What's the best way to use this with a Macbook and time machine? Do I need to reformat the drive? If so, how?
1859246
* Go to Finder -&gt; Application -&gt; Utilities * Double click Disk Utility * At the left column, Select the external Drive you wish to format * Click on the Erase tab * At the "Volume Format" select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", but "MS-DOS File System" might also work * Confirm to format your hard disk, Click on "Erase" button. * Pop up window will ask to verify the erase procedure. Click the erase button to start. * NOTE: All the data in the external hard disk will be permanently removed after these steps. * Once the erase process finishes, your external hard disk is ready for Time Machine. * Make sure your External HDD has equal or larger space compared to your Mac.
891838
I don't have a MacBook (but I have used macs in the past and like the ability to just plug something in and have it work - but would encourage you to look elsewhere for a good external USB drive - the one I got was a POS!
2188618
I am currently using a 2 TB WD My Book for Mac on OSX 10.9.1. It works flawlessly and am very happy with it. I set it up when I was still using Lion. Then upgraded to Mavericks and had no problem.
909580
Works great with a Macbook pro.Plug in, partitioned part of the drive for Time machine backups and is up and running within minutes.Looks like it would be easy to swap drives too.For those old enough to remember, this works like a giant Syquest Drive.CKL
1813998
Works great with OS 10.6.8 and USB 2.0. I don't use time machine with it. I just access it manually when I need it through the finder.
1175958
Yes, I use this with my Time machine and have had a few full successful restores with it. I have a few of these drives and they have been great!
1641374
Yes. Open Time Machine Preferences on Macbook and Select Disk. Select the external Ministation which is plugged into the USB port.
1475687
Yes! I had a friend partition this hard drive so that half was dedicated to Time Machine and the other half could be used as for standard files/documents. I've had it for some time and have had no problems using Time Machine on it!
1742646
Use the Mac OS included "Disk Utility" application. Choose the MacOS Extended format if you're Mac-only. Otherwise use FAT32 if you must share with windows.Note, if you want to use it with Time Machine you will need at least one partition to be MacOS Extended formatted.
1454404
Frankly, I don't think it even can be said to "work" at all. Even if one accepts the terrible Windows software and the glllaaaciallll transfer speeds, mine up and spontaneously reset itself and *lost all saved data*. If you're already in the Mac ecosystem anyway, why look anywhere else than a Time Capsule? Designed from the get-go to work with the OS, integrates wonderfully and has fabulous (well, compared to Seagate) support (if you're near an Apple store).
1156478
Well, I have a Mac and I just use the built-in time machine backup which does all of that automatically. So, I haven't used any of the backup software that comes with the hard drive, sorry!
2006924
This Drive is NTFS formatted so it will not work on MAC. For MAC system you will need either FAT32 or MAC journal formatted.
2123465
Well you probably should not have chosen this drive. It's not trivial to connect it to a Mac. This drive is primarily designed as an internal PC drive. Depending on the ports available on your Macbook, the best way to connect this drive is to get a drive enclosure that holds a SATA drive and has an external connector for firewire or USB. I think a newer Macbook has only thunderbolt and USB.
1546698
Time machine isn't the best way to do it. Carbon copy cloner works easier. So the process would go like this roughly:Get a USB adapter for you new ssd drive. Connect new ssd to MacBook via USB and use disk utility to format it. Then use CCC to clone old drive to new. After clone is finished, remove old drive from MacBook and install new ssd driveBoot up laptop and all should be good. If you notice boot times being slow, go into system prefs, startup disk and select your new ssd as default system startup disk.
182459
YES, it can be selected to be a TIME MACHINE backup drive. ... (ADDITIONAL NOTE for Macbook users: What may be surprising to know is that you can also, if you know how to "partition" a drive when formatting it, choose to format this drive to be PART A -- 500GB for additional Data space for your laptop, and PART B -- 500GB which can be selected as your Time Machine volume. When you Partition a Drive, the computer then sees it as 2 separate drives on our desktop.) (hope that didn't confuse you)
1602195
Yes, I use it for that. I did use apple disc utility and partitioned mine for 1tb to be used specifically for time machine though. If you need all 4 for just backups it should work. That seems excessive though to me
2113270
Well you would have to format it to the mac format anyways, it takes seconds, drive is a beast!