Can I backup my Dell and my Mac on same drive? I have a Dell and a Mac and was wondering if anyone knows if you can back up files from both systems onto one hard drive like the Iomega Prestige? I could always buy 2 drives, but it would be nice to save an extra $80. Can I backup my Dell and my Mac on same drive? I have a Dell and a Mac and was wondering if anyone knows if you can back up files from both systems onto one hard drive like the Iomega Prestige? I... » Read More Can I backup my Dell and my Mac on same drive? I have a Dell and a Mac and was wondering if anyone knows if you can back up files from both systems onto one hard drive like the Iomega Prestige? I could always buy 2 drives, but it would be nice to save an extra $80. « Show Less
577667
Note that it depends on your OSX version. 10.4.11 (possibly 10.4.8, but I'm not sure) and later support NTFS - 10.3.9 supports HFS only.
577668
Yes, you could format it as a NTFS or FAT32. Mac (as well as Windows obviously) supports both.
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!
577670
Everyone is wrong to a degree. OS X can READ NTFS, it can't write to it, at least not natively.FAT32 is not really suitable for backups, so I wouldn't do that.Your two options are to either partition off the drive to have an NTFS partition and an HFS+ partition (Windows and Mac respectively), or you could make it NTFS and then download MacFUSE and NTFS-3G (google it) which will give the Mac the ability to write to windows drives (Abiet, very very slowly).
577671
I, too, have a Mac and a Windows. I've ended up having separate hard drives for each. Most of my data--years and years of documents and images--are on my Windows computer. I got the Mac because I needed a laptop and didn't want to get Vista. My experience is that I can plug the Windows hard drive to the Mac and it will recognize and read just about everything. The PC, on the other hand, will not recognize the drive from the Mac (at best) or will have a blue-screen tantrum (at worst--so far).
1868047
No. This is to put into your mac book so that it can use two HDD. This is by no means a way to retrieve data. Your going to need to find software to do what you are looking for.
308964
Me too! I'm not going to seriously consider purchasing anything computer related unless I see the manual that goes with it. Is it (i.e., Canvio) truly plug and play? Can you selectively choose individual files to back up? I'm not at all interested in wasting time and space backing up files that I really don't wish to back up. (I only wish to back up photographs.) Filtering through all the comments, while helpful writ large, takes a lot of time when looking for particular information. A manual please.
482506
I have been loking around for an external drive, and I've noticed they all fail! IMO the best way to gois to have 2 of the drives and do a periodic copy of each to each. I have a free agent on my mac and it has been working perfectly, but I am looking for a drive to back up between a PC and a mac. Two cheap drives may be more reliable than a single more expensive, since they all fail and you cant "pay out" of the uncertainty. Change that: Buy two expensive hard drives and dont even fool with the Seagates..
455679
Scrupples' answer sounds about right. Maybe look for a budget monitor. I wonder if you could back up your old computer and then load the files onto the Dell. I'm not the most computer savvy guy BTW.
243983
I actually returned the unit as I wanted to clone more than one PC hard drive to it, but learned that it was not possible to do this. I have two big LaCie drives where I do exactly what you'd like to do. It works well. I can only assume (note assume) that that backup process can work with his drive. Richard Chay
1545681
I honestly do not know if you can. I believe its a yes, But...I I have never purchased a Apple Care for my Macs or protection for my PC's. If you are handy with maintaining your computers minimal knowledge you can fix things your self. I back up my stuff on external drives regularly you cant go wrong even if a major HD failure. I use "Super Duper" when I hit other snags I google the exact symptoms and always bail my self out every time.I only hit one minor snag in a couple of years and fixed it. The money I do save I use for other cool gadgets.
1974137
If you're using Time Machine for Mac, you should be able to backup multiple devices to one drive as long as you have enough space on the drive. It's not necessary to partition the drive for each computer's backup, but it is recommended (so your backup data doesn't get mixed up and corrupted).
1383192
i have this on my iMac using time machine to back up everything. But, there is the Seagate Dashboard program that may be able to do what you need...here's a link to some tutorials that may help you.. http://www.seagate.com/support/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/backup-plus-desk-mac/
2081754
I wrote you a response (which is below) but I realized you might be confused as to what this product is. This isn't an external hard drive. It's a hard drive enclosure, it's basically an empty shell that holds a hard drive. You have to buy the actual drive separately You should be good in that direction PC to Mac. Windows uses the NT File System on it's drives, Mac's can read those files and copy them to the mac, but mac's can't write to a NTFS drive. So you couldn't add or save anything on to the drive. A solution for this would be to make a partition that's FAT32 both mac and windows can read and write to that, it's the file system flash drives usually have. Sometimes there's a 32GB limit on FAT32 drives so you might not be able to turn the whole drive into it. But you can partition one drive into multiple parts.
2284441
yes, you can back up your computer. Use time on the Mac. You would have to download your CD's to your computer I think the back them up.
515166
I use this strictly to do OSX backups using TimeMachine. This drive is formatted for use with Apple computers and is not formatted to be accessed by PCs. I have no idea what you are trying to accomplish, whether it is backing up data using backup tools or just trying to copy files to an external drive that either system can read. Regardless, this is not a good, cost effective, starting point for you. You would need to totally reformat the drive and consider if your PC supports USB 3 because this drive is built to support that higher transfer rate.
1451501
I really can't answer that because I have one computer and I generally keep it attached to the computer. I keep my system backups on this external drive. I suppose it is possible to move it around. Just keep the amount of information you want to back up in mind and the amount of space available on the drive.
183921
I have three of these...one as a backup for my PC and another that I use as a main drive and a backup drive for my Mac. But if you mean backing up files on your Mac and PC, I have done it before as a network drive but when it comes to moving the drive and plugging it in via USB, somehow the PC didn't read the Mac Files, while Mac was able to read the PC files...but by switching things back in forth, I actually corrupted a drive that way and it had to be formatted. But network drive, I have backed up files from both PC and Mac just fine. I feel it's best to have external backup drives specifically for that computer...one formatted via Mac for the Mac and the other for PC.
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.
1433415
If you have FireWire 800 you can daisy chain several drives together. I have a 12 core mac that can do that, not sure on a PC . The drives can be formatted for PC. The best thing would be to ask customer support at G-Tech, they have been very good at answering my questions in the past.
27160
OMG, NO! We had one fail without notice and it was a major problem. We thought the dual drive on ours would be a safe backup system, but the entire drive failed. A service company worked on it and we were fortunate to retrieve most of the data, but it was a very close call and expensive. Now we have TWO separate backup drives on all systems.