Geoff K

Q: hard drive formatting

I backup to a hard drive and store it off premises. I use CCC to make a bootable clone. I have 2 computers and partition the drive so each has its own storage space. The old drive died.

 

I purchased a Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable STDR2000100. It was listed as "for Mac" as opposed to a similar (identical?) drive for Windows. It told me to install NTFS_for_Mac_14.0.456 to make the drive Mac compatible. I did.

 

The partition tab in Disk Utility is greyed when the Seagate drive is selected. How do I partition? The erase tab is active. Must I erase and start over with Apple formatting using Disk Utility?

 

Do I need to partition to use CCC for 2 separate back ups? If so, was there any advantage to paying an extra $10 for the "Mac compatible" drive? Is any hard drive compatible by erasing it and letting Disk Utility format it?

 

I have asked Seagate for advice but, so far, they have not understood my problem and each question goes to a different support person. I have asked Bombich but will not hear from them until Tuesday. They have been excellent with support in the past; perhaps will solve my problem. My reason for posting this is twofold; l'd like to get my back up running quickly and, as the above questions demonstrate, I need a better understanding of how hard drives relate to a Mac.

 

Thanks.

 

Geoff

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 4, 2016 7:17 AM

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