Like the commercials of years gone by, some people are PCs and others are Macs.
Seagate Backup Plus comes in a couple varieties — one pre-formatted for Mac, the other pre-formatted for Windows but also readable on Mac. But sometimes a little help is needed, if you decide to start using your Windows drive mainly on your new Mac.
This article will give you a step-by-step breakdown on how to format any drive to read and write using Mac OS. But before starting, it’s worth pointing out that with Seagate Backup Plus drives; it’s not necessary to format the drive for Mac if you plan on using the drive between a Mac and Windows OS. If this is the case, it’s ideal to keep the drive in the original NTFS format and and simply add the “NTFS for Mac OS” driver, which you can download here.
Or, if you’ve already got one of our Backup Plus for Mac units I mentioned above, and want to use that device with a PC, then you’ll want to install the following driver accessible here.
Now without further ado, here’s how you reformat the drive:
1. Open Disk Utility Applications >Utilities > Disk Utilities
2. Select the Seagate drive on the left that shows the capacity
3. Select the Partition tab on the right hand side of the Disk Utility Window
4. Select Partition Layout and select 1 partition
5. Next to name you will see untitled 1 where you can name the drive.
6. Change Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
7. Select Options and select GUID Partition Table
8. Select OK
9. Select Apply
You’ll get the following window advising you that this is a data destructive process and any data currently on the drive will be deleted.
10. Select Partition to finish the formatting process
That’s it, you’re finished. If you have any trouble, please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Service team available through Twitter, Facebook or via our Support Page.
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Who is John Paulsen? A creator, family man and former small-business leader myself, I feel your pain (and joy) and hope you’ll enjoy the blog. I launched and ran a well-regarded production company in San Francisco with a team of 9 brilliant, hard working people. I learned to manage a wide array of tasks a small business must handle — business strategy, facilities design, HR, payroll, taxes, marketing, all the way down to choosing telecom equipment and spec’ing a server system to help my team collaborate in real-time on dense media projects from multiple production rooms. I’ve partnered with and learned from dozens of small business owners.
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