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Segate external hard drive doesn't work for mac

D

Dor Shomer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2010
4
0
Hey everybody!

I'm using 1 TB Segate External Desktop Drive (model: ST310005EXD101-RK). recently i bought a macbook pro, and ever since i can't copy anything from my mac to the driver, only from pc. i was looking all over the web and couldn't find anything safe and simple to do. PLEASE help me find the right way to modify the driver to the mac.

Thanks :)
 
You need to format it from NTFS to HFS/HFS+. Use disk utility and make sure to select the disk (will be named like 1tb segate .......)when you erase and not the partition. You will lose your data so backup on the PC first whatever you have on there. You can only read NTFS with the os x base driver.
 
It's more than likely formatted to NTFS. You'll have to use Disk Utility to reformat it to FAT32 of HFS+.

Yes, it's going to erase it.
 
I think you actually have to choose 'Partition' in Disk Utility. Choose 1 for the number of partitions, then hit the "Options" button and select GUID Partition Table.

That should allow you to format it without an error.
 
If you want to use the drive with your Mac and a PC, then formatting to HFS+ is not the answer. Your options in this case are to:

1) format to FAT-32
2) add the necessary driver to your Mac so that it can write to NTFS partitions.

If, on the other hand, you intend to use the external only with your Mac, then HFS+ is the way to go.

Hope this helps.
 
VideoFreek said:
If you want to use the drive with your Mac and a PC, then formatting to HFS+ is not the answer. Your options in this case are to:

1) format to FAT-32
2) add the necessary driver to your Mac so that it can write to NTFS partitions.

If, on the other hand, you intend to use the external only with your Mac, then HFS+ is the way to go.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify - I had bought a terabyte external HD and saved all my pc files to it before it died intending to then move these to the new mac pro I expect to get next week. I've been wondering how this would happen if they're different formats even though the apple site makes it sound simple as pie (just use an external HD. Nothing said about the file system format.) If the HD is in fat 32 then the mac will recognize it?
 
Sleephartha said:
Just to clarify - I had bought a terabyte external HD and saved all my pc files to it before it died intending to then move these to the new mac pro I expect to get next week. I've been wondering how this would happen if they're different formats even though the apple site makes it sound simple as pie (just use an external HD. Nothing said about the file system format.) If the HD is in fat 32 then the mac will recognize it?
Click to expand...

From NTFS to Mac = No Problem
From Mac to NTFS = a little bit of an issue that can be solved with MacFuse or guides that can be found on the internet on how to enable NTFS native support on SL.
 
Sleephartha said:
I did a search of a few sites and all seemed to say OS-X can read FAT32 fine. Thanks VideoFreek...
Click to expand...
To elaborate a bit, OS X can read FAT-32 and NTFS just fine; the issue is writing. Natively, it can write to FAT-32 but not (yet) to NTFS (Apple has added native write capability to Snow Leopard, but it is switched off by default and seems to be not quite ready for prime time). However, third-party drivers exist that allow OS X to write to NTFS partitions.
 
Well the plan is a one time copy over of files from the external HD then format it to the hfs+ format. Next I have 2 gigantic files (adobe cs5 install) on a laptop that I was going to try transferring via a direct connection between the laptop and macpro. Figured this would be a fairly simple process. Thanks again.
 
Well done!

Thanks everybody!
Now i just need to find a place to store my 600 GB that are in used at my segate :)
chears!
 
reformatting seagate external hard drive to mac

Hi everybody.
I've just bought myself a Seagate 1TB external hard drive to use with my Macbook Air running Mavericks 10.9.2, and although the Seagate drive says it works with both PC and Mac, of course, when you plug in the hard drive for the first time out of the box, you can't transfer files to it. There's a part in the registration process that is supposed to reformat the drive to Mac, but in my case at least, it doesn't. You click on it and nothing happens. Ridiculous. So after much searching around, I finally found an answer in one of the Seagate threads that explains very clearly how to manually reformat the hard drive to Mac so that it works fine: http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207851en
Why Seagate can't be bothered to write some code to make this happen automatically is beyond me, and a lot of the forum threads on this subject are all full of nerdspeak and assume all sorts of knowledge that people like me don't have and aren't interested in obtaining. So for anyone who just wants to get their brand new Seagate drive working with their Mac (and maybe other brands too), check out the link above. **NB If your hard drive isn't brand new and has data previously stored on it (ie from using it in Windows for instance), the data will be wiped during the reformatting process, so beware! Hope this helps.
 
^^^^My Friend the Link you posted gives basic Macintosh knowledge that every Macintosh user should know. No drive you buy from any third party supplier will come formatted for a Macintosh. You need to do this yourself, and this is basic knowledge available here:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Formatting_an_External_Device

or many other sources.

And, you do realize you're in the Mac Pro Section of the Forum, not the MBA Forum?

Lou
 
To get back to the point of the thread:

1) Microsoft hasn't allowed Apple to implement native writing to NTFS partitions. There is 3rd party software to enable it.

2) To get past the file-size restrictions FAT32 brings with it, format your external drives you want to use on both Mac and Win as 1 partition as ExFAT. It has write support under OSX and no mentionable file-size restrictions.
With Win XP there's a patch you need to enable ExFAT support. The later versions have it from the start.
To make sure the drive works under Windows, I think you'll have to set the partition table (under "Options...") to MBR.
 
reel2reel said:
I think you actually have to choose 'Partition' in Disk Utility. Choose 1 for the number of partitions, then hit the "Options" button and select GUID Partition Table.

That should allow you to format it without an error.
Click to expand...

Correct. Also choose HFS+ (or exFAT). Stay away from FAT32

----------
flatfoot said:
To get back to the point of the thread:

1) Microsoft hasn't allowed Apple to implement native writing to NTFS partitions. There is 3rd party software to enable it.

2) To get past the file-size restrictions FAT32 brings with it, format your external drives you want to use on both Mac and Win as 1 partition as ExFAT. It has write support under OSX and no mentionable file-size restrictions.
With Win XP there's a patch you need to enable ExFAT support. The later versions have it from the start.
To make sure the drive works under Windows, I think you'll have to set the partition table (under "Options...") to MBR.
Click to expand...

It's not about MS allowing it. Apple has no interest in paying the license fees for NTFS
 
theSeb said:
Correct. Also choose HFS+ (or exFAT). Stay away from FAT32

----------



It's not about MS allowing it. Apple has no interest in paying the license fees for NTFS
Click to expand...

Ah, right. They are licensing it. Thanks for the clarification.
 
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