I’ve just bought a Samsung T7 SSD to use as a backup drive for my Mac.
I currently use Time Machine, but I think I’ll switch to Carbon Copy Cloner within the year.
I have a few questions. Would you recommend formatting the SSD in APFS or using HFS+?
Is it possible to use the SSD as both a backup drive (with Time Machine) and as a storage location for media files that I don’t want to keep on the Mac? Are there any issues I should be aware of?
Many thanks.
I would use APFS because it will allow you to have multiple volumes on the SSD that can share the available space.
Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support.
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From what I’ve read, APFS should be used for SSDs. HFS+ has no advantage; APFS was designed for SSDs. On the other hand, if you have a HDD, you are better off with HFS+.
How are you going to backup the files stored on this drive (not the backup files, the storage files)
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I’m not backing up those files because they’re going to be deleted as soon as they’re used.
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What’s the advantage of HFS+ for HDDs, especially since you have to give up drive partitioning to use it?
I know originally APFS only worked on SSDs, but I believe that changed a long time ago and I’ve been using APFS on external HDDs for quite a while without issue.
Apple designed APFS to be optimized for SSD and HFS+ for HDD, so in theory, you should find better performance using HFS+ with the older standard. Interesting that you’ve had good luck using APFS with HDD.
The downside to HFS+, as I understand it, is that you can’t use it with encryption for Time Machine.
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HFS+ on HDDs basically defragments itself by design. APFS doesn’t have this capability, which shouldn’t be a surprise since fragmentation is not a performance issue on SSDs. I’ve also read that HFS+ will give better performance on HDDs.
In any case I’ve followed that advice (all my SSDs are APFS and all my HDDs are HFS+), and have had no problems.
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So I should create two APFS volumes, is that correct?
Thanks! That makes sense, since defragging an SSD wears it out faster. As far as I could tell, Apple doesn’t explicitly recommend using HFS+ on HDDs the way it does with APFS on SSDs, which seems curious given what you say.
Thanks!
You can’t encrypt HFS+ volumes with Disk Utility, but I believe you can still encrypt Time Machine backups saved to them.
Yes, you can create two or more APFS volumes in the same container.
Because a Time Machine volume cannot be used for anything else, you would have to create a second APFS volume to store any non-TM files (if you want both volumes to share the entire SSD).
Your answer to @geoffaire that the non-TM volume will be used for temporary storage means you could delete files from that volume to give your Time Machine volume more room for backups
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Seems to me that there is a lot of out-of-date and conflicting information being given in this thread. I rely on the recommendations of Mike Bombich, the developer of Carbon Copy Cloner. His website, and particularly his Blog and Knowledge Base, can answer all your questions about disk drives and formats to use for backups, as well as giving detailed instructions. See Carbon Copy Cloner Knowledge Base.
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No problem. It’s good to keep in mind that beginning with Big Sur, APFS or APFS Encrypted is the preferred format for setting up new drives for use with Time Machine. I believe this also relates to the Local Snapshots feature. If a new drive is chosen that is not already set to APFS, an option will automatically be presented to erase and reformat.
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I tried APFS on a spinning drive once. I tried storing lots of small files on it and the performance was terrible. Switching to HFS+ was far more performant.
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When? APFS has been Apple’s preferred format going back to the Big Sur release.
Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support
APFS or APFS Encrypted disks are the preferred format for a Time Machine backup disk. If you select a new backup disk that’s not already formatted as an APFS disk, you get the option to erase and reformat it. If the disk is a Mac OS Extended format disk that contains an existing Time Machine backup, you aren’t asked to erase and reformat the disk.
Note: The entire APFS volume is reserved for Time Machine backups. If you want to store files other than the Time Machine backup on the same physical device, use Disk Utility to create an additional APFS volume on the disk. The two volumes then share the available space.
EDIT TO ADD: You won’t get snapshots, which are an integral feature of backups these days, with HFS+ disk format.
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Though he discusses both drive types in the section about choosing a backup drive, he doesn’t seem to say anything specific about formatting HDDs vs. SSDs or why they should or shouldn’t use different formats.
The only thing I found was this on the Preparing a disk for a backup or restore page, which implies that APFS should be used regardless of storage type:
I attempted to format the drive in APFS, but only exFAT and HFS+ were available. I consulted various threads on the subject and learned that one must first delete the exFAT partition by selecting the top line for T7 and then choosing erase. However, I was unable to locate the erase command.
What version of macOS are you using?
I am using Sonoma 14.6.1