# Seagate FreeAgent Desk External Drive on Mac



## PaulJB (Apr 21, 2009)

I have a Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1.5 TB that I got for a really good deal.  It says on the box that it is for Windows but I would like to put it on my Mac.  Is there anyway to do this?  I have a Windows box I can stick it on if I have too but I would prefer the Mac.

Thanks

Paul


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 21, 2009)

Just plug it into your Mac.  Magic -- it works!  

If you intend on using the drive solely with Macintosh computers and do not need to access the drive locally (via USB, etc.) with a Windows computer, I would _highly_ recommend reformatting the drive to HFS+ format (a more Mac-friendly disk format).  You can do this via "Disk Utility", located in Applications > Utilities.


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## pius222 (May 25, 2009)

ElDiabloConCaca said:


> Just plug it into your Mac.  Magic -- it works!
> 
> If you intend on using the drive solely with Macintosh computers and do not need to access the drive locally (via USB, etc.) with a Windows computer, I would _highly_ recommend reformatting the drive to HFS+ format (a more Mac-friendly disk format).  You can do this via "Disk Utility", located in Applications > Utilities.



Sorry, it doesn't work since it is for Windows only, Seagate does have a 1.5TB version for Mac but costs $70 more.  I bought the Windows version too thinking I can reformat it to use on Mac, but Disk Utility won't recognize it.

Anybody?


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## ElDiabloConCaca (May 25, 2009)

It seems that there are a lot of reports that the FreeAgent drives do not work with Macs... here's just one:

http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/thread/1004420133.aspx

If that is indeed the case, then no amount of finagling is going to make it work with your Mac.

I find it hard to believe that one drive will work on Windows but not Macintosh -- there's nothing "Windows-specific" or "Mac-specific" about a disk drive.  In other words, there's nothing about the drive that should make it Mac-_in_compatible as long as it adheres to the USB 2.0 spec and has an SATA/IDE bridge chip that's compliant.

Not to mention that there are other operating systems out there -- Linux, UNIX, Solaris, etc.  It seems strange that a disk is "Windows-only."  Blows my little computer science mind, as it seems to be more trouble to make a disk drive _incompatible_ with certain operating systems.


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## FredP101 (Jun 1, 2009)

Not sure how i found this, but there is a work around!!! Yay! I dont have to ship it back!!

If you go to Disk utilities on mac
Select the drive heading
then select partition
split the partition into 2 even partitions.
both mac os journaled
tell it to apply.

this may or may not error out, but it erases whatever partition manager they are using to prevent this drive from being used on the mac.

then you can reformat as 1 partition with no error.


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## lbj (Jun 2, 2009)

This stunt alone will insure I never buy a Seagate external. For any reason. Ever.
Way to go Seagate...


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## FredP101 (Jun 2, 2009)

I Agree!  Not cool .  Les charge 50-70 dollars more to mac users?  Come on....


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## gd6778 (Jun 9, 2009)

This did not work for me. After successfully creating 2 mac partitions, I received an error when I tried to erase/make it 1 drive again.

What *DID* work was using a 3rd party app - Drive Genius - no complaints from it. 
After this, I was able to use Mac's Disk Utility to slice and dice and then reconstitute it.
The clue as to whether you've removed the hidden voodoo is in Disk utility. Click on the ERASE tab.
If the Volume Format defaults to MS-DOS (FAT), you have a problem.
If you see Mac OS Extended (Journaled), you're good to go.

I like Seagate, but this is BS!!!


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## FredP101 (Jun 9, 2009)

ahh.. well good find.. it worked for me.. perhaps i left out a step when i was frantically trying to erase the drive.


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## gd6778 (Jun 9, 2009)

I've since read elsewhere that:
- TimeMachine may function as an alternate app to wipe the drive and then allow you to rewipe it normally in DiskUtility
- This may be a Mac OS 10.5.7 issue not Seagate.


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## FredP101 (Jun 9, 2009)

What do you mean it might not be seagate?  they sell the same exact model for $60 dollars more and say that one is mac compatible, but this one is not?

I have never seen a usb/firewire/esata drive that would ever TRY to prevent you from reformatting it.  This drive prevented me from reformatting it, and when I searched seagates forums i found many posts saying it was not mac compatible.  That if I wanted a mac compatible drive to get the desk drive MAC version. ($$ChaChing$$)

Seagate was trying to impose a Mac-Tax.


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## unconventional (Jun 12, 2009)

I tried reformatting for the Mac and got the errors too, but got it to work when I went back and reformatted to MS-DOS (FAT).  It works.
--
Edit: Yeah ok, nevermind.  Works for piddly stuff you don't need and not in ways that actually matter.  Damn.


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## Satcomer (Jun 12, 2009)

FredP101 said:


> What do you mean it might not be seagate?  they sell the same exact model for $60 dollars more and say that one is mac compatible, but this one is not?
> 
> Seagate was trying to impose a Mac-Tax.



My feelings exactly! This cements my resolve never to buy a Seagate product again.


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## datbates (Jun 18, 2009)

I figured out that it was only the end partition that failed format, so in Disk Utility I just made 2 partitions with the second 1 GB and left the second as free space.   The first one worked perfectly.  So I just had to loose 1 GB to get it to work nicely.  Whatever...


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## icemanjc (Jun 18, 2009)

lbj said:


> This stunt alone will insure I never buy a Seagate external. For any reason. Ever.
> Way to go Seagate...



That's why I stick with Western Digital. They have never failed me once and they are cheap. Plus I think they give a one year warranty in which they will replace the hard drive once you send it in (heard this from other experiences from friends).


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## westAD (Jul 1, 2009)

anyone having a problem with the drive not mounting after a few weeks? 

It's been formatted macOS journaled and works for a bit, but eventually it won't be recognized and I have to go through several rounds of restarting, unplugging and plugging back in to get it to mount.


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## gd6778 (Jul 1, 2009)

NO! Thankfully! did you try another computer - maybe w/ an older OS? different cables? Also try to repair with DiskWarrior?


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## westAD (Jul 2, 2009)

I used disk warrior to rebuild the connection, but that's hit or miss whether or not it finds the drive. I could test it on a pc I have... but I wonder if I have to reformat the drive? I'll try a different usb cable but has that been an issue for anyone else?

Again it seems to drop or loose the drive when I put the computer to sleep, and I get the warning when I wake up the computer that I didn't eject the device properly (the seagate drive)


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## gd6778 (Jul 2, 2009)

Don't reformat! I meant try it on a mac w/ an older MAC OS! like 10.3.9, 10.4.x or 10.5.6.
10.5.7 and my last Seagate "windoze-oriented" purchase didn't play well together. while the prob was caused by seagate, i suspect that 10.5.7 makes it more problematic (as mentioned in this thread).
Maybe it's defective. get another drive asap and copy everything to it. contact and send the other one back to seagate. I don't think it's worth messing with too much - it's your data, after all.  All companies have bad batches of products.
if it's a windoze-based HD, try to wipe it on a windows machine before you return it.

You didn't mention if/that it was specifically related to sleep.  Is that the only time? If it's ONLY a sleep issue, then include that in your search for help!
If you remove "seagate" from the words in google, you will see that other brands have issues too = 10.5.7 to blame?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...agate+external+hard+drive+sleep&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Good luck! and if you post, you might include OS, and hardware info.


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## westAD (Jul 2, 2009)

Thanks for the info... I'm using Mac os 10.4.11, on an intel core duo iMac.

The sleep cause is the only consistent time that I can see it happen. it may have also happened in some combination of restart or shut down and start up, but that's not as consistent as sleep.


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## gd6778 (Jul 2, 2009)

it may not have been caused by anything more than mac os - and/or seagate.
google - the more more specific the better you'll do. include seagate HD model, any error messages in quotes, etc.
i'd still try another mac - same exact conditions.
Also, try without other peripherals (hub, devices - firewire usb)
That's all i can think of.
Good luck.


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## westAD (Jul 2, 2009)

Thanks again for your help gd6778.


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## wethackrey (Jul 19, 2009)

I have several other FreeAgent drives purchased over the past few years.  Some are USB "Windows" drives and others USB/Firewire/eSATA and Firewire only.  I've never had a problem formatting any of them.

Today I bought a new (white) 1TB FreeAgent Desk.  I had the same issue you mention.  The drive came formatted as FAT and would re-format as FAT or any of the Windows formats but would fail doing a single Mac OS partition of any kind.  Formatted capacity on the drive is 931.5GB.  What eventually worked was setting up a 930GB partition and a 1.5GB partition - both Mac OS Extended Journaled.  I have yet to figure out how to unformat the 1.5GB partition so it won't mount so, at the moment I have a rather useless little partition mounting, but the main partition is nearly as big as it should be. 

 The Drive Genius idea is an interesting one, but considering you need to spend $100 in order to use it to partition a drive, it would be cheaper to spend the extra bucks on the Mac version.  By the way, the 1TB USB 2.0 drive cost $119.95 at Frys today.  A Mac USB 2.0/FW800 drive was 159.95.  May be worth the money for the faster interface and no hassles.

This doesn't seem like an intentional move by Seagate,  More like some little software glitch.  I know an exec at Seagate.  I'll see if I can get an answer from him.


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## wethackrey (Jul 19, 2009)

After weighing the alternatives, I bit the bullet and purchased Drive Genius today.  It's software I should own, considering what I do for a living, an the fact that I have at least ten external drives for various Macs.

So... I bought a license for $99.  And yes, it does handily format the FreeAgent Desk USB 2.0 "windows" version drive into a single Mac OS Extended Journaled partition.  Very nice software actually.

Here's a marginally related word to the wise about external drives, Seagate included:  Make sure you're using the correct power supply.  Most external drives these days that use a coaxial power connector require 12VDC on that connector.  They also require adequate power out of the power supply.  Using a supply built for a smaller drive may not work on larger drives.  For example I have a Maxtor 1.5 TB external drive from about a year and a half ago.  It contains two 750GB disk drives and requires a 3 amp 12VDC power supply.  The smaller 2 amp power supply provided with a FreeAgent drive doesn't provide enough power to get the 2 drives in the Maxtor chassis spinning.

I have easily a dozen 12VDC coaxial connector power supplies collected over the years.  The polarity of all of them is the same, but they vary in output current from 1.2 amps to 4 amps.  The 4A supply will power any drive I have.  

I have one FreeAgent drive that worked well for two years on the 2A supply that came with it.  Then it stopped mounting.  If I connect it to the 3A power supply from the Maxtor, the drive mounts right up.  I have to assume that the FreeAgent drive is physically requiring more start current to get it spinning now than it did when it was new.

The lesson here is, if you have a drive that's getting flaky, only mounting part of the time, try connacting it to a higher current power supply.


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## mattyqp (Jul 21, 2009)

Thanks to everyone for this thread. I had the exact problem described: Seagate external drive (1.4G) that the Mac OS wouldn't completely partition and format to HFS+. I have the Windows 7 RC1 bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. I deleted the partition using Windows 7. Mac OS then partitioned the HD properly. I'm sure any version would do the trick. Take Care.


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## anacapaisland (Aug 29, 2009)

I'm sure I could simplify this procedure, but this is what I did, and it worked, so I'm just going to keep it the same. No purchase of any fancy software required...

1. Connect your Seagate drive that only works in Windows

2. Open Disk Utility and "unmount" the partition (do not eject). Highlight the Seagate drive and click the "i" Info button at the top. Note where it says "Disk Identifier : 	disk#" (mine was disk2).

3. Open a Terminal Window (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

4. Run the following command "dd if=/dev/disk# of=mbr count=100". "if" means "input filename"; "of" means "output filename". Fill in the '#' with your disk number from step 2. The "count=100" is just to be sure we grabbed enough. We don't actually need 100 blocks, but it doesn't matter.

5. Download HexFiend from one of these websites...
http://www.ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend/
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22589

6. Open the file "mbr" in HexFiend. Note that most everything is "00000000", except a handful of other "cells". These must be blocking MacOSX DiskUtility from being able to repartition. Replace anything in the beginning that's not "00000000" with "00000000". Click "File->Save As..." and call it 'newmbr'.

7. In the terminal window again, run "dd if=newmbr of=/dev/disk#" (remember to use your disk number from step 2).

8. Now you can open DiskUtility again and repartition the drive just as you should have been able to do if Seagate wasn't blatantly trying to milk Apple's customers by charging more money for the same thing.

9. Your done! Enjoy your cheaper "Windows-only" Seagate hard drive.


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## MrsPeel (Nov 18, 2009)

Tried all the previous posts until I got to the Drive Genius resourcing and that was out of the question as it came up as U$99 in google...

I was with a friend on the phone all the time, who found in another forum a post which lead me to, after trying partitioning and always coming back with the failed on exit error, this:

Choose Partition in one big partition by the dropping down menu, 
click in Options, the option clicked should come up as the last one (cant remember now name, sorry)
change that to the GUID (first of the 3 options)
then clik apply
then follow to erase, that did it for me....
I'm at this moment backing up with Time Machine, al brilliant!

Agree with gd6778:

I bought a Seagate 500GB a couple of years ago, it was smooth on the PC and smooth on the Mac, but whatever they did to this model...
is pure BS.
Especifications on product info do not warn you as this being a PC only, and even when you open the box it does send you to the Seagate support site where instructions are assuming you ll be able to format....
Thanks to you guys, Google and my very, very patient friend on the phone....


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## MrsPeel (Nov 18, 2009)

Here is the post  to sort this problem and get it to work

hope it helps someone else as much as did me!


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## skbrown (Nov 27, 2009)

I have the 2 TB (1.8) version for Windows. The reason why it wasn't working for you guys is becauseyou have to change the partition map type.

Go into Disk Utility:
Select the Drive
Select Partitions
Create 2 of equal size (Mac OS Journaled)
Select Options
Select Partition Map
Select GUID Map (If you are on an Intel MAC) **This is what kills the MBR and DOS format**
Click Apply
After complete go back to partitions and create 1 partition.


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## Makudonarudo (Dec 16, 2009)

I have a Mac Pro, Intel, running OS X 10.5.8, and do not plan to run Windows on this machine.  I purchased a 1.4TB FreeAgent Desk "PC version" external drive thinking it would be simple to reformat.  After trying many of the alternative suggestions involving repartitioning, I almost settled for the "1 large functional Mac OS extended/journaled partition and 1 small-as-possible non-functional partition" solution, but decided to give it one more try.  I stumbled upon the GUID Table selection under the partitioning "options" and went for a single partition.  This also resolved the problem for me as well (I should have read all the replies to the original post in the first place!).  This doesn't sound like a good solution for people that want to read the drive with Windows also, however.


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## onthe1 (Jan 7, 2010)

As of today Jan 7th, 2010, and a new 1TB seagate external (for PC) from newegg, I had to partition into 3rds and then change options to "apple partition map".  Hit apply.  Now, go back and ERASE using mac journaled.
Cheers.


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## akmaniak (Mar 12, 2010)

I was having trouble under 10.5.8. When I switched to my macbook running 10.6.2, it formatted on the first try. Apparently Snow Leopard does the trick.


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## TwiztidNinja (Dec 13, 2010)

Wow i just plugged it in to my mac and it recognized it although i am running snow leopard witch can see ntfs out the box i still reformatted it with no problems to mac os x journaled The box says windows only but hardware doesn't discriminate the main problem is that seagate shouldn't have formatted the drive when they sent it out and should just put the drivers and stuff on a cd but they were being cheap works wonderful on my mac and for only 70 bucks who can complain


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## Roger That (Jan 16, 2012)

Tonight I just got home and installed the software from the Seagate onto my harddrive.  That was a bad idea. Spent hours trying to get my harddrive back from a sudden death incident: computer couldn't power up past the blue screen and the disk kept spinning forever. I think my gf hates me now, from my rage against the machine.

As someone earlier posted, uninstall the Seagate program entirely.  Don't just delete the program, but really uninstall everything down to the prefs. Restart your machine, and hopefully you'll be fine. If you plan on using the Seagate, do not use their software!


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