It is a Seagate 1TB Expansion drive. The box only says PC and Windows, but the guy said 'it should work on a mac too, as long as you format it on a mac', and other people on the internets say it should be fine also eg here.
Dear All - I'm new here - first post! I bought a Seagate Expansion Drive (1 TB) a while ago, and have been trying to format it for use with my Mac Mini. I have tried 'Disk Utility' several times - once zero'ing out the drive, once DOD'ing it (but that would have taken more than TWO DAYS, so I cancelled that op.) - and by simply clicking on 'Erase' and setting the 'volume format' as the Mac one (journaled) - Each time it has failed and the message I get is 'Drive Formatter Failed.' Dodgy Disk Utility?
Any help will be immensely appreciated - I'd like to be able to use the drive with some video in Final Cut Pro that I'm going to be working with. Thanks, everyone!
If your Mac Mini has a g4 processor, you DO NOT want to use the 'GUID' partition format on the drive. Instead, you need to use the 'APM' (Apple Partition Map) scheme for proper operation. It IS NOT necessary to be 'zeroing out' the drive all the time. Probably not even good for it. Here's what I suggest: - Boot up the Mini, and connect the external drive - It doesn't matter if the drive mounts on the desktop or not - Open Disk Utility - You may see one or more 'entries' for the Seagate drive in the upper left of DU's window - The TOPmost entry is the 'physical drive'. The entry (entries) below it represent the logical 'volumes' on the physical drive. Click the TOP entry (the drive itself) ONE time to select it, then.
Toward the upper right, click 'partition' - You should now see (on the left) a 'representation' of the current partition scheme. We want to change that. From the popup menu (that probably says 'current') choose '1 partition' (or whatever number you wish).
Toward the right, there should be an option to choose the 'partition scheme'. THIS is where you want to make sure you have selected 'Apple Partition Map' - When everything is set, click the partition button down below and let DU do its thing. Failure (again.)! Hi Helper - and Thanks again! I did as you suggested and chose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' as the file system using 1 partition - It's a fairly new Mac Mini (2008) and so the only options for re-formatting or wiping a drive are: 4 different versions of Mac OS Extended (upper & lower case sensitive, etc.
And an MS-DOS FAT choice. The GUID and other formats are not available. ANYway - I asked it to apply 1 partition using the above-mentioned FS, and it immediately gave me the same error: 'File System Formatter Failed' - Dodgy Disk Utility, thinkest thou.?
Thanks again, for the time being. What the system says about my Seagate 1 TB Extension Drive. Thank you, Cube - I didn't see the drop-down menu (which.IS. there) offering GUID, APM and something else.ever before; it seems like it's a two-step process, which I didn't appreciate before.
![How to format seagate expansion drive for mac and pc How to format seagate expansion drive for mac and pc](http://www.macyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/031112-formatdrivemacpc-screen1.jpg)
The Extension Drive seems to be re-formatted and is expecting to be my new Time Machine. So I guess that's pretty good going - Thank you again! BUT - Why, when I typed 'format drive' or 'format extension drive' or other possible topics is there NOTHING in the Apple Help Menu Guide about any of this.? A simple step-by-step would be so.useful! But glad for all the help here. Again, thanks to you all! One Final (dumb) Question.
Hello All - One final question: I got the drive to format thanks to you all, and Time Machine switched on and I backed up my Mac Mini - I only put ONE partition of the Seagate Extension Drive (D'oh!) - Is it possible to add partition(s) to the drive without disturbing the current back-up, or should I start again from scratch. Because I am not knowledgeable, I'm not sure what the RAID option provides. Would this allow me to divide the 1 TB extension drive into a couple of partitioned chunks of 1s and 0s.? Thanks in advance.