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Q: Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB - HFS+ or NTFS

I am in the process of purchasing a Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB Portable Portable External Hard Drive.  Two almost identical models are sold.  On the Data Sheet provided by Seagate, I can only find one difference.  Under the "What is Included" section of the Data Sheet the STDS2000100 is promoted as a "Seagate Backup Plus Slim portable drive for Mac"  with the "HFS+ driver for PC" and the STDR2000101 simply says "Seagate Backup Plus Slim portable drive" but says "NTFS driver for Mac"  What is the difference and does it matter which one I get to use with Time Machine to back up and restore my MacBook Pro running El Capitan?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11), External Drive Format

Posted on Oct 8, 2015 4:24 PM

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Q: Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB - HFS+ or NTFS

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  • by Niel,Helpful

    Niel Niel Oct 8, 2015 6:38 PM in response to Ocalagator
    Level 10 (312,640 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 8, 2015 6:38 PM in response to Ocalagator

    1. How the drive is preformatted.

    2. If you get the NTFS one, you’ll need to reformat it yourself. If they’re the same price, get the one designed for the Mac.

     

    (134641)

  • by Ocalagator,

    Ocalagator Ocalagator Oct 8, 2015 6:49 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 8, 2015 6:49 PM in response to Niel

    Thanks.  From doing a bit more research I found that the HFS+ is file system developed by Apple and is also referred to as Mac OS Extended. So the drive that Seagate promotes specifically for Mac includes a driver that allows the drive to be used by a PC, thus the the words "HFS+ driver for PC."

     

    Thanks for your quick response.

  • by Bear Hunter,Solvedanswer

    Bear Hunter Bear Hunter Oct 8, 2015 8:04 PM in response to Ocalagator
    Level 2 (254 points)
    Oct 8, 2015 8:04 PM in response to Ocalagator

    I have the same drive.  I always reformat the drive using disk utility regardless of what they say it already is (takes less than a minute)...so it doesn't matter which one you get.  I also never install the drivers that come with hard drives. 

  • by Ocalagator,

    Ocalagator Ocalagator Oct 8, 2015 8:20 PM in response to Bear Hunter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 8, 2015 8:20 PM in response to Bear Hunter

    Thanks. Sounds like a good idea. I will probably do that.

     

    I was a little thrown off when I read about what Linus Torvalds (Mr. Linux) was saying about HFS+, but upon further reading I gathered that he is basically just a grumpy guy who likes to yell about stuff.