Since 10.13 Apple has recommended using APFS to take advantage of new features. But, I've found that it is not always compatible and there are so many people, including Western Digital support people who never heard of it! Seems like most people are still using the old Mac OS Extended HFS+ format.
Would love your thoughts on this. I just purchased a WD that doesn't seem to work well with APFS even though they swear its Mac Catalina compatible.
Thanks!!
What format do you use to initialize your Mac hard drives?
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- KVRAF
- 2454 posts since 5 Oct, 2003
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- KVRAF
- 11000 posts since 15 Apr, 2019 from Nowhere
APFS is optimized for SSDs, but it doesn’t have as many advantages over HFS+ on mechanical drives.
HFS+ is a bit of a Frankenstein filesystem though, with functionality built on top of the original standard. APFS is definitely the way forward, and HFS+ is likely to disappear as systems with Sierra and earlier decline.
HFS+ is a bit of a Frankenstein filesystem though, with functionality built on top of the original standard. APFS is definitely the way forward, and HFS+ is likely to disappear as systems with Sierra and earlier decline.
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- KVRAF
- 6396 posts since 8 Jun, 2009
For rotating media that isn't the system drive: HFS+.
There are advantages for using APFS on SSDs but even then, I've got my external SSDs set to HFS+. The wear-levelling isn't that important on things that are mostly storing samples and data that doesn't change very often (which is pretty much the case for those drives).
Apple isn't very clear on its recommendations, but APFS is primarily for the system drive. Their own guidance says for externals, especially those used to share data across Mac, HFS+ is still fine. Also, Time Machine won't store to an APFS drive (yes, really). I guess it's to do with the forest of hard links it creates when backing up.
There are advantages for using APFS on SSDs but even then, I've got my external SSDs set to HFS+. The wear-levelling isn't that important on things that are mostly storing samples and data that doesn't change very often (which is pretty much the case for those drives).
Apple isn't very clear on its recommendations, but APFS is primarily for the system drive. Their own guidance says for externals, especially those used to share data across Mac, HFS+ is still fine. Also, Time Machine won't store to an APFS drive (yes, really). I guess it's to do with the forest of hard links it creates when backing up.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2454 posts since 5 Oct, 2003
Wow, thanks everyone super helpful!Gamma-UT wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2020 6:03 pm For rotating media that isn't the system drive: HFS+.
There are advantages for using APFS on SSDs but even then, I've got my external SSDs set to HFS+. The wear-levelling isn't that important on things that are mostly storing samples and data that doesn't change very often (which is pretty much the case for those drives).
Apple isn't very clear on its recommendations, but APFS is primarily for the system drive. Their own guidance says for externals, especially those used to share data across Mac, HFS+ is still fine. Also, Time Machine won't store to an APFS drive (yes, really). I guess it's to do with the forest of hard links it creates when backing up.
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- KVRer
- 18 posts since 20 Jan, 2021 from UK
If it is any help - you can download a hhd/SSD speedtest app and test read/write speeds. I didn’t find much of a difference and decided on HFS+ with two partitions of AFPS as opposed to two AFPS containers that share the space because I thought it would be easier to make disk images for backup. Not sure if this is best though