Seagate internal drives must be formatted before use. Drives that will be bootable are formatted during the process of installing the operating system (ie, Windows or MacOS). Drives that will be used for storage can be formatted according to the instructions below.
Moving Data Between Two Systems Using an External Hard Drive (for MacOS) In most cases you can use your external hard drive to copy data from one computer to another. It is recommended that you only copy data (i.e. Pictures, documents, music, etc.) and not applications. Applications will not function when they are copied to a different system.
Also, please note there may be a file system compatibility issue. Please see the ' File system compatibility between operating systems' section below. To copy the data to the external hard drive: There are four main ways to save data (or 'backup') to your external drive: manually (using the copy & paste or the drag & drop method), creating image/clone backups, using a backup software, and using backup programs included within Windows or MacOS.
To backup your data manually, please see for instructions, Remember that you may always backup manually, whether or not you are also using a backup software. Many Seagate and Maxtor-brand drives include backup programs, and you may use these as well as manual methods to perform backups. To use a backup software, simply install the software that came with your drive and configure the backup to run when you launch it or on a scheduled basis. See for how-to videos and other resources to help you set up your backup program. See for a list of programs by drive model. To use MacOS native backup systems like Time Machine, please check with their manufacturer documentation. Here are some examples:.
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File system compatibility between operating systems Windows OS to MacOS: The GoFlex line of drives includes an NTFS driver, which can make NTFS file systems usable in MacOS. This is the best solution Seagate offers for transferring data between Windows and Mac computers. You may also format your external drive into FAT32 for use between Windows and Mac computers. For instructions. It is only possible to read FAT and FAT32 formatted drives in a Macintosh with OS 10.2 or earlier.
Using a FAT32 formatted drive within the Macintosh environment is only recommended for a short period of time to transfer data. Data corruption will possibly occur when using FAT32 over an extended period of time in a Macintosh. Also keep in mind, that you will have a 4 GB file transfer limitation.
Do not use NTFS formatted drives. For non-GoFlex drives, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or later works with local NTFS-formatted volumes, but the volume will be read-only. You will be able to copy data from, but not to, the external hard drive. With FAT32, it is recommended that the volume/partition size of the external hard drive not exceed 32 GB. If you have an NTFS formatted disk, you must use another method to transfer the data from the Mac computer to the NTFS formatted external drive. Please also see the following Apple article: Macintosh OS to Windows OS: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drives includes the Paragon driver, which can make NTFS file systems usable in MacOS. Please for instructions on installing it.
This is the best solution Seagate offers for transferring data between Windows and Mac computers. For non-GoFlex drives, Windows does not support the Macintosh file system and it cannot be read. However, Macintosh and Windows can read the FAT32 file system. Using a FAT32 formatted drive within the Macintosh environment is only recommended for a short period of time to transfer data. It is recommended that you divide the drive in 32GB volumes/partitions and format as FAT32. Data corruption will be prevalent when using FAT32 over an extended period of time in a Macintosh.
Using a third-party disk utility that allows you to see Macintosh formatted volumes is an alternative to using FAT32 file system for the external hard drive. MacOS to MacOS: Some Seagate external drives, such as the FreeAgent Go for Mac and FreeAgent Desk for Mac, come formatted in MacOS Extended format, which is supported by Mac OS 8.1 and later. Others, which come formatted in NTFS, need to be reformatted in MacOS before you attempt to store data on the drive. For instructions.
When you format your external hard drive, it should be formatted for Mac OS Extended. If you are transferring data from an OS 10 system to an OS 9 computer, or trying to access the data through OS 9 (with a drive formatted through OS 10), you will need to have installed OS 9 driverswhen you erase the drive. Otherwise, transferring data between OS 10 operating systems should work. Helpful Apple articles.
RECOMMENDED: Majority of computer users own at least one external hard drive these days. While it’s always a good idea to format the external hard drive with NTFS because of its advantages, sometimes you might have to format your external hard drive with FAT32. For instance, if you want to transfer files from a Mac to your external hard drive, you need to format the drive in FAT32 as Mac OS X doesn’t support transferring files to NTFS drive (doesn’t support writing to NTFS).
Although one can always right-click on a drive, select Format, and then select FAT32 as file system, Windows doesn’t show FAT32 file system option when you are trying to format a drive that is larger than 32GB. So how to format an external drive with a capacity of more than 32GB with FAT32? There are a couple of ways to format your external hard drive in FAT32, even if it’s larger than 32GB. The best method is to use the native Command Prompt to quickly change the file system to FAT32. Users who aren’t comfortable using Command Prompt can use third-party tools such as FAT32 Format, Seagate DiscWizard (only for Seagate drives) and Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition (supports only WD drives). In this guide, we are going to show you how to format an external hard drive with FAT32 fie system with the help of native Command Prompt and also with the using a free tool called FAT32 Formatter. Warning: Formatting a drive will erase all data on the drive.
So please backup all data to another drive before formatting your drive. Method 1: Formatting external drive with FAT32 file system using Command Prompt. Step 1: Open Command Prompt. To do this, you can type CMD in Start menu search box (Vista and Windows 7), or in the Start screen (Windows 8 and Windows 8.1) and then press Enter key. Alternatively, you can open Run dialog box by using Windows logo + R hotkey, type CMD in the box, and then press Enter key to open Command Prompt. Step 2: In the Command Prompt, enter the following command and press Enter key.
Format /FS:FAT32 X: (In the above command, replace “X” with the drive letter of your external drive. You can find the drive letter of your external drive by opening Computer or My Computer) You’ll be asked to enter the Volume Label (drive name as it appears in Computer).
Type the volume label, press Enter key and finally, press “Y” (without quotes) key to confirm. Method 2: Formatting external hard drive with FAT32 file system using FAT32 Format software.
(Since Seagate DiscWizard is compatible with Seagate drives only, and supports on WD drives, we are going to use FAT32 Format software, a free software that supports all drives.) Step 1: Visit and click on the FAT32 Format’s picture to start downloading the software. It’s a portable software and doesn’t require an installation. Step 2: Run FAT32 Format tool. Step 3: Select your external drive’s drive letter, enter a volume label for the drive, and then click the Start button to begin formatting your drive with FAT32. If for any reason, FAT32 Formatter fails to work on your PC, you can use FAT32FileSystem or FAT32 Formatter for the same job.