APFS vs External Samsung T3

[MaltbyEarl]

I have a new Samsung T5 500Gig
and a Mid 2017 iMac 27” 5k with 1TB fusion drive.

I have a similar setup (didn't force the fusion drive to APFS). However, when I click on the "I" in disk utility, it say "No" on the Solid State filed for the T5. It says "Yes" on the fusion drive when I click on the "I"

Are you sure 10.13 sees your T5 as an SSD drive?

 

[Clix Pix]

I have a similar setup (didn't force the fusion drive to APFS). However, when I click on the "I" in disk utility, it say "No" on the Solid State filed for the T5. It says "Yes" on the fusion drive when I click on the "I"

Are you sure 10.13 sees your T5 as an SSD drive?

Huh, that is interesting...... I just plugged in my T3 2 TB and took a look and sure enough, it is not being recognized as an SSD drive; I haven't checked my T5 yet but I'll bet the same situation applies there, and that this is why they are not able to be converted to APFS via Disk Utility. Both had earlier been converted to HFS+ with extended journaling at the time of purchase, so I assumed that there would be no problem in converting them to APFS. My other external drives which are not SSD converted without a hitch. I hope that Apple does something to remedy this!

 

[Awgd8]

I have a similar setup (didn't force the fusion drive to APFS). However, when I click on the "I" in disk utility, it say "No" on the Solid State filed for the T5. It says "Yes" on the fusion drive when I click on the "I"

Are you sure 10.13 sees your T5 as an SSD drive?

Sure enough, my T5 shows up on Disk Utility type as “ Disk “ and the internal SSD shows up as “ solid state “ drive.

Both were manually converted to APFS.

 

[morktron]

You have to do it with terminal. I wasn't able to do it with Diskutil GUI as it always failed. The main reason is because the drive is using scheme MBR instead of GPT. And the partition menu at the top is greyed in Diskutil GUI. So I did it with terminal:

diskutil list
(note the disk number of Samsung T5)
diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk# GPT JHFS+ New 0b

Then I used the Diskutil GUI for converting to APFS. It worked perfectly!

BEWARE, YOU WILL LOOSE ALL FILES FROM DISK DOING THE ABOVE COMMANDS.

Thanks Fredou you have resolved this issue for me! I have joined Mac Roumers just to say thanks

I tried Disk Utility, the option to format to APFS wasn't even there, let alone greyed out. I tried Disk Warrier - it doesn't support APFS, I tried Carbon Copy Cloner - it couldn't format it either. I was about to buy tech Tool Pro until your post saved me.

I'm formatting my Samsung T5 to APFS because I have no choice - my Mac Pro is out of space, I need to store my files on an external drive, including my Apple Photos library which will only sync to the cloud as a 'master disk' if the disk is formatted in APFS!

Such a long convoluted journey! Anyway thanks Fredou I owe you a beer

 

[Clix Pix]

Actually, you should not need to use Terminal. I think Apple has made some changes since they first released High Sierra, because while early-on, back in the fall I was unable to convert my T5 to APFS because the "convert to APFS" was greyed-out. I tried again recently and this time it worked just fine.


Open Disk Utility
Plug in the external drive
In upper left corner click on "Show All Devices"
In the left side pane highlight the main external drive, not any partitions
Set the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Be sure to set the Scheme to GUID Partition Map
Click on "Erase" button
Once that has been completed, the drive is now formatted to MacOS with Extended Journaling
Next, Right-click again on the drive (if you gave it a name or if it says "untitled")
Select "convert to APFS" from the drop-downmenu; this time it should not be greyed-out

Once the conversion process has completed, it's a good idea to check "get info" by right-clicking on the device on the desktop to verify that it has actually converted.

That's it!

 

[Mike Boreham]

Actually, you should not need to use Terminal. I think Apple has made some changes since they first released High Sierra, because while early-on, back in the fall I was unable to convert my T5 to APFS because the "convert to APFS" was greyed-out. I tried again recently and this time it worked just fine.


Open Disk Utility
Plug in the external drive
In upper left corner click on "Show All Devices"
In the left side pane highlight the main external drive, not any partitions

Why not just select APFS from the drop down in the main window at this point....no need to format HFS then convert from the Edit menu?

 

[Clix Pix]

Maybe things have changed again since I did my conversion, as at the time I did it APFS wasn't on the main window with all those options. Thanks, this is good to know for the next time, whenever I buy another T5!

The main point here is that one does not need to go messing around in Terminal....

 

[Mike Boreham]

Maybe things have changed again since I did my conversion, as at the time I did it APFS wasn't on the main window with all those options. Thanks, this is good to know for the next time, whenever I buy another T5!

The main point here is that one does not need to go messing around in Terminal....

IME Disk Utility is full of surprises...things that you feel you ought to be able to do and can't....and things that you think you probably can't but then find you can! Further confused by the fact frequently I get a red exclamation mark at the first attempt, but not at the second.

A small tip that seems to avoid many red exclamation marks is to delete the APFS volumes on a disk before trying to erase it.

 

[TimothyBe]

You have to do it with terminal. I wasn't able to do it with Diskutil GUI as it always failed. The main reason is because the drive is using scheme MBR instead of GPT. And the partition menu at the top is greyed in Diskutil GUI. So I did it with terminal:

diskutil list
(note the disk number of Samsung T5)
diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk# GPT JHFS+ New 0b

Then I used the Diskutil GUI for converting to APFS. It worked perfectly!

BEWARE, YOU WILL LOOSE ALL FILES FROM DISK DOING THE ABOVE COMMANDS.

Hi,
Im not that smart, should I replace disk# with the number, or leave disk# and put the number next to it?

And where can I find the number?

 

[Clix Pix]

You don't have to do it in Terminal at all....... Please read the more recent posts.

 

[TimothyBe]

well nothing is working.. so yes I do need to do it in terminal, thats why im asking
[doublepost=1519339787][/doublepost]

You don't have to do it in Terminal at all....... Please read the more recent posts.

Nothing is working so I need terminal

 

[CoastalOR]

Hi,
Im not that smart, should I replace disk# with the number, or leave disk# and put the number next to it?
And where can I find the number?

I don't like to answer a question you asked specifically of fredou, but he has not been here for over 20 weeks, so I will take a chance hopefully not offend anyone and trying to answer your question.

You replace the # with the disk number from the result of diskutil list for the disk you want to re-partition. If the results of diskutil list shows disk2 for the disk you want to partition then your command for terminal would be:

diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk2 GPT JHFS+ New 0b

 

[25ghosts]

Frankly, I don't understand "the stampede" by everyone to convert to APFS.

Is it the compulsion to have "the latest and greatest" (and the "untested" as well)...?

I'm sticking with HFS+ -- a proven and reliable file system -- until I absolutely have no choice.

And just because Apple tries to "force convert" you -- you STILL "have a choice", IF you know what to do...

Actually HFS+ wasn't/isn't very reliable. It is old and not at all conceived to deal with how we use computers in 2018 nor with SSDs. You can read up on all that on the web. Loads of specs. APFS is amazing and a huge endeavor.

To OP. I have an abundance of SSDs all of which I wiped and reformatted to APFS. I don't see that this should not be possible with Samsungs which mine are too.

 

[jaster2]

Glad I found this thread. Ready to reformat a couple Samsung T3 drives today and the format list didn't include APFS. I went with the suggestion to do exFAT as step 1. After that the format list included all the APFS options. Step 2 format to APFS went off without a hitch. This process took all of half a minute and all with Disk Utility.

 

[Clix Pix]

NO need to fool with exFAT...... just plug in the T3 or T5 and be sure you have set "View All Devices" so that you see all the info about the drive, then be sure you have filled in Scheme with GUID Partition and Mac OS Extended with Journaling should show, then simply pull down the format list and choose APFS.