4 mac os x 10.
Learn the mac in under an hour see notes for updated class duration. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. But in order for the computer and drive to talk to one another, the drive has to be formatted. If the drive does not appear on your desktop, run disk first aid you will find it in the utilities folder, which is inside the applications folder on your mac. Simply follow the above given steps and you will fix them for sure. Seagate freeagent desk external drive on mac page 2 mac.
Select the freeagent drive and open the partition tab. Click on macinstall to start the install options for the paragon driver. Before formatting any hard drive, its a good idea to backup any data or files you want to save. Formatting the drive will permanently erase all the data and files stored on the hard drive forever. Dec 17, 2018 press the start button again to turn on the mac pro. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Reformatting seagate freeagent go july 2010 forums cnet. I bought the seagate freeagent goflex 2t few months ago. Freeagent utility file this software is for the freeagent go drive. Windows 7 requires me to format seagate freeagent external harddrive that ive been using for over a month.
Select the erase tab and choose mac os extended journaled for the format and give it a. Open the apple menu and click go and then utilities. A lot of people including you, storing important data on seagate external hard drive instead of on your pc mac hard drive. Launch recoverit data recovery and follow the next steps to perform external hard drive data recovery on windows computer, if you are a mac user, you can download recoverit data recovery for mac to go on step 1. In the case of the freeagent desk series by seagate, the price difference comes from the available connection possibilities those marketed for pcs have only usb connections, while the ones specifically marketed for macs have usb as well as firewire 400 and. Steps on how to recover data from external hard drive download and install recoverit data recovery on your computer. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x.
Seagate freeagent for mac 1tb external wi apple community. Dec 15, 2008 seagate freeagent go drive for mac pricing. Then, connect the seagate drive to your pc and make sure that it can be detected by windows. How do you format a seagate freeagent external hard drive. Press the start button again to turn on the mac pro. Seagate freeagent goflex drivers download for windows 10. Freeagent go question apple ios os help fix mac iphone. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a mac, please reference the following links. Do this to connect up your seagate expansion drive. How to format seagate external hard drive for both mac.
Mac os extended journaled format can be used only with a mac, or with a windows computer that has macdrive software installed. Manufacturer website official download device type. Seagate freeagent exteranl hard drive not being recognized by windows 8. By doing these things for the respective devices will reset the system management controls smc. Seagate freeagent external hard drive not recognized by. How to format a seagate freeagent for a macbook step 1. Seagate backup plus slim 1tb external hard drive portable hdd black usb 3.
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. 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. I have a seagate freeagent goflex usb drive as my location to backup my win 7 64 bit system. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Letan recommends a model like the seagate freeagent, a humungous second home for up to 1. How to unlock and format an external hard drive for your mac.
Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. How to set up seagate external hard drive on macbook pro, mac mini, mac. Your macbook can not read or write to a ntfs drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Dec 01, 2008 how do you format a seagate freeagent external hard drive. Access the link below and follow the steps to format the hard drive. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. But yes in theory, either would work on either platform as long as the format is correct for that platform. You can do this via disk utility, located in applications utilities. The ntfs3g software can format any currently available size of drive or partition as ntfs. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. Ntfs format can be used with os x if ntfs3g or ntfs for mac is installed. Reformatting freeagent go mac to work on both mac and pc.
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