Will this work with my mac (external HDD)?

[ikermalli]

Hello,

Will the Seagate Maxtor Black Armor 160 GB HDD work with my mac? This site says it does not http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10118853&catid= But that happens with a lot of products. Also will it work with time machine back ups? It is the cheapest drive there, and I will be using it for Music, Movies, Pictures, Documents, and backups. I might also put in other things like applications which take a lot of space and only need to be used occasionally.

 

[jaxonkohne]

any external drive should work as long as you format it properly... it may not come formatted to work with mac and that ay be why Future Shop is advertising it as PC but using disk utility I'm pretty sure you can format it to work.... i'm not 100% sure though. PS i work for Future Shop.. i can find out very easily... but im 85% sure it will

 

[ikermalli]

What do I format it to?

 

[ikermalli]

It is not showing up in the finder, or on my desktop, or in disk utility

 

[ikermalli]

As it said on the futureshop site, it will not and has not worked for macs

 

[kastenbrust]

Any external Hard Drive will work with Mac's the same way they work with Windows.

All external hard drives and hard drives are basically the same inside with a fancy shell on the outside.

Infact their so simple I build my own.

All hard drives and external hard drives working with Macs need to be formatted in the HFS + or Journaled File format.

All hard drives and external hard drives working with Windows need to be formatted in the Fat 32 or NTFS File format.

Both Mac and Windows can read FAT 32

The hard drive you have mentioned will automatically be most like NTFS formatted, (as most people will buy them for windows) however its a case of a few simple clicks to reformat it in the HFS+ file format for use with Mac.

I should also point out that the hard drive your looking at is not a very good hard drive, as its only 160GB which isnt that much, and its many not GB's for $70. Also it's only running at 5400RPM which is quite slow, 7200RPM would be better.

 

[ikermalli]

But it also has government grade security, and it is the most secure HDD available. How would I format it? It does not even show up in finder. Or in disk Utility

 

[sickmacdoc]

But it also has government grade security, and it is the most secure HDD available. How would I format it? It does not even show up in finder. Or in disk Utility

Yes, after some research into it, unfortunately it appears you are correct in your understanding that it will NOT work with Macs (or Linux for that matter), which of course is the exception to the rule.

And for anyone who doubts that is it true, the following is in the specification section of the BlackArmor page at the Maxtor site itself here right after calling out which versions of Windows it will work with:

** Drive will not work with any other operating systems as an unlocking utility is required.

Pretty well shuts the book on that drive for using with Macs unfortunately. 🙁