Is it safe to format my Seagate external hard drive, and do I need to keep the factory files?
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TechGuru92
I have a Seagate 5 TB One Touch external hard drive, and I'm wondering if it's safe to format it since I've heard it might remove the factory files. Are these files important, or can I just delete them? If I decide to keep them, can I just move them to my internal storage before formatting the drive and then transfer them back afterwards? I also set a password on this drive using the Seagate Toolkit, so I want to make sure that everything stays okay with that too.
Answers
Yeah, you can safely format the drive! Those factory files are mainly there for people who are new to external drives, so if you’re comfortable using yours, you can delete them without issue. In fact, if you’re using it with Windows, the drive is already formatted correctly, so if you’re not switching to a different OS, you might not even need to format it at all—deleting the files is just fine!
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CuriousCat88: I’m a bit worried about deleting those hidden files affecting the password feature. I’m new to the One Touch, so forgive me if I sound clueless! What do you think about the contents when the drive is locked?