A:AnswerIf you copy images onto a PC formatted external drive (ExFAT) and plug it into the Mac, you should have no trouble seeing/importing images onto the Mac.
A:AnswerIt comes with USB 3.0 cable, though a very short one. Don't need thunderbolt, just plug it into USB port on Mac. It only took less than 2 hours to backup 200 Gig.
A:AnswerYes, that is what I use it for. I am a photographer, so I store all of my client photo shoots in separate folders on the external hard drive. I have no problem working with the photos directly from the drive.
A:AnswerSeagate Backup Plus is essentially a HDD with a USB connection and a separate power supply. You can use it for the most part the same as a USB thumb drive, just that it has a greater storage capacity and won't quite fit in most pockets. Even with falling prices on thumb drives a disc drive is far more gigs per dollar and a bigger contiguous space. I use mine for PC system backup. If your Dish DVR can write to a thumb drive chances are this will work too. A 16 Gig thumb drive has roughly the same storage capacity as three single layer DVDs, single layer BluRays though have a capacity of about 25 Gig, and 2TB are 2000GB (Gig). I myself am not familiar with Dish DVR and you may want to approach your question from that end, for its comparability with USB devices.
Hope this helps, good luck
