The Seagate would have come with Windows formatting *and* partitioning (Master Boot Record). So when I get an external drive that will be used only for Macs, I repartition it (which also reformats it) as either Apple Partition Map (required to boot PPC Macs) or GUID. APM is the best universal choice for Macs, since it can boot both PPC and Intel Macs (though you have to clone Leopard onto it, you can't install directly.) If the drive is only for data, it doesn't matter which you use.
Sure you can do a simple reformat for Mac on top of MBR partitions, but then if you try to use the drive for Time Machine I seem to remember it will want to reformat it again. TM will format the drive, including the partition, properly. But then you can't use it with a Windows computer.
If you can't copy any files to the new Seagate, perhaps it was formatted NTFS? I believe that's read-only on a Mac.
6 comentarios
thank you all very helpful!
- de fausto luciano
format the drive? is this mean that i can lose my data or file inside the drive?
- de deen
But, what if I intend to use the drive on both Windows and Macs?
- de Ademola Oladipo
Hi I use my USB HDD on both PC and MAC just install this on your mac. You should be able to copy files to your USB HDD on the mac! and Read them on your PC:
http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/dow...
- de davidjstringer
What if I already have files on HD and then format it... will I lose them?
- de Lexee Ebert
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