Seagate For Mac
Original software for MacOS that was loaded on the GoFlex for Mac, GoFlex Desk for Mac, or GoFlex Pro for Mac drive, including the driver for the capacity lights (for GoFlex Desk for Mac only) and Seagate Diagnostics. This driver provides write access for Seagate external drives in Mac OS without having to reformat. Shop for seagate external hard drive for mac at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up.
- Seagate Backup Drive For Mac
- Seagate External Hard Drive For Mac
- Seagate Installer For Mac
- Seagate Backup For Mac
- Seagate For Mac Paragon
- Seagate For Mac And Pc
- Seagate For Mac On Windows
You’ve looked at buying a Seagate Backup Plus – Ultra Touch, Slim or Portable. But it says that it works with a Windows PC only.
You’re freaking out.
How can you make this portable external drive workwith your Mac?
The answer is yes. You can.
There are two ways:
- Use a software driver. And you can find out about it in my article here.
- Or Format your Seagate Backup Plus on your Mac.
And in this article I tell you all about it.
You can learn more about Seagate Backup Plus on this site by clicking on the picture above
How to Format your Seagate Backup Plus for Mac
Hold on!
Before you jump in and format your Seagate Backup Plus on your Mac or Macbook. Know that formatting deletes all the information on the drive.
If you have documents on the drive either from aWindows PC or from your Mac, copy them off first. Or you will lose them.
1. Turn on your Mac. Log yourself in.
Then plug your USB cable into your Seagate Backup Plus first.
Whether you have an Ultra Touch, Slim or Portable your hard drive is powered by its USB cable.
This means that your Backup Plus takes its power from your iMac or MacBook.
And if you’re low on battery power then plug your Macinto external power.
Put the drive on a stable safe surface before you plugit into your Mac and power it up.
These aren’t rugged drives and it’s better not toknock or shake them while they are working.
All the Seagate Backup Plus drives except the Ultra Touch come with USB A plug connections for the end that goes into your Mac.
This is fine if you have 2015 or earlier iMac or MacBook. Later MacBook’s come with USB C (3.1) or Thunderbolt connections.
And if you have a USB C port on your Mac you’ll needan adaptor cable. This adaptor cables changes the USB A end to USB C.
They are easy to get on Amazon. And if you want to stick to the Apple brand then the Apple USB-C to USB Adapter (Commissions Earned) is the one to use. Follow the link to see it on Amazon.
The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch comes with a USB-C adaptor plug. This means that you’ll be able to plug it into an earlier or later Mac and use the adaptor if you need too.
When you’ve connected your Seagate Backup Plus Slim, Ultra Touch or Portable. Its LED light should light and the drive starts up.
2. Look for the Backup Plus external hard drive iconon your desktop.
Don’t see it?
Check your finder window preferences.
Open a new finder window. And then choose to see yourfinder window preferences.
Click the boxes to show ‘Hard Disks’ and ‘ExternalDisks’ on your desktop.
Then you’re Seagate Backup Plus will show up.
3. Open Disk Utility.
Disk Utility is the software on your Mac that willchange your Seagate Backup Plus’ drive format.
You can find Disk Utility by doing a spotlight search.
The spotlight search magnifying glass is at the top ofyour desktop screen. Click on it there.
Then type in Disk Utility.
Double click on Disk Utility
4. The left side of the Disk Utility window shows you all the drives you have connected to your Mac.
Both the Internal and External drives. Your Seagate Backup Plus drive is listed under the External Drives List.
If for some reason its not there take a look at my FAQquestions at the end of this article.
Click on your Seagate Backup Plus in the External drives list. The little arrow head to the left of your drive name will open up the different levels.
Take care to click at the top level.
The level the yellow arrow in the picture points at.
The formatting won’t work if you click on the drive atthe wrong level.
Your Disk Utility window not showing you the drivelevels?
Look to the top left of your Disk Utility pop upwindow. Click to open up the view options.
Then select to show all devices. That will show the drive and the volume.
5. Then take a look at the top of the Disk Utilitywindow and click on Erase.
Concerned about clicking on Erase?
Seagate Backup Drive For Mac
Don’t worry. Erase is the Mac’s way of reformattingyour Seagate Backup Drive. Nothingactually happens until you fill in some information on the next screen.
6. The next window is where you set up how you wouldlike your Seagate Backup Plus formatted.
The first thing for you to do on this window is giveyour Seagate Backup Plus external drive a name.
It’s best to have a name that makes it easy for you tofind the Backup Plus on your desktop. Or a name that tells you what you’re usingthis hard drive for.
Once you have typed in the name. Next set the format.Click on the up, down arrows to pick a format.
You choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if you plan toonly use the Backup Plus on your Mac.
And you want to copy and paste your documents to theSeagate drive.
This is the format you choose when you want yourSeagate Backup Plus for Time Machine backups on your Mac.
If you’re planning to share the Seagate Backup Pluswith a Windows PC choose ExFAT.
ExFAT is the file system format both iMac or Macbookand a Windows PC can understand and use.
But Time Machine can’t use an ExFat formatted Seagate Backup Plus drive for backup.
7. Check the Scheme says GUID Partition Map.
And then Click on Erase to begin your Backup Plusformatting.
Formatting only takes a few minutes. You’ll besurprised how quickly it finishes.
Formatting takes a little longer on a larger SeagateBackup Plus drive.
When your Backup Plus drive formatting finishes youcan get rid of the Disk Utility window.
8. Your Seagate Backup Plus will be on your desktop.
As an external hard drive icon with the name you gave it.
Now you can use the drive. Want some pointers on how?
Have a look at my article all about how to use your Seagate Backup Plus at this link.
When You’re finished Formatting or Using Your SeagateBackup Plus
When you’re done with your Seagate drive be sure toeject the drive. Do this before unplugging your USB cable out from your Mac.
While you’re busy copying and pasting files to yourBackup Plus. Or just using the drive day to day your Mac keeps some informationfor your drive in memory. By ejectingyou tell your Mac to write anything it is holding in memory down to yourSeagate Backup Plus. Closing everything off nicely.
If you forget to do this you risk ruining theinformation on your drive.
You do this by right clicking on your Seagate BackupPlus on your desktop.
And choosing Eject from the Menu.
Wait till the drive icon has disappeared from yourdesktop. And the light stops flashing on your Backup Plus drive.
Then you can plug out your USB cable and put yourSeagate Backup Plus Drive away.
And now you’re done. You have found out how to formatyour Seagate Backup Plus in 8 easy steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Format Seagate Backup Plus – Why Would You?
Seagate Technology sells a few portable hard drives with the Backup Plus name. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim and the Seagate Backup Plus Portable were sold with a HFS+ option.
HFS+ is the file system a Mac uses.
The Seagate Backup Plus Slim now come in an ExFAT format. You’d reformat if you wanted to use the drive for a Time Machine backup.
You’ll find that the Backup Plus Ultra Touch and Backup Plus Portable are NTFS formatted.
When you’ve an NTFS formatted Seagate Backup Plus. Andyou want to use it on your iMac or Macbook Pro without a special driver.
Or lift the restriction of ‘Read Only’. So you can write to this drive or update the files on there.
You use the format steps above to change a NTFS orExFAT Backup Plus to the format you want.
When do you Format Seagate Backup Plus for a Mac?
When your Seagate Backup Plus has an ExFAT or NTFS file system on it and you want to change to HFS+
When you want to wipe the Backup Plus drive clear ofeverything on it.
When you want to change an NTFS file system to ExFAT so that you can share your Backup Plus between a Mac and a PC. Having an ExFAT file system allows you swap your Backup Plus drive between a Mac and a Windows PC.
I Don’t Understand, What is NTFS Format on a SeagateBackup Plus
NTFS describes the Seagate Backup Plus portable’s layout. This layout is called a file system. And it’s how a Windows PC understands what’s written on and to the Backup Plus drive.
NTFS is a file system your Mac can read. You can copyfiles off your Backup Plus onto your Mac. But you can’t update any of the fileson the drive.
Your Mac sees a Seagate Backup Plus as read only.
And you can’t use a NTFS Backup Plus as a place tostore your Time Machine backups.
Luckily, you’re not stuck with that file systemforever.
You can change it. And formatting it is a way you canput on a file system your Mac can read and write to.
Help! My Seagate Backup Plus Doesn’t Appear on theDesktop or in Disk Utility.
There are a few answers to this. One of these will bethe issue.
1. You may have a problem with the USB software on the USB port you’re using on your Mac. Try plugging into another port.
2. The previous device you had on that USB port may not have ejected properly.
A restart of your Mac will reset the software driveron your Mac’s USB port.
3. You might have a broken USB cable. Try a USB cable you know works.
4. Put your Backup Plus on a Windows PC to see if you can see it there. It may respond to be being formatted on a Windows PC and then your Mac can see the drive.
5. You may be unlucky and have a corrupted Seagate Backup Plus drive.
How Do I Password Protect or Encrypt the Files on MySeagate Backup Plus
When you format your Seagate Backup Plus you canchoose to set up a password. You can do this as well as encrypting yourportable.
You do this by clicking on the Security option. It’s onthe Disk Utility window where you put in the settings for your formatting.
Watch Out!
You’ll find this software feature very secure on aMac.
Even the FBI has problems accessing Mac data that hasbeen secured.
If you lose your password you will have a sad face fora very long time.
Last Words
I hope you enjoyed my article How to Format SeagateBackup Plus for Mac Help! Don’t Freak Out.
And you stopped freaking out and you’refeeling nice and calm about it. So calm you’re going to do it on the SeagateBackup Plus you have. Go on I dare you.
In no time you’ll have your Seagate BackupPlus working on your own Mac.
Other Seagate Documents on the site you’llfind useful
You’ve plugged in your Seagate Backup Plus drive. And thenyou’ve tried to copy your documents onto your Backup Plus.
But your Mac says no.
And won’t do it.
Your Mac says your Seagate Backup Plus drive is readonly.
What now?
Why is My Mac Telling Me My Seagate Backup Plus Driveis Read Only?
Seagate sells many external hard drives under theBackup Plus brand name.
Some are sold with something called a NTFS file system on them. The Backup Plus Slim and Backup Plus Portable used to come with HFS+ already installed.
If you had a HFS+ version of the Seagate Backup Plus you wouldn’t have seen the message.
Because your Mac would see and use a HFS+ type drive. Just as it would use its own internal drives.
You’ll get the ‘Read Only’ Message with an NTFS typedrive.
Why?
NTFS is a type of file system that a Windows PC uses.Your Mac can see the drive. Copy files, photos, music off the drive. But itcan’t update any documents. Or write documents, or photos or music. In fact itcan’t write anything to the drive.
What do you do?
Options for Using SeagateBackup Plus NTFS for Mac
You have two main choices. And which one you choosedepends your planned use of the Seagate Backup Plus drive. And how you feelabout your Mac operating system skill level.
Option 1. Use the free Seagate Backup Plus Paragon driver
Option 2. Reformat your Seagate Backup Plus drive to something your Mac can read. And can write too, update documents and paste files to the drive.
What is the Seagate BackupPlus Paragon Driver?
It is a piece of software you install on your Mac.
The NTFS Paragon driver translates for your Mac. Itallows your Mac to write in NTFS to the Seagate Backup Plus.
Understand it doesn’t change the drive. It is stillNTFS. The Paragon driver allows your Mac to write onto the drive so that toyour Mac it’s not ‘Read Only’ anymore.
Plus Points for Using the Seagate Paragon NTFS Driveron Your Mac
- You can install it. Use the driver. It’s free for your Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch. It’s easy to use.
- You can paste documents, photo’s music, read and write files to the Backup Plus drive.
- Your Mac can ‘see’ the Backup Plus just as it would ‘see’ a HFS+ drive.
- The Paragon software writes your files to the Backup Plus drive in NTFS. And this means that if you want to put the drive onto a Windows PC the PC can see your files on there.
Without any special software.
Seagate External Hard Drive For Mac
- And you’ll find the Paragon software useful if there are files already on the drive. Files put there by a Windows PC. You can use those files on your Mac.
- You’ll find the Paragon NTFS driver a good solution if you use the Seagate Backup Plus drive on a Windows PC the most. And you only need to access files from your Mac sometimes.
Minus Points for Using the Seagate Backup Plus NTFSDriver for Your Mac
- You won’t be able to use the Seagate Backup Plus as a drive for a Time Machine backup.
- You’ll need the right version of the Paragon software your Mac operating system. And this means that when Apple releases a new version of Mac OS you’ll need to wait for a compatible version. And when the compatible version of the software is available you can upgrade to it then
- It’s a piece of software you need to keep track of.
- If you want to use your Backup Plus drive on a friends Mac. Or on a Mac at work, that Mac will need to have the Paragon software on it too.
- The Paragon software from Seagate is free. But it only works on Seagate supported drives. It will not work with other NTFS non Seagate drives.
- If anything happens to your Mac and you need to reinstall the operating system. You’ll need to reinstall the Seagate Backup Plus NTFS Driver for Mac. You need it installed and have it working before you can use the files on your Backup Plus drive.
Seagate Backup Plus NTFS Driver for Mac Verdict
If you’re going to use your drive the most on a Mac, you may as well set it up so your Mac can write to it. You do this by reformatting the drive to HFS+.
If you’re using the drive ad hoc and your main use ison a Windows PC then the Paragon driver is a good solution.
Using a Mac at night is easier on the eyes if you turn on Dark Mode in macOS Mojave. Here's how to turn on the Mac Dark Mode, and how to get Dark Mode on a Mac if you haven't got Mojave yet. Oct 12, 2018 The Dark Mode theme available in MacOS Mojave 10.14 onward offers a unique visual interface and desktop environment to work in, shifting nearly all onscreen visual elements to dark grays and blacks. For many Mac users, the Dark theme is perhaps the most popular new feature to arrive in MacOS Mojave. Oct 07, 2019 Dark Mode, available in macOS Mojave or later, is a dramatic new look that's easy on your eyes and helps you focus on your work.Dark Mode uses a dark color scheme that works system wide, including with the apps that come with your Mac. And third-party apps can adopt it, too. 
Sharing the drive fifty fifty with a Windows PC? Then it is worth considering reformatting the drive to ExFAT. That way both your Windows PC and your Mac can freely write to the drive without the need for extra software.
If you’re interested in reformatting your Seagate Backup Plus NTFS to either HFS+ or to ExFAT, take a look at my article here on the site. You’ll find out how there.
How Do I get the SeagateBackup Plus NTFS Driver For Mac?
On Your New Backup Plus Drive
The good news is that you can download the Seagate Backup Plus Paragon driver for your Backup Plus Ultra Touch drive.
1. Connect the Backup Plus drive to your Mac.
You will see the Backup Plus drive Icon on yourdesktop.
2. Double click on the drive icon and a new finder window will open up.
Now you’ll see the files already installed on thedrive from Seagate.
3. Double click on the Start_Here_Mac file.
4. A browser window will open and ask you to register your new Seagate Backup Plus drive for warranty. Complete your name and email address. You’ll need to agree to the Terms of Use.
Click Next
5. The next screen is where you download the Seagate Backup Plus NTFS driver for Mac.
6. Click on the download button.
The software will download to your Mac. You can if youwish download extra Seagate software for your Mac. Or dismiss the browserwindow.
7. Go to your downloads folder and double click on the NTFS_for_mac.dmg file. This starts the install of the software on your Mac.
8. You will need to enter in your administration password and allow the driver on your Mac.
The driver will be available for you to use after arestart.
Seagate Backup Plus NTFS on Mac Install YouTube Video
Seagate Installer For Mac
Take a look at this 1 minute 52 second video fromSeagate Technology. It goes through the steps I’ve described.
TookKit for MacOS – First Time Setup
VideoCredit : AskSeagate
For a Used Seagate Backup Plus Drive
As long as the drive wasn’t reformatted on a WindowsPC you should still have the Seagate files on there.
But if they have been deleted you can always download the software direct from the Seagate site.
Here is a link to the Seagate Paragon NTFS driver for Mac OS download page.
Other Seagate Backup Plus NTFSfor Mac Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Mac Operating System Versions Does the SeagateNTFS driver for Mac Support?
Mac OS 10.7, 10.8 and above.
You can check the latest supported Mac OS’s at Seagate here.
2. I no longer Use the Seagate Backup Plus’ NTFSsoftware. How do I delete it?
Uninstalling the Backup Plus NTFS software on your Macis easy.
Seagate Backup For Mac
Open System Preferences on your Mac. You can do that by searching with spotlight search. You can find spotlight search at the top of your desktop.
Then type in system preferences.
Double click on the Paragon icon.
Go to settings and select uninstall.
Seagate For Mac Paragon
You can find more help on the Seagate site here.
3. I want to use other NTFS External Hard Drives on MyMac
The Paragon driver from Seagate will only work with their external drives. And you may have other NTFS drives from other manufacturers you want to use on your Mac. The Paragon NTFS driver for Mac is available to buy direct from the Paragon site.
You can find it at this link here.
Last Words
Seagate For Mac And Pc
I hope the information in this article helps youdecide if the Seagate Backup Plus NTFS Driver for Macis the best option for you.
You’ll have downloaded it. And you’re copying yourdocuments from your Mac to your Seagate Backup Plus with no issue.
I have some other documents on the site about theSeagate Backup Plus. Please feel free to take a look.