Question 1

is it formattable for both pc's and macs ?

Accepted Answer

Yes.

For at least the last 15 years all hard drives are OS independent.  This means that they can be formatted for Mac, Windows, or any OS of the operators choosing.

Question 2

could it be recognized by mac pro ?

Accepted Answer

The drive comes in NFTS format.  I think a mac can read that format but not write to it.  If you buy it, you would have to format it to Macs file system (I think its HFS). If you don't know how to do that then I would just say no it would not work and you should find a mac compatible drive.

Question 3

Does the Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive (STBV5000100)  WRITE BluRay disks?

Accepted Answer

No.  This is an external hard drive.  BluRay disks are written (burned) by a type of DVD/CD drive that is specifically designed to make BluRay disks.  External Hard Drives contain components, usually "platters" that have data "Read" and "Written" to them.  These platters are not user accessible nor, should you try to access them.  If you try in anything other than a clean room, you will lose your data and destroy the external hard drive.  I hope this helps.

Question 4

Does this work with Macs running Yosemite?

Accepted Answer

I don't know.  I use it on a laptop running Windows 8.1.  However, if anyone was interested in purchasing this hard drive to use with Windows, I would strongly recommend it.  I attached the USB cable and  power cord.  It was up and running in seconds.

Question 5

Can this drive (or another 4TB internal drive) be used on my Windows 7 computer and have all 4TB or 5TB available on one partition?  Every time I attempt to do this, I get multiple drive letters limited by 2TB.  Is there a way around this?  How?  Thanks!  Can I search for something to figure this out?

Accepted Answer

The short answer is yes. Do a google to find out how. You have to use the GPT choice (not MBR) when partitioning. External drives are easier as they come ready formatted and just work.

Question 6

Is this drive powered by USB only or does it have to have external power to run?

Accepted Answer

It requires external power as do all mechanical drives - only flash drives can run off lower power of usb only.  If it spins a platter you need external power

Question 7

Is it Mac compatible?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I even partitioned the drive so 3 GB is used for Time Machine the other 2 GB for dropbox. It runs fine under Maverick. One small glitch related to dropbox when booting up -- the drive isn't recognized by the operating system fast enough so dropbox has to be manually connected. Not a big deal but you may but want to be aware of it.

Question 8

Would this work with apple computers? I use IMac and MacBookPro and need storage and Time Machine compatible hard drive. Thank you

Accepted Answer

Yes. Time Machine will reformat drive to the Mac file system. So just make sure you do it as new drive and have no data on it. After Time Machine is in drive you can store other data files on, but of course, it will reduce the Time Machine's available storage space. 
I have one as a Time Machine backup and one formatted in eFAT so can share data between PC and Mac.

Question 9

Can this drive write Blu Ray disks?

Accepted Answer

No, it's not a BR drive at all. It's an external hard disk drive for storage.

Question 10

is this 7200 RPM?

Accepted Answer

5900RPM (you really don't want a 7200 as they run too hot for the tiny speed gain)

Questions & Answers