If I elect to use a 4TB drive for both windows and mac, will it partition the drive into "two" 2TB drives?
1983613
My recommendation would be to get the Windows version and leave it as a single NTFS partition. Just load the included utility on your Mac so that it will read/write to an NTFS disc and use the single large partition for both platforms. Makes it easy to share files cross-platform that way.
1983614
Don't. Get a Western Digital instead. I screwed up and gave Seagate a chance. Oops.
1983615
You can partition it any way you want with Apple's Disk Utility, including NTFS. Partitioning is done commonly and effectively, especially when you want to limit the greatest size of a Time Machine backup for various computers...just create a partition for each one.
1716656
I have not tried 5TB, I am using 4TB at the moment. I don't see why it wouldn't take 5TB drives. If you are using Windows, you should partition them in GPT format. Mac wouldn't have a problem either. Hope this answer your questions
2101324
Yes this can be used simultaneously. When you format it (on a Mac), just don't choose the Mac exclusive option. And yes you could even partition the drive to be bootable from Mac OS and a Windows OS if you wanted, or even a three way partition with one Linux.
240458
Each drive will always be a bit different, as no two drives will have the exactly the same free space. Mine is 931GB
1895541
If you are set on Raid 1, it will limit you to 4 TB because the other drive is duplicating #1. If you go into your WD My Cloud you can change from Raid 1 and obtain full use of the aggregate 8 TB if that is what you want.
577669
Hi Shiki, This is very helpful. Is it easy to partition the drive? I just ordered this so I don't have the drive yet, but when it comes I'd like to back up both my Mac and PC... Do you know where to find information on how to partition? Thank you!
450046
The description for the 500GB model says "Preformatted hard drive is ready for immediate use with Windows and Mac." I don't have a Mac, but based on that, my guess is it should work on both.
1668241
Windows and Mac don't support all the same disk formats. Windows supports FAT32 and the more robust NTFS. Mac can read and write FAT32, as well as its own OS Extended format, but (unless things have changed) can only read NTFS. So FAT32 can be used for both, and external drives often come pre-formatted in FAT32. But if you're only going to use one, you might want to reformat to something optimal for your chosen platform.
1567771
I'm not sure. Perhaps you can just attach both drives and use windows to copy the files.
1137069
Yes, it has two partitions - one for Win and one for Mac, so you don't have to format it. It will work on both.
2261084
Hello Matthew, I unfortunatelly cannot answer your question because I am using this drive in a Mac. The system is completely different and has been implemented to use this drive. At the mac I get 6GB put through and the system itself manages the SSD part of the drive. I have no idea if or how Windows will take advantage of it. Sorry.
2253997
Also instead of formatting the drive you can install the NTFS driver for mac os provided by seagate and it will keep the drive compatible with mac and windows.
722847
This drive can be partitioned, no problem. However it is recommended by Apple that you do not use a partitioned hard drive for time machine.
738555
I saw this issue with my 4TB drive, but not the 2 - drag out an old copy of OS X like Mountain Lion, or earlier. Boot from the CD and use Disc Utilities to initialize the drive, then reboot normally and you should be good. This was a bug for large drives - but in my experience it did not apply to 2TB
838528
I'm running windows 8 and the drive gives the option to format to exFat. This allows you to use the drive on both PC and MAC without the 4GB file max.
305941
Yes, you can store any data on it. If you are going to be using the drive with both Mac and PC, you should consider reformatting it as ExFAT, which is fully compatible with both. It will provide the most flexibility.
1955086
Yes. Clear off the WD software, and use Mac Time Machine, if you're using it for backup. Or partition it using any format you like and use it as a storage device.