Backup Mac and Windows Can you back up a Mac and a Windows 7 computer on the same hard drive?
1339934
@TonyI believe you could. You'd have to create two partitions on the drive, one formatted in HFS+ (for Mac) and the other in NTFS (for Windows). I have never done any such thing but it might be worth a try. Of course, as these drives have come so far down in price, why not just buy two, one for Mac and the other for Windows?
1339935
@Book WitchI should think that it is. You may be able to use Western Digital's software included on the drive to aid you in your backup. If, however, you do not want to use their software, preferring to use another backup program, it is easy to delete the WD software (the easiest way to delete all of it is to merely reformat the drive in NTFS format).
1339936
I am looking for an external hard drive to back up my entire lap top hard drive, in case of failure. Is the Passport Essential the unit I am looking for?
361679
Yes you can split the drive and format each half for Mac and the other for windows
1024394
SATA or IDE can be connected and copied on to a temp location and transferred to Mac, I have 2 of my SATA hard drives one from desktop and the other from laptop Cheers!
1225698
Works fine. That is what I too have. I use the Windows 7 Back up program for backing up my computer to the Toshiba Canvio.
563142
This hard drive can be used on Windows, and inside the drive there is a folder for mac. Because it's an external USB 3.0 drive (compatible with 2.0), you can work for backups or data store from several devices.
1370073
"Can I use it for switching back and forth between a Mac and a PC without reformatting?" - Only if you reformat with a filesystem that is compatible with both OSX and Windows. "If so, does this remove the option to use Time Machine?" - Yes and no. Time Machine requires HFS+ filesystem, and Windows cannot read/write to HFS+. However, it is possible to partition the disk and have part of the disk using NTFS and the other part using HFS+.
457650
I specifically purchased to back up my MacBook. I am unsure if you can reformat it to use it with a PC.
476628
I use a Mac mostly and I never back up to the cloud. Whenever I used a windows machine with it there was also no cloud backup.
214659
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).
1687903
Sorry, Mr. Kurtz, but I am unable to answer that question, unless you mean an EXternal hard drive. In that case, the answer is a definite "Yes," since I have an external hard drive connected to it for backups. I have had the computer for 2 or 3 months, and I am quite pleased with it. It was a snap to set up, and the fan is so quiet, you can barely hear it. Since it is Windows 7, I hope it lasts till 2020, when Microsoft is supposedly stopping support for Windows 7. I think you will like this computer.
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/
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.
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.
1920433
Works well on my 2008 MacBook running Yosemite. However, the USB to Cloud backup feature only works in Windows.
2236978
I usually back up full os, but i'm almost positive you can back up individual files. My only gripe with this software is I already owned an older copy and had to purchase a new copy for windows 7!
657735
Yes... I am on 7. I just use it to save critical files on. Don't fully understand the "back-up" software that is supplied with it.
288400
Yes, you should be just fine. Just dont format your usb, or else all of your data will be wiped. Your mac should be able to use the usb just as fine as windows would