Q: Drag and Drop Files Onto Seagate External Hardrive

That's an NTFS formatted drive, Macs can not write to a drive formatted as NTFS.

You will need to reformat the drive, and that will erase it.

You plugged a Windows drive into your Mac, and I don't need to hear about crap etc. did you check before getting this drive?

It needs reformatting and as that will erase it you will need another place to store all the stuff that is on it.

OK?

Or just buy a drive formatted for a Mac.

Believe what you want, I can't be bothered to argue with you.

Good luck

Both are correct, technically there is no such thing as a PC hard drive or a MAC hard drive

they can come formatted for EITHER one (not both)

Either way it literally takes 5 seconds to format ANY HD

But of course you have data on THIS drive that you dont want to lose

Offload the data onto your PC  OR buy another hard drive and format it new from box for your Mac (Mac OSX extended journaled)

Whatever fluff and nonsense you see on a HD cardboard box, most of it is fluff other than the size of the HD

any HD can be formatted for a MAC you buy at a local retail store

"FOR PC OR MAC" is of course correct it can be formatted for either one

All hard drives are just blank bricks,   everything else is just fluff.  Any "brick" (HD) can be formatted for PC of MAC

Most hard drives come formatted for Windows out of the box. That is how the manufacturers do it.

So, if you want to use your drive with a Mac, it needs to be re-formatted.

That is the first thing I do when I get a new external hard drive: Plug it in, erase and format. Done.

Would you like step by step instructions on how to do it?

Yes please!

I just purchased the Seagate Backup Plus HD.

Its purpose:

- to transfer movies from my Mac onto the HD

- then give the HD as a gift, which will be used on Windows PC's and probably plugged directly into their TV.

I have had a go following the previous comments, but haven't had any luck.

If you bought your external 1TB HD from a store other than Apple Store, it's likely formatted for Windows (NTFS) and you need to reformat it to Apple (UNIX):

1.Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.

2.If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.

3.In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open.

4.Launch Disk Utility.

5.Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.

6.Click the Erase tab along the top of the window.

7.From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

8.Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.

9.Click the Erase button.

Seagate external drives come with drivers that you need to install to be able to write to them on Macs.  You won't need to reformat your drive. Just mount the "Seagate Dashboard Installer.dmg" and go through the install process.

Hi, I'm also facing the same situation as OP (don't have a spare PC to offload my data for a HD reformat, sigh), and I also understand that there is a driver that simply needs to be installed onto my Mac to be able to use it on both platforms. However, I keep getting a 'critical error' message from the installer when I'm almost done installing it. So the software is in, but I still can't write it. If anyone has encountered this and has overcome it, please do offer some advice!

Hello computer people.

I just bought a seagate backup plus slim 1T drive, on 11/26/14.

At first i was unable to drag and drop.

After putzing about for over two hours, looking on this help forum and on others, i noticed on seagate's home page for my product a download link for 'NTFS driver for mac os'

it was an installer for some 3rd party program which allows NTSF ( not suitable for work? no, its some kind of formatting ) devices to be read AND WRITTEN to on mac os.

i installed it, restarted my computer, and then I could drag and drop ( aka write). PROBLEM SOLVED

But why did this take so long?!!

because;

While installing the seagate backup plus on my mac originally, i was given two options;

1- format it for use on windows AND mac

2- format it for mac ONLY

I chose option one, because i use a mac AND a pc, and i want to move files between the two, which is what this drive is advertised to do!

But instead of say, mentioning on the box -- or in the instruction booklet, or on their own help pages on their website -- that you need to download this file if your mac does not already have it for some unknown unlikely reason, Seagate merely list it as a download on their website with no intuitive obvious description of what it is or why you might need it.

my theory on why they don't broadcast this crucial information? 1- they are known to have poor customer service, in general. 2- 'Use between Mac and Windows' is much catchier ad copy than ' Use between Mac and Windows if you have NTFS driver for Mac OS installed!'

I, like many non-tech people, find my eyes glazing over when i read words such as driver, reformatting or partition.

So, better to keep the ad copy simple for a quick sale and then let the customer fumble around pulling out their hair for hours after the purchase.

Keep it classy Seagate, keep it classy. You really suck. SMH.

You are the man!!! Holy XXXX, I have been searching for hours to figure out how to use this **** drive on both Mac and PC.  I couldn't drag and drop nothing on the Mac.  This absolutely worked and I really appreciate you creating an account to post it!!!! 

I guess it is safe to say that we still cannot use the Apple Time Machine to automatically back-up the Mac Book Pro as stated in the warning message when I selected "use on Mac and PC"?

Thanks again

You ROCK!! This solved it, no reformatting required. Thank you, I have been messing with this for over an hour, my head is pounding and I am ready to scream. I have been on their site numerous times trying to find answers, and missed that completely. I am wondering how many times I reformatted and lost everything, not to mention bought extra hard drives thinking there was something wrong with the one I had.

THANK YOU!!!!!

I have to second (or third in this case), YOU ROCK!!  I had given up on this drive months ago because I couldn't figure it out either.  Figured I would have to buy a different hard drive as well.  Thank you SO MUCH for not only figuring this out but for sharing as well.  I just happened to come across this while trying to figure out an answer to another issue I was having so bonus for me!!