Backing files to a Seagate external hard drive is a great method for Mac users to protect their important data. How to clone Mac data to a Seagate external hard drive? Actually, it is simple. In this article, we will show you two methods to clone any type of Mac disk to a Seagate external hard drive (HDD & SSD).
Method 1. Clone Mac disk to Seagate external hard drive via Time Machine.
First of all, check if your Seagate external hard drive is compatible with your Mac. If it is read-only or can’t be opened on your Mac, just format it with Disk Utility (check: how to format Seagate external hard drive on Mac). Then you need to follow the steps below to set the Seagate external hard drive as the backup drive in Time Machine.
Step 1. Plug in your Seagate external hard drive to your Mac.
Step 2. Open Time Machine from your Menu Bar (or from System Preferences).
Step 3. Choose Select Backup Disk.
Step 4. Select Seagate external hard drive (or the external drive as shown) connected to your Mac, and click Use Disk, then your Mac will back up data to the Seagate external hard drive automatically.
Your external backup drive is now ready, and a Time Machine backup will start within 2 minutes. It’s that easy. If Time Machine has been previously set up, open Time Machine and choose Select Disk then select the Seagate external hard drive. Note that your first backup may take several hours depending on how many files you have. However, you can still use your computer while the backup is in progress. Thereafter, future backups will complete faster as Time Machine only backs up the files that have changed since the previous backup.
Method 2. Clone Mac disk to Seagate external hard drive using DoYourClone.
Actually, not all Mac users want to use Time Machine to back up their data. Disk cloning software is a easier and more time-saving method to clone your Mac data to a Seagate external hard drive. Here, we recommend DoYourClone for Mac. This powerful, safe and easy-to-use disk cloning software can help you easily copy Mac data to any type of disk drive.
It offers three modes to help you securely and quickly clone Mac data to a Seagate external hard drive.
Mode 1. Copy files from Mac to your Seagate external hard drive.
Step 1. Download and install DoYourClone for Mac, and open it.
Step 2. Plug your Seagate external hard drive into your Mac.
Step 3. Choose your Mac disk as the source disk and choose the Seagate external hard drive as the destination drive. You can copy all files from your Mac disk to the Seagate external hard drive or you also can selectively copy files from your Mac disk to the Seagate external hard drive.
Step 4. Click on Copy Now button.
Step 5. Once the process gets finished, just check the cloned data on the Seagate external hard drive.
Mode 2. Create a bootable clone of Mac to Seagate external hard drive.
Clone OS mode can help you clone Mac system drive to the Seagate external hard drive and make it be bootable.
Mode 3. Create a disk image of your Mac disk and save it to the Seagate external hard drive.
Step 1. Select disk clone mode “Create Disk Image” and choose your Mac disk as the source drive and choose the Seagate external hard drive as the destination drive.
Step 2. Click on Create Image button. This software will create a disk image of your Mac disk (dmg or zip) and save it to the Seagate external hard drive.
Step 3. Once the process gets finished, you can check the disk image on the Seagate external hard drive.
DoYourClone for Mac is one of the best Mac disk cloning software. It also can help you clone Seagate external hard drive to your Mac, and clone Mac data to WD disk drive, USB flash drive, etc. It is 100% safe, download it here:
Written & Updated by Darren
Darren is an senior editor at DoYourData. Since 2021, Darren has written 100+ articles about data recovery, Mac file recovery, disk management, disk clone, computer issue fixes, etc. He helps lost of users to recover important data, get the reliable data backup solution, find optimization for PCs and Macs.