File system for external drives - Mac Studio M2

[JoeStrummer]

Hello,

This is probably a dumb question, but I recently acquired a Mac Studio M2 and I'm wanting to attached a range of external hard drives (NMVe, 2.5 SSD, 3.5 spinning) and I want to double check that all drives should be formatted to APFS file system, regardless of drive type?

Thanks

 

[MarkC426]

What’s the spinning drive for….Time Machine?
If so yes APFS, this will be automatic when selecting as TM drive.

All flash based drives APFS.

There isn’t really any need to use HFS+ for modern MacOS (except as listed below)

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on your Mac, format disks or volumes using Apple File System (APFS), Mac OS Extended, MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT.

support.apple.com

 

[Fishrrman]

A platter-based HDD should be formatted to HFS+, UNLESS it's going to be used for something that REQUIRES APFS -- such as time machine or other backup utilities.

SSD can be either APFS or HFS+.

Personal experience:
I used HFS+ for EVERYTHING -- except for my boot drives and backups.

 

[gilby101]

A platter-based HDD should be formatted to HFS+, UNLESS it's going to be used for something that REQUIRES APFS -- such as time machine or other backup utilities.

SSD can be either APFS or HFS+.

Personal experience:
I used HFS+ for EVERYTHING -- except for my boot drives and backups.

I am, of course, going to disagree.

All disks (HDD and SSD) can be formatted APFS unless you have a need for HFS+ or exFAT.

Personal experience:
I use APFS for EVERYTHING.

 

[JoeStrummer]

Thanks for the replies
I am busy migrating my work set up from an Intel Mac (cMP 5.1 running 10.14) to a Mac Studio M2
The new external 'spinning platter 3.5 HHD' (10TB) is mostly going to be used as a storage for client image files (this will also be mirrored in the cloud back up)
My gut seems to say APFS for everything?

 

[Fishrrman]

"All disks (HDD and SSD) can be formatted APFS unless you have a need for HFS+ or exFAT."

The problems with APFS on platter-based drives are severe file fragmentation and often "disk thrashing" (if you've heard it, you know what it is)...

 

[bogdanw]

APFS only for what is required (Macintosh HD), HFS+ for the data I care about.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/disc-utility-warning.2376773/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apfs-or-mac-os-extended-for-external-hdd.2386349/?post=32089488#post-32089488

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/help-with-69845-disk-utility-error.2420636/

 

[gilby101]

APFS only for what is required (Macintosh HD), HFS+ for the data I care about.

I take the opposite view. For HFS+ only if required (never in my case), APFS for data I care about. APFS is more robust and better able to cope with unexpected disconnection. I have never yet had to repair (or reformat) an APFS external.

My gut seems to say APFS for everything?

My gut too. My rational thoughts are:

1) APFS is more robust. (As in my comment above)

2) APFS is more flexible - easy to add additional volumes (most of my external disks have multiple volumes). No messing about trying to resize partitions.

3) APFS has snapshots which I use for backups with Carbon Copy Cloner (as well as Time Machine).

4) Copying and moving files is almost instantaneous with APFS.

5) HFS+ is less susceptible to fragmentation. I accept that there may be some performance loss with APFS. But I have not found that significant with my HDD usage - mostly backups, media storage and similar long term storage.

 

[splifingate]

Haven't used HFS+ in a decade; have not lost anything since.

 

[bogdanw]

Besides being prone to (unfixable) errors, APFS is also incredibly insecure and Apple has hidden most vulnerabilities by using ambiguous language and brief descriptions.

APFS search in CVE Records https://www.cve.org/CVERecord/SearchResults?query=APFS

CVE-2022-32832 APFS “An app with root privileges may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges”https://support.apple.com/102891
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-32832

CVE-2024-27848 “A malicious app may be able to gain root privileges”
https://support.apple.com/120903
“Create a new APFS volume …” https://www.kandji.io/blog/macos-audit-story-part3

 

[adib]

There isn’t really any need to use HFS+ for modern MacOS (except as listed below)

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on your Mac, format disks or volumes using Apple File System (APFS), Mac OS Extended, MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT.

support.apple.com

Just APFS for any unpluggable drives that are not shared.

Why?

Because personal, unpluggable drives call for encryption.

Because macOS has removed the ability to create new encrypted HFS+ file systems.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Because personal, unpluggable drives call for encryption."

No, they don't.
If you have "somethin' to hide", well, perhaps.

The only encrypted volume I have is a single partition on a backup drive I keep in my car as my "off-site, out-of-the-house" drive. They can steal the car and get the drive, but the data (again, on only one partition) is protected.

Other than that, I WANT my data "in the clear", so that it's EASY to get at.
I guess that's "just me"...