Segate external hard drive doesn't work for mac

[Dor Shomer]

Hey everybody!

I'm using 1 TB Segate External Desktop Drive (model: ST310005EXD101-RK). recently i bought a macbook pro, and ever since i can't copy anything from my mac to the driver, only from pc. i was looking all over the web and couldn't find anything safe and simple to do. PLEASE help me find the right way to modify the driver to the mac.

Thanks :)

[teeck2000]

You need to format it from NTFS to HFS/HFS+. Use disk utility and make sure to select the disk (will be named like 1tb segate .......)when you erase and not the partition. You will lose your data so backup on the PC first whatever you have on there. You can only read NTFS with the os x base driver.

[Eidorian]

It's more than likely formatted to NTFS. You'll have to use Disk Utility to reformat it to FAT32 of HFS+.

Yes, it's going to erase it.

[reel2reel]

I think you actually have to choose 'Partition' in Disk Utility. Choose 1 for the number of partitions, then hit the "Options" button and select GUID Partition Table.

That should allow you to format it without an error.

[VideoFreek]

If you want to use the drive with your Mac and a PC, then formatting to HFS+ is not the answer. Your options in this case are to:

1) format to FAT-32
2) add the necessary driver (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/ntfs3g.html) to your Mac so that it can write to NTFS partitions.

If, on the other hand, you intend to use the external only with your Mac, then HFS+ is the way to go.

Hope this helps.

[Sleephartha]

If you want to use the drive with your Mac and a PC, then formatting to HFS+ is not the answer. Your options in this case are to:

1) format to FAT-32
2) add the necessary driver (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/ntfs3g.html) to your Mac so that it can write to NTFS partitions.

If, on the other hand, you intend to use the external only with your Mac, then HFS+ is the way to go.

Hope this helps.

Just to clarify - I had bought a terabyte external HD and saved all my pc files to it before it died intending to then move these to the new mac pro I expect to get next week. I've been wondering how this would happen if they're different formats even though the apple site makes it sound simple as pie (just use an external HD. Nothing said about the file system format.) If the HD is in fat 32 then the mac will recognize it?

[beto2k7]

Just to clarify - I had bought a terabyte external HD and saved all my pc files to it before it died intending to then move these to the new mac pro I expect to get next week. I've been wondering how this would happen if they're different formats even though the apple site makes it sound simple as pie (just use an external HD. Nothing said about the file system format.) If the HD is in fat 32 then the mac will recognize it?

From NTFS to Mac = No Problem
From Mac to NTFS = a little bit of an issue that can be solved with MacFuse or guides that can be found on the internet on how to enable NTFS native support on SL.

[Sleephartha]

I did a search of a few sites and all seemed to say OS-X can read FAT32 fine. Thanks VideoFreek...

[beto2k7]

I did a search of a few sites and all seemed to say OS-X can read FAT32 fine. Thanks VideoFreek...

The only thing about fat32 is that you cannot paste files over 2Gb.

[VideoFreek]

I did a search of a few sites and all seemed to say OS-X can read FAT32 fine. Thanks VideoFreek...To elaborate a bit, OS X can read FAT-32 and NTFS just fine; the issue is writing. Natively, it can write to FAT-32 but not (yet) to NTFS (Apple has added native write capability to Snow Leopard, but it is switched off by default and seems to be not quite ready for prime time (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=785376)). However, third-party drivers exist that allow OS X to write to NTFS partitions.

[Sleephartha]

Well the plan is a one time copy over of files from the external HD then format it to the hfs+ format. Next I have 2 gigantic files (adobe cs5 install) on a laptop that I was going to try transferring via a direct connection between the laptop and macpro. Figured this would be a fairly simple process. Thanks again.

[Dor Shomer]

Thanks everybody!
Now i just need to find a place to store my 600 GB that are in used at my segate :)
chears!