I want to format a Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

Question

Level 1

8 points

I want to format a Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

I ordered a Seagate Expansion 2 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive to use with my new Mac and my old PC (or at least get my photos off of both and put them on the drive). I thought all HDs could be formatted to use by both, I was able to get a Mac HD to work with my PC in 2008 (but it died). I am reading that this drive is PC only. I have Parallels and Windows 8 on my Mac if worse comes to worse but I would like all of my computers, real, virtual old and new to be able to access the external drive. Has anyone encountered this issue before? What should I format it in? FAT32? If yes, how would I go about that on a Mac. Or should I just return it?

I'm kind of Mac clueless. I spent my childhood through college on a Mac but I graduated right when OSX came around and I don't know how to work with the Mac "under the hood" like I did with OS9 and with Windows. So please talk to me like I am an an adult idiot.

Thanks!!!!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), Windows 8 on Parallels and PC

Posted on Aug 27, 2013 12:12 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Aug 27, 2013 12:20 PM in response to RachKath

The optimum choice is to format it ExFAT, but do so on the PC, not the Mac. Alternatively, you can make two partitions - one for the Mac; one for the PC. Partition the drive using GUID when you make the two partitions. Format one using Mac OS Extended, Journaled. Format the other on your PC using NTFS if you won't need to write to it from the OS X side or use ExFAT if you do.

Drive Partition and Format

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) you will use for Windows from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to MSDOS.

6. Click on the Erase button.

When you connect the drive to your PC reformat the PC volume to either NTFS or ExFAT.

Reply

Answer 2

RachKath Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 27, 2013 8:41 PM in response to Kappy

Thank you very much. I formatted the drive in ExFAT on my old PC. When I was done I plugged it in to the MacBook Pro and Time Machine read it immediately and started to do it's thing.

Reply

Answer 3

MP4123

Level 1

8 points

Feb 10, 2015 8:31 AM in response to RachKath

You didn't say that this would delete everything off the harddrive!! WTH! i did everything and lost absolutly everything on my drive. thanks. thanks a lot. you should add in that you will LOSE everything if you do it.

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 22, 2015 5:02 PM in response to MP4123

Yes, he did.

Computer formatting, a process these users referred to as 'formatting' or 'formatted', etc., is the process of preparing a data storage system for initial use. That is, to 'format' a hard drive is to prepare it to be used 'for the first time', or, in this case, to be used 'for a new task, or for storage of new data'.

This is trivial to look up and research, and it was YOUR responsibility to have made sure that you understood the instructions before modifying your hard drive.

Reply

Answer 5

wauaw

Level 1

4 points

May 4, 2015 10:24 AM in response to RachKath

I though Paragon NTFS can facilitate writing to partition formatted under NTFS from Mac?

Reply