Solid state drives (SSD’s) had been around a while. High Sierra was the first MacOS to use and support APFS. This Mac operating system also has the name High Sierra. They would have come with the Mac operating system MacOS 10.13. Apple created it to take advantage of the new faster solid state drive technology. Then an external disk formatted as HFS+ is your best choice on Mac OS X.ĪPFS stands for Apple File System. You can use an external SSD drive on your Mac running Sierra. You can store, copy and paste your files onto the external drive as well as doing a Time Machine backup. Or sharing between Macs the best format is HFS+ on Mac OS Sierra. And when you’re only using your external HDD on a Mac. Best Format For Mac External Hard Disk Sierra But you’ll have no Time Machine backup.įormat as HFS+ if you want to use your SSD for Time Machine. When you’re using an SSD drive for Mac you can format as APFS for speed. Or sharing with a Mac, HFS+ is the default file system of choice for High Sierra. When you’ve a mechanical drive – a hard disk drive you’re only putting on a Mac. You’ll find High Sierra is also known as MacOS 10.13. Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac High Sierra But you’re restricted because you can’t use AFPS for a Time Machine backup. You can choose APFS for your SSD drives or for your hard drive. When you’re using a hard external drive on your Mac with Mojave. Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac Mojave But remember there’s no Time Machine backup for you using APFS. You do have the choice of APFS for your SSD drives and for your hard disk drives. You can use your HFS+ external disk for a Time Machine backup. Here again HFS+ is the best choice because it gives you the widest options on your formatted hard drive. Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac Catalina

Or you plan to share your SSD with a windows computer. The exception to this is if you plan to share your drive with an older Mac running Sierra or earlier. As long as you don’t intend to use the drive for Time Machine. You can use a HFS+ formatted disk as a backup disk for Time Machine.īut if you’ve an external SSD. Other External Hard Drive Formats You Can Use On Your Macīest Format For External Hard Drive Mac Big SurĪnd the default Mac format for external disks on Big Sur is APFS.īut for external hard drives the best format for your Mac formatted drives is HFS+.īecause it runs the best on hard drives.An HFS+ Format External Drive is Not For.

A HFS+ Format External Drive is Good For.And There Are Different Flavors of APFS.An APFS Format External Drive Is Good For.What Is This Thing A File System And Its Format?.Best Format For Mac External Hard Disk Sierra.Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac High Sierra.Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac Mojave.Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac Catalina.Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac Big Sur.

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