Partitions are a useful way to separate different types of data on a
hard drive, including separating backups from data storage or
restricting access to certain files. A Seagate external hard drive is
pre-formatted with one NTFS partition, which may limit its usefulness
for some users. However, it can be divided into as many partitions as
you wish, with either Macintosh or Windows partition schemes and file
systems. Mac OSX users can read but not write to an NTFS partition. To
write to the partition with a Macintosh, the Seagate external hard drive
requires preparation with Macintosh Disk Utility, while Windows Disk
Management is used to create partitions in the Windows operating system
environment.
