Other External products

[vennge]

My son just spent his his own money to buy me a 2TB External Expansion Drive.  Of course it is for a PC not a MAC.  My MAC recognizes it but in can READ Only.  Can I format this dive and use it even though it staes for PC?

Thanks in advanve!

Vennge

[AskTheLeaf]

The Expansion drive isn't supported with Mac operating systems. It would be best to exchange the device for one that's compatible:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/mac-hard-drive/

[ndogata]

I formatted the Seagate drive using Disk utility on my Mac, and it worked.

I went to the Partitions tab, and in Volume scheme selected 2 partitions.  I formatted one in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for my use, and the other in MS-DOS(FAT32) for my wife's Windows.

I referred to this article.

Hope this helps.

[Arpademe]

I had the same problem with a new USB3.0 Seagate Extension drive not being recognised in Disk Utility at all. (I have a new iMac running Lion.) How I got it to work:

Turn off the Mac completely. Plug in the external hard drive to the power source (i.e. wall socket) and to the USB slot on the Mac. Make sure the plugs are seated firmly and that the power source is live.

Start the Mac. When you're logged in, go to Disk Utility and it should be there now. Follow the instructions here:

http://consumer.media.seagate.com/2010/01/the-digital-den/how-to-format-a-windows-disk-drive-for-a-m...

to format it for Mac. Put some test files on the new drive and play with it for the next few days to ensure it keeps on working.

Good luck...

Others have found that using a micro USB - USB cable works for them:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3510032?start=30&tstart=0