Summary: Two methods to change Seagate external hard drives from read-only back to read-write, so that you can edit, delete, and rename files on this Seagate external hard drive. Also, if a Seagate external hard drive is read-only or files are locked on Mac due to NTFS format, you can use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to mount it in read-write mode on Mac.
- Run Magoshare Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac computer, then connect the Seagate Backup Plus with your Mac. This Mac data recovery software will automatically recognize the Seagate Backup Plus. Step 2: Scan the Seagate Backup Plus to find lost files. Choose the Seagate Backup Plus and scan it to find deleted/lost files.
- Backup Plus for Mac desktop Thunderbolt 3TB hard Drive STCB3000400 3-year limited warranty. 3TB 3072.0: 3 years: 168mm: 120.9mm: 1.17kg: Backup Plus for Mac desktop drive 4TB STDU4000100 4TB 4096.0: 2 years: 179.4mm: 118.10mm: 860g: Backup Plus Desk Mac with Thunderbolt 4TB STCB4000401 3-year limited warranty.
When you plug a Seagate external hard drive into your Mac, one of the worst things would be that you find your Seagate hard drive is read-only. Your photos, videos, and other files you saved from a Windows PC could be locked. Or your Seagate external drive could be write-protected.
Most Seagate external drives are read-only on Mac because they are pre-fomatted with Windows NT file system (NTFS) by the manufacturer. So your Seagate HDD is read only on Mac, which affects Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch, Portable drive, and Slim. However, macOS disabled the NTFS write support by default.
Generally, there are three reasons for Seagate external HDD being read-ony on Mac:
- 1. Use NTFS driver for Mac to write to NTFS Seagate external hard drives
- 2. Change the permissions from read-only to read-write Seagate external hard drive
- 3. Repair disk corruption that makes Seagate external hard drive read-only
Are you facing such disk problem right now? Well, you are not the only one.
'I'm having a problem using my Seagate external hard drive. I only have permission to read files on my external hard drive, but I am not allowed to write or edit files on the drive when using Mac OS. Why this happened and how to fix Seagate external hard drive read-only on Mac?'
You might have trouble backing up or adding files to Seagate external hard drives on Mac. But it's not necessarily because the disk is locked but some other reasons. For example, the Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only on Mac.
In this article, we introduced three possible reasons for disk being read-only on Mac, and you can find solutions to change the external drives from read-only accordingly.
Why is your Seagate external hard drive read only on Mac?
You may be wondering why my Seagate external hard drive is read-only. In fact, read-only Seagate external hard drive results from various reasons. It could be the NTFS format that makes this trouble since NTFS is not writable on Mac. Generally, there are three possible reasons:
- 1. The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted.
- 2. You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
- 3. The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
In the following part, we'll go into details about how to fix the Seagate external hard drive read-onli issue in different situations.
Case 1: The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
Most Seagate external drives are read-only on Mac because they are pre-fomatted with Windows NT file system (NTFS) by the manufacturer. So your Seagate HDD is read only on Mac, which affects Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch, Portable drive, and Slim.
However, macOS disabled the NTFS write support by default. If you connect an NTFS formatted external hard drive to your Mac, you will find that files on this disk will be locked or show as read-only. You can only read but can't add files to this Seagate external hard drive on Mac.
How to check if your Seagate hard drive is NTFS formatted on Mac?
- 1. Open the Finder and click Go at the upper right of your desktop, then choose Utilities.
- 2. Find Disk Utility and open it.
- 3. Select your Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar of Disk Utility.
- 4. Then you can see Windows NT File System on the right.
- 5. You can click the Info icon at the upper right to check if this disk is writable.
Solution: Use NTFS for Mac to write to Seagate external hard drives on Mac
In this situation, what you need is not to unlock the Seagate external hard drive but a NTFS for Mac driver. Many people would think about converting NTFS to APFS or formatting the Seagate drive for Mac to make it compatible with macOS. However, the truth is that you can fix the Seagate external hard drive read-only issue without formatting, i.e. you don't have to lose your files on this drive.
Alternatively, you can download NTFS for Mac software to enable NTFS drive write support on Mac with no fuss. There are a great number of NTFS for Mac in the market, and iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is used here as an example.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac: NTFS for Mac driver and more
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a handy disk management tool, which can help you mount NTFS formatted external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. on Mac with write support. This NTFS drive mounter is also compatible with macOS 11 (Big Sur), 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra).
How to use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to write to NTFS Seagate external hard drive on Mac? Mac mojave version 10 14 5.
- 1. Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your Mac, then restart the computer.
- 2. Launch this NTFS driver for Mac and connect the read-only Seagate external hard drive to Mac.
- 3. Then, you can fully write and copy data to the Seagate external hard drive on Mac after the drive is mounted successfully.
Aside from being an NTFS for Mac driver, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a wonderful tool to manage files on NTFS external drives. It lets users open, monut, repair, and erase NTFS drives on Mac natively and seamlessly.
Case 2: You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
If your Seagate hard drive denies your access or restricts you to read-only activities, there is likely an permission issue. Being a multiuser operating system, macOS sets up access permissions for all files and folders on the system, including external drives.
Solution: Change permissions on Seagate external hard drive
To fix the read-only Seagate external hard drive issue, you need to regain full access. You can ignore the ownership or change the sharing and permissions of this disk in the Finder by following the below steps.
- 1. Select Seagate external hard drive on your desktop or in the Finder sidebar, and then press Command + I to get information of the drive.
- 2. Scroll to the bottom of this list and click on the triangle that is at the left side of the Sharing & Permissions tab.
- 3. Click on the lock icon at the right bottom and type in the password to unlock this tab.
- 4. Check the box to Ignore ownership on this volume, or you can toggle it off and then on if it's already enabled.
- 5. Click on the gear button and choose Apply to enclosed items… to save your changes.
Then you can go to check if your Seagate external hard drive is read-only still. If not, you will be able to write to this disk.
But if you can't access the Seagate external hard drive as it's locked still. Well, the disk may be really locked by certain programs, especially for Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch. Then you need to unlock the password protection or hardware encryption with Seagate Secure software.
Case 3: The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
If your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only not for the reasons above, you may need to have a check if there is any inner disk error. Some formatting errors will make an external hard drive read-only on Mac. If this is the cause, usually you will see a warning in Disk Utility that states it is only being mounted in read-only mode.
Click to see more errors of the Seagate external hard drive not showing up on Windows.
Solution 1: Fix read-only Seagate external hard drive in Disk Utility
Fortunately, there is a built-in tool called First Aid that can check and repair some minor disk errors. When your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only due to logical disk problems, you can use First Aid to repair it then.
Here is the guidance to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive with Disk Utility:
- 1. Open Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive on the left window.
- 3. Click First Aid in the top center and choose Run to repair this disk.
Solution 2: Reformat Seagate external hard drive
However, if Disk Utility fails to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive, the last thing you can try to remove write protection from Seagate external hard drives would be reformatting. Reformatting will assign a new file system to this disk, consequently, the Seagate external hard drive issue could be fixed.
But before you go ahead to erase this disk, you should know that reformatting will wipe the files on this hard drive. Thus, you are advised to check if you have a copy of data back in the first place , or you can recover lost data from this external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac data recovery to avoid data loss.
If you're sure that you have data backup in hand, you can proceed to reformat this read-only external hard drive with the following tutorial.
- 1. Open Disk Utility as you did before.
- 2. Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- 3. Click the Erase button in the top center of Disk Utility.
- 4. Fill in name, format, and scheme when the pop-up asks.
- 5. Click Erase to confirm this operation.
A final note
Besides Seagate external hard drives, Toshiba, WD, Samsung, or other brands' external hard drives will come across the read-only problem. It is common to see people complaining WD My Passport external hard drives suddenly became read-only on Mac. You can also use these solutions to fix this problem. What's more, an NTFS formatted WD external hard drive won't work on your PS4 console for gaming as well. But if you are unable to fix it with the solutions suggested above, you can only send it to local disk repair store for help, but that will cost a lot usually.
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How do I transfer files to my seagate external hard drive?
'I have some precious pictures, files, videos, etc on my computer that truly need to bebacked up !!!! Thus, I bought Seagate Backup Plus. It's said this is a backup drive. But Itdoes not show as a backup drive when I plug it into my Windows 10. What's wrong? How doI backup files on Seagate external hard drive?'
Don't worry about it! This is what I will share with you in the following. As far as Iknow, this is probably a connection issue or the disk driver is outdated. And there are 3different Seagate external drive backup software for you to backup files on Seagate externalhard drive, namely Seagate Dashboard, Backup and Restore, and AOMEI Backupper.
Why backup files to Seagate external hard drive?
Talking about the reason, there are 2 main reasons to backup files on Seagate external harddrive. Let's see them specifically.
Ensure the security of your precious data. Most computers users savedata on their laptop or desktop, but there is a great risk of data loss in the event offailure, such as, system crash, disk failure, virus attack, ransomware etc. To minimizethe risk, you can backup files toexternal hard drive, like Seagate Backup Plus.
External hard drive is very portable to take. Aside by the securityissue, you may want to save the common used files to a portable storage device and takeit everywhere, so you can view files on external hard drive anytime. Seagate externalhard drive is one of the portable storage devices.
Seagate Dashboard: use Seagate external hard drive to backup files
This is the first method to backup files on Seagate external hard drive. You will use SeagateDashboard, a seagate external drive backup software, which comes along with Seagate BackupPlus or Seagate Center. Without further ado, let's get started to reveal Seagate backupPlus how to use.
Seagate Backup Plus Mac Setup
Step 1. Connect Seagate Backup Plus to your computer and make sure it can bedetected. Then, access Seagate external hard drive in Windows Explorer and double-clickthe Seagate Dashboard Installer.exe to install this software
How To Backup Mac With Seagate Backup Plus
Step 2. Launch Seagate Dashboard and then select PC Backup in the home page.
Step 3. How to use usb on mac. Then, click Protect Now and Back up Now to backupall non-system files.
Notes:
◑ About how do I know when Seagatebackup is complete, you can see the green backup progress bar and percentage. And when thetask is complete, these indicators will disappear.
◑ Seagate Dashboard can also be aSeagate automatic backup software, which allows you to backup all personal folders(non-system files) or specific folders with New Backup Plan option. It supports multipleSeagate automatic backup options, including snapshot, weekly, monthly, daily, hourly, andcontinuously.
Backup and Restore: backup files using Seagate external hard drive
As said before, Seagate Backup Plus is one of the backup drives. It's is compatible withWindows and Mac. And it has a great capacity, even up to 8TB. Aside by that, it supports afaster speed. Then, let's have a closer look at how to use Seagate external hard drivein Windows 7/8/10 to backup files.
Step 1. Install Seagate Backup Plus drive on your computer via an adapter.Then, click Use this drive for backup under AutoPlay window, and wait forWindows Backup to start.
Step 2. Pitch on Let Windows choose or Let me Choose, thenclick Next.
Note: If you just want to backup files savedin libraries, on the desktop, in default Windows folders, you can choose Let Windows choose.If you want to backup specific files or folders, you can choose Let me choose.
Step 3. The default schedule setting is set to 7am every week. If you want to change it,click Change schedule. Then, review your backup settings and click Savesettings and run Backup to finish the last step. Wait until you see a promptlike 'Windows Backup has completed successfully'.
Note: Backup and Restore utility (Windows 7)is very useful. It can help you backup files and backup system as longas you have a common external hard drive. However, it may fail to encrypt and compressbackup images. Also, it cannot support differential backup.
AOMEI Backupper: backup files on Seagate external hard drive
Reading here, you may already know how to backup files using Seagate Backup Plus. Franklyspeaking, it's not a perfect way to backup files.
I strongly recommend you using Seagate automatic backup software AOMEI Backupper Professional. Withit, you can backup files to Seagate external hard drive automatically, even with onlychanged files. It supports daily backup, weekly backup, monthly backup, incremental/differential backup, etc. Also, you can choose tocompress backup files if it's too large In addition, you can encrypt backup files ifthere are any sensitive data.
Then, let's take Seagate Backup Plus as an example and have a closer look at how tobackup files to Seagate external hard drive. Before starting any operation, please connectSeagate Backup Plus drive to your computer and download the free trial filebackup software AOMEI Backupper Professional. How to upgrade old macbook air.
Download Free Trial
Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP
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Step 1. Launch AOMEI Backupper Professional. Then, click Backup and FileBackup to summon the next window
Step 2. Click Add File or Add Folder to select files fromthe local computer.
Step 3. Select Seagate Backup Plus drive as the destination path.
Step 4 (Important). Click Schedule, then click dailyunder the General tab and select differential backup under the Advancedtab. Then, click Start Backup if there are no problems.
Notes:
◑ Differential backup is muchsafer than incremental backup, because it will contain all the files in the original backupand the newly added or modified. Even if one of the image file is damaged, you still can restorefiles from backup.
◑ This version of software is only suitable for Windows7/8/10/XP/Vista. If you are using server computer, you could consider upgrading to AOMEI Backupper Server.
How to view files on Seagate Backup Plus?
In the minds of many users, where is my backup file may be a question. Here I will show youthe answer. To view files on Seagate backup drive, such as, Seagate Backup Plus, you coulddelete old backup using Seagate Dashboard or use the built-in exploreimage feature in AOMEI Backupper. Details are below.
Method 1: View files using Seagate Dashboard.
Open Seagate Dashboard, select the BackupPlus in the Dashboard, click Info and View Files togo to the target path.
Tip: Also, you see your files in the Seagateexternal hard drive. You can go to (My) Computer and the backup drive, open the folder namedBackup and with your PCname subsequently, click on the C folder and go to Users >Username>Documents, then double-click the files to check it.
Method 2: View files in virtual partition.
You can launch AOMEI Backupper Professional, go to Tools > Explore Image, select backupimage and time point, then click Save As and select a path for the image file, then waituntil the process is completed. Finally, go to the path and see your files.
Note: If you just want to check the integrityof backup files, you can click Settings at the lower left corner and tick Check backupintegrity on complete. It's much convenient.
How to delete backup files from seagate external hard drive?
Some users reported that Seagate Backup Plus slim full. Do you have similar questions? Seebelow and I'll show you how to delete backup files from Seagate external hard drive. Hereare 2 ways.
Method 1. Delete backup files using Seagate external hard drive.
You can select PC Backup on the home page and then backup task, click the drop down menu and choose Delete to delete this task. If this is a Seagate automatic backup plan, pleaseselect the box next to Delete backed up files and click Delete.
Method 2. Delete backup image regularly with AOMEI Backupper.
You can Go to Home, click the three bars icon > Edit Backup > Backup Scheme > EnableBackup Scheme, then select a scheme settings from the drop-down menu. Black jack download. After that, it willautomatically deleteold backups by a specific role.
The meaning of creating one or more backups are to continuously protect your data and OS. Ifyou delete all the backups, it is against the original meaning. And you may delete thelatest backup mistakenly. Thus, the second way is more useful. It will keep the latestbackup and delete other backups with a specific role.
Conclusion
Honestly, it's necessary to backup files on Seagate external hard drive, because the backupcould protect and recover your files in case of system crash, virus attack, etc. Of course,if you can create a Seagate automatic backup, so much the better.
All of the given solutions can help you do this. But if you don't want to backup allfiles everytime, the last one will be a better choice. Its incremental/differential backupcan backup the changed files only after the full backup.
In addition, this software still supports many useful features, such as, three compressionlevel, encryption, backup scheme to delete backup files, event trigger backup, system backup, diskbackup, universal restore, replaceHDD with SSD, create bootable media etc. Any interest? Please download this softwareto enjoy these features.
