How to Format Seagate External Hard Drive under Mac OS?

Quick Navigation:

• Format Seagate external hard drive with Super Eraser for Mac
• Format Seagate external hard drive with Disk Utility
• Format Seagate external hard drive with Terminal
• Conclusion:
• FAQs about formatting Seagate external hard drive on Mac

"Hi, anyone can tell me how to format a Seagate external hard drive on Mac? I am going to sell my 2TB Seagate external hard drive. Before sending it away, I want to make sure all the data on it has been permanently erased. So I try to format it on my Mac. However, I didn't find a way to format Seagate external hard drive under Mac OS. Is it possible to do this?" – Manie

Formatting is the best way to give an old Seagate external hard drive its new life. It is easy to format a Seagate external hard drive on Windows PC. However, if you want to format a Seagate external hard drive on Mac, it is not as easy as formatting it on a PC. Cause this feature is 'hidden' inside your Mac OS. And in some cases, you need both formatting Seagate external hard drive and permanently wiping data on it. Such as these cases:

• You will resell, donate or give away your old Seagate external hard drive.
• You are going to lend your Seagate external hard drive with someone else or share it with other people.
• You are disposing your old Seagate external hard drive or throwing it into trash.
• You plan to send your Seagate external hard drive to be repaired.

In the cases above, you need to format your Seagate external hard drive and permanently destroy all sensitive data on it, leaving no chance for data recovery. Only Mac data erasure software can achieve the double effects. DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac offers secure and easy solution to format Seagate external hard drive and permanently wipe all existing data and history data.

Format Seagate external hard drive with Super Eraser for Mac

DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac gives clear way to format Seagate external hard drive under Mac OS because it is so easy-to-use. You just need to connect your Seagate external hard drive with your Mac and run this Mac data erasure software to format it, here is the instructions.

Step 1. Select Wipe Hard Drive mode, then choose the Seagate external hard drive from the drive list. Click on Wipe Now button and go to next step.

Step 2. Choose a data wiping method to format the drive and wipe data permanently. If you want to wipe data more completely, you can choose one with more passes and it will take more time to finish.

Step 3. Format and wipe Seagate external hard drive on Mac by clicking on Continue button. Then it will automatically format your Seagate external hard drive and wipe all existing/history data. You will get a brand new and empty Seagate external hard drive.

Since this Mac data erasure software will permanent wipe all data on your Seagate external hard drive while it is formatting your Seagate external hard drive under Mac OS. So please back up your important files before you run it to format your Seagate external hard drive. It also supports to format Mac hard drives, USB flash drives, external hard drives, digital cameras, SD cards, etc under Mac OS.

If your Seagate external hard drive is a NTFS drive, just the guide:

How to wipe NTFS drive on Mac?

DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is one of the best Mac disk wipe software. It can help you format and wipe NTFS drive on Mac.

If you want to simply format the Seagate external hard drive quickly without wiping data, you can also use the Disk Manager feature of this software. Then select the Seagate external hard drive and click Format button to quickly format the drive on Mac:

Format Seagate external hard drive with Disk Utility

Besides using the third-party software to format the Seagate external hard drive, you can also use the macOS built-in tool Disk Utility to format the drive. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Open Disk Utility first. You can open Applications and then Utilities folder to find it.

Step 2. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to Mac and you will find it in Disk Utility. Select the drive and click Erase button at the top of the window.

Step 3. Set a name for the drive and select the file system for the drive. If you only use it on Mac, you can choose APFS or Mac OS Extended. If you will use the Seagate external hard drive on both Mac and Windows, you can select ExFAT instead.

Step 4. If you also need to wipe data while formatting the drive, you can click Security Options button.

Then select a level to wipe data. Please note that the "Fastest" level will not wipe data but simply formatting the drive. Click OK button to confirm the setting.

Step 5. At last, just click Erase button to start. It will formatting the drive (and wipe data if configured). Once it's done, you will get an empty drive for further use.

Format Seagate external hard drive with Terminal

If you don't like the tools with interfaces for disk formatting, you can choose Terminal to do it. You can enter commands to format Seagate external hard drive on Mac in this way. Follow the steps:

Step 1. Start Terminal from Applications and then Utilities folder.

Step 2. Enter the command diskutil list and it will show you all the connected drives on the Mac. Check and locate the information for the Seagate external hard drive.

Step 3. to format the drive, using the command: diskutil eraseDisk FileSystem Name /dev/diskX

Replace FileSystem with APFS, ExFAT or other file systems. Ensure to replace /dev/diskX with the right disk information on your Mac.

Erase data while formatting drive

If you want to erase the data permanently while formatting the Seagate hard drive, ensure to use the secureErase command, for example: diskutil secureErase 0 /dev/diskX (0 can be changed to 1, 2, 3, 4).

Conclusion:

Format Seagate external hard drive is easy on Mac and there are multiple methods available. Before formatting a hard drive, ensure to check and ensure the important files are backed first to avoid data loss. Then use DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac, Disk Utility, or Terminal to format the hard drive. With these tools, you can not only quickly format the Seagate external hard drive, but also wipe data permanently to protect privacy information being recovered by others.

DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac

DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is a 100% safe, powerful and easy-to-use data erasure program. It offers certified data erasure standards including Peter Gutmann, U.S. Army AR380-19, DoD 5220.22-M ECE to permanently erase data from Macs and external devices, making data recovery be impossible.

Download Super Eraser for Mac