What is the recommended format for an external SSD connected to a Mac which acts like a file server and a NAS?

[hajime]

Hi, I have an external Samsung SSD connected to a Mac which also acts like a SMB file server and a backup NAS. It is for backup of files from the Mac (perhaps using Time Machine or drag and drop), iPad, iPhone and files created under Windows but transferred to the Mac via SMB. In this case, which specific file format and method should I use when I initially format the drive under Disk Utilities?

 

[StellarVixen]

If this storage will be mainly used by Mac OS, format it as APFS.

If other systems have to access this storage, format it as FAT/exFAT

 

[hajime]

Thanks.

For APFS, it is better to just use APFS or APFS (Case-sensitive)? Some of my files in Mac and Windows have both capital and small letters.

What is the recommended Scheme to use?

If I connect the drive directly to a M1 iPad Pro 12.9" or iPhone, will APFS be fine as well?

 

[StellarVixen]

Of course, if you have files with same names in the same directory that use lowercase/uppercase (for example file.txt and FILE.txt), use case sensitive option.


Otherwise, case insensitive option should do just fine.

 

[HDFan]

It is generally easier to use case insensitive so that searches don't fail if you don't have the correct capitalization, unless as above you have filenames that are the same other than case.

As above you don't want to use APFS if you are going to access it from Windows unless you want to install extra drivers.

 

[hajime]

It is generally easier to use case insensitive so that searches don't fail if you don't have the correct capitalization, unless as above you have filenames that are the same other than case.

Good point. Just the "APFS" then. What Scheme should I use then?

As above you don't want to use APFS if you are going to access it from Windows unless you want to install extra drivers.

Some mentioned that exFAT is unstable. That is a problem.

 

[theluggage]

Some mentioned that exFAT is unstable. That is a problem.

If - as you say - the Windows machines are connecting over the network via SMB then the format doesn't matter and you should use APFS because that's going to play best with files from the Mac.

Only if you want the disks to be readable when plugged directly into a Windows machine, would you need to use exFAT (or FAT32). ExFAT is handy for USB sticks etc. that you're going to move between machines.

In an emergency, if you ever need to read the disk from Windows you can even buy software from Paragon (and others) that lets you read APFS disks on Windows - but I wouldn't normally bother.

 

[hajime]

It is generally easier to use case insensitive so that searches don't fail if you don't have the correct capitalization, unless as above you have filenames that are the same other than case.

As above you don't want to use APFS if you are going to access it from Windows unless you want to install extra drivers.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[hajime]

If - as you say - the Windows machines are connecting over the network via SMB then the format doesn't matter and you should use APFS because that's going to play best with files from the Mac.

Only if you want the disks to be readable when plugged directly into a Windows machine, would you need to use exFAT (or FAT32). ExFAT is handy for USB sticks etc. that you're going to move between machines.

In an emergency, if you ever need to read the disk from Windows you can even buy software from Paragon (and others) that lets you read APFS disks on Windows - but I wouldn't normally bother.

Good idea. Thank you.