how do I reformat a seagate drive for my iMac?

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Level 1

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how do I reformat a seagate drive for my iMac?

I have an iMac running the latest OS. I used my seagate backup plus external hard drive, followed all the prompts when setting it up for the first time, and I was able to write on it; i.e., I created a few folders, in preparation for the files that I was going to download onto the drive. I used the drive with a Windows system, brought it back to my iMac, and I could access the files and even put more files on the drive, however, I cannot write on the drive any more, no matter how many times I uninstall and install the NTFS, and all the other related programs from Seagate. I don't care about the files that are on the drive, they can be deleted. I just want to be able to use the drive as a backup for this iMac.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Aug 8, 2017 4:37 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

90,370 points

Aug 8, 2017 5:57 PM in response to FDaumberger

If you are going to use it to backup your iMac with Time Machine or bootable cloning software, then you will need to format it GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and never ever connect it to or allow a windows computer to reformat it.

If you want to use it to store and share files between your Mac and a PC, then it is best to format it MSDOS / FAT32 or exFAT.

To reformat it using Disk Utility, see > How to Format a Hard Drive for a Mac - YouTube

and/or > http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/04/format-an-external-hard-drive-or-usb-flash-drive- for-mac-os-x/

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