Tips and troubleshooting tricks for moving data between computers when your external drive is formatted for use within 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. 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.

Jan 31, 2017 - If restarting your Mac and trying a different port makes no difference, can you restart your Mac in Safe Mode and let us know how that goes?

A drive with two partitions, for example can have one partitioned in ExFAT and another in a Mac OS Extended format, so you can use the same drive on a Mac and a Windows computer. Select a format for each partition. For,at a usb drive for mac.

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. • 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.

Mac or windows for photo editing. • 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. • 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. This is the best solution Seagate offers for transferring data between Windows and Mac computers. For non-GoFlex drives, Windows does not support the Macintosh file system and it cannot be read. However, Macintosh and Windows can read the FAT32 file system. Using a FAT32 formatted drive within the Macintosh environment is only recommended for a short period of time to transfer data. It is recommended that you divide the drive in 32GB volumes/partitions and format as FAT32.