2- 'Use between Mac and Windows' is much catchier ad copy than ' Use between Mac and Windows if you have NTFS driver for Mac OS installed!' My theory on why they don't broadcast this crucial information? 1- they are known to have poor customer service, in general.
I chose option one, because i use a mac AND a pc, and i want to move files between the two, which is what this drive is advertised to do!īut instead of say, mentioning on the box - or in the instruction booklet, or on their own help pages on their website - that you need to download this file if your mac does not already have it for some unknown unlikely reason, Seagate merely list it as a download on their website with no intuitive obvious description of what it is or why you might need it.
While installing the seagate backup plus on my mac originally, i was given two options I installed it, restarted my computer, and then I could drag and drop ( aka write). It was an installer for some 3rd party program which allows NTSF ( not suitable for work? no, its some kind of formatting ) devices to be read AND WRITTEN to on mac os. I just bought a seagate backup plus slim 1T drive, on 11/26/14.Īfter putzing about for over two hours, looking on this help forum and on others, i noticed on seagate's home page for my product a download link for 'NTFS driver for mac os' Among them, using Terminal is the last option one should go for as it’s unstable and may cause data loss.ĭid you enjoy reading this article? Do like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. To turn the external hard drive to be writeable, this tutorial has covered the most feasible solutions. When you can’t write to the external hard drive attached to a Mac, file system incompatibility, limited access permission, and are the main causes.
Hit Enter key and put down a password if asked.Copy the command to the Terminal to edit fstab file: sudo nano /etc/fstab.Open Terminal through Finder > Applications > Utilities.Method 3: User Terminal to enable Mac’s native NTFS write support (not recommended) Write to the NTFS-formatted disk directly as you are using a Mac-friendly external storage device.Connect the external hard drive to the Mac.
Write down a name, select FAT/ExFAT in Format, and GUID Partition Map in Scheme.Open Disk Utility through Finder > Applications > Utilities.Back up the files by copying and pasting the files from the external hard drive.
Method 1: Format the external hard drive in Disk Utility To solve the incompatibility problem, you can choose to format the NTFS drive, install an NTFS for Mac driver or use Terminal. You can’t rename, delete or edit the files at all. By default, an NTFS-formatted disk can be mounted and read on macOS, but files will appear locked or read-only. MacOS is fully compatible with Microsoft FAT and exFAT file systems but not the Microsoft NTFS file system. Scenario 1: The external hard drive is formatted with the NTFS file system. In this tutorial, I will explain three scenarios you may face and their corresponding solutions. If external hard drive suddenly shows read-only after you attach it to your Mac device, it is definitely very inconvenient to use this external hard drive. People use external hard drives as extended storage for computers or backup disks for important files, as a result, frequent file sharing, and modification are needed.