Moving Data Between Two Systems Using an External Hard Drive (for MacOS) In most cases you can use your external hard drive to copy data from one computer to another. It is recommended that you only copy data (i.e. Pictures, documents, music, etc.) and not applications.

Use Disk Utility to Format an External Drive. After you connect an external drive to your Mac, open the Applications folder from the Finder window. The Disk Utility application is located in the Utilities sub-folder. Launch Disk Utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. How can I format an external drive for both Mac and PC? Update Cancel. Ad by DatadogHQ.com. Is it possible to reformat an external hard drive made for Mac to work with both Windows and Mac? Is it possible to format an external hard drive both as an NTFS and OSX?

Applications will not function when they are copied to a different system. Also, please note there may be a file system compatibility issue. Please see the ' File system compatibility between operating systems' section below. To copy the data to the external hard drive: There are four main ways to save data (or 'backup') to your external drive: manually (using the copy & paste or the drag & drop method), creating image/clone backups, using a backup software, and using backup programs included within Windows or MacOS. Tumblr wallpapers for macbook pro.

If your disk was initially formatted to NTFS on a PC (or HFS+ on a Mac), most likely you'll suffer limitations, for example, the data on your drive can't be read or written on one of your computers. Fortunately, there is a file system (actually two, I'll explain) that you can format your flash drive in order to be fully compatible with Mac and PC. It brought me to a webpage on Seagate's site, where it clearly indicated the drive was initially set up to work with a Windows PC. If I wanted to use it with Mac OS or Time Machine backup (which is my intent), I'll need to format the drive for my Mac. To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between Mac and PC, you need to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC. Currently, hard drives for Windows PC are always formatted with NTFS, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+.

• To backup your data manually, please see for instructions, Remember that you may always backup manually, whether or not you are also using a backup software. • Many Seagate and Maxtor-brand drives include backup programs, and you may use these as well as manual methods to perform backups. To use a backup software, simply install the software that came with your drive and configure the backup to run when you launch it or on a scheduled basis. Outlook for mac os x version 10.6.8. • See for how-to videos and other resources to help you set up your backup program. • See for a list of programs by drive model. • To use MacOS native backup systems like Time Machine, please check with their manufacturer documentation. Here are some examples: • • File system compatibility between operating systems Windows OS to MacOS: The GoFlex line of drives includes an NTFS driver, which can make NTFS file systems usable in MacOS.

This is the best solution Seagate offers for transferring data between Windows and Mac computers. You may also format your external drive into FAT32 for use between Windows and Mac computers. For instructions. It is only possible to read FAT and FAT32 formatted drives in a Macintosh with OS 10.2 or earlier. Using a FAT32 formatted drive within the Macintosh environment is only recommended for a short period of time to transfer data. Data corruption will possibly occur when using FAT32 over an extended period of time in a Macintosh. Also keep in mind, that you will have a 4 GB file transfer limitation.

Do not use NTFS formatted drives. For non-GoFlex drives, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or later works with local NTFS-formatted volumes, but the volume will be read-only. You will be able to copy data from, but not to, the external hard drive. With FAT32, it is recommended that the volume/partition size of the external hard drive not exceed 32 GB. If you have an NTFS formatted disk, you must use another method to transfer the data from the Mac computer to the NTFS formatted external drive. Please also see the following Apple article: Macintosh OS to Windows OS: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drives includes the Paragon driver, which can make NTFS file systems usable in MacOS. Please for instructions on installing it.