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External SSDs - Samsung T7, Sandisk Extreme Portable - Working with M1?
- Thread starter jiholl
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I have 2 T7s and did Time Machine backups to both today from my M1 MacBook Air. Works great.
I would not be surprised if those posters are having some kind of problem with the included Samsung software, which is completely superfluous to most use cases. Just erase the drive and use built-in Mac utilities.
If you start a TM drive fresh on Big Sur, it gets formatted as APFS and is incredibly fast.
I would not be surprised if those posters are having some kind of problem with the included Samsung software, which is completely superfluous to most use cases. Just erase the drive and use built-in Mac utilities.
If you start a TM drive fresh on Big Sur, it gets formatted as APFS and is incredibly fast.
Thank you...I also thought it might be the software. So if I just wanted to use the T7 for "manual" backup and/or transfer of files...is the drive just "plug and play"?...i.e. no formatting needed?
First thing I always do when I buy a new T7 is to format the drive to APFS, which then wipes off the Samsung software, which I don't need and don't use anyway, and that frees up all the space on the drive for my own purposes. I do a lot of transferring files back-and-forth between computers and between drives, and have never had a problem. Don't yet have a new M1 machine but when I do get one, I don't anticipate any issues with putting files in it from my T7 external SSDs.
Yes. I have three Samsung T drives plugged in via USB hub. All working well. Next on the wishlist is a Thunderbolt 3 SSD! (OWC?)
So that is just plugging it into to the mac, and then using disk utility to format it? Sorry for this basic question..I have formatted drives on my mac before but its been a while.
Yes. Plug drive in to either port, look for Disk Utility, open that, see the drive, name it and erase (format) it using MacOS Extended (Journaled.)
If you want to share the disk between Mac and PC you can use ExFAT at that step.
Yes, definitely.
Use a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner to mirror the internal drive to the external, then reboot holding Option to select it.
This is the drive I should have bought but the T7 went on a fantastic sale on Amazon and I couldn't reset making my M1 setup all flash, all the time.
Better yet, format the drive to APFS since that is the file system Apple is using on their computers these days......
I want that drive now haha. I wish I woulda seen that before ordering mine As it was only a $10 difference. What price did you get it for? It’s $79 right now. Maybe I’ll keep an eye on it for awhile.
May for a person who uses a fast thunderbolt 3 data-ssd and two Mac minis ( one at home in town and one at the weekend-place) with the same software installed - the ssd of the Mac minis does not need to be large.
It is easier to carry a ssd compared to carry a laptop. The 2 Mac minis are nearly the same cost as a laptop - but redundant and without a "bulging" battery.
It is easier to carry a ssd compared to carry a laptop. The 2 Mac minis are nearly the same cost as a laptop - but redundant and without a "bulging" battery.
Guess it's the V2 version, right? What are the speeds like? I have a OWC Envoy Express TB3 enclosure, but saw the new Sandisk SSD, and wondered how fast it would go on the new M1's – have you tested it?
Actually, that depends on how one wants to use the drive. I recently purchased this Samsung T7 1 TB External SSD from Newegg for $139:
Portable SSD T7 USB 3.2 1TB (Gray) | Samsung US
It's actually rather small in physical size. I planned on using it to 1) test Big Sur, and 2) store Movies and TV Series on it so that I could use it with either of our Roku Ultra devices and watch them. So, after receiving the SSD, I plugged it into a Thunderbolt 3 port on my Mac Mini, launched Disk Utility, and Erased and Formatted (HFS+) the entire SSD.
Left it empty for a few days. On Saturday, I re-launched Disk Utility, and partitioned it into 3 HFS+ partitions: one for (eventually) Big Sur (about 145 gig; probably too much), a 425 gig Partition for Movies, and another 425 gig Partition for TV Series. I then "populated" the Movies and TV Shows Partitions.
The reason why I need HFS+ is that the USB port of each Ultra supports HFS+, but not APFS. If and when I download and install Big Sur on that other partition, I can either 1) launch Disk Utility and re-format that partition as APFS, or 2) when I launch the Big Sur Installer on my Mac Mini to do the actual installation onto that partition, it will first re-format the partition as APFS.
What is the difference between Mac OS journaled and Apfs format?
Is there any disk speed difference between those and ext3 format ?
Is there any disk speed difference between those and ext3 format ?
I think they were $250 each, 2 TB size. I have the 1 TB Air and use the rule of thumb that Time Machine should be 2x the drive it’s backing up so there is a decent history.
I think they were $250 each - 2 T. I have the 1 TB Air and use the rule of thumb that Time Machine should be 2x the drive it’s backing up so there is a decent history.
It’s the second generation - I tried copying some large files and it was super quick! Pretty happy with the performance! They still have it under offer if you are interested. I bought the 1TB for $199.