APFS vs HFS+ on 8TB HDD

[ctwentytwo]

Hi, I have an 8TB Seagate HDD that's gonna be preformatted as HFS+. Has anyone formatted an HDD as APFS and used it for backup storage? And if so, what kind of pros and cons have you seen in real world situations.

 

[Isamilis]

I read one article, mentioning that APFS is best for SSD, while for HDD is still preferred using HFS+.

 

[ctwentytwo]

I read one article, mentioning that APFS is best for SSD, while for HDD is still preferred using HFS+.

Yeah, and I also read that most the positives that applies to SSD applies to APFS, most importanatly, that size-wise, files on APFS will take up less space compared to HFS.

 

[TETENAL]

Has anyone formatted an HDD as APFS and used it for backup storage?

Time Machine does not work with APFS.

I wouldn't format a spinning hard drive with APFS until Apple suggests to do so by default. APFS has no worthwile advantages over HFS+ on these kind of drives.

 

[Riwam]

Yeah, and I also read that most the positives that applies to SSD applies to APFS, most importanatly, that size-wise, files on APFS will take up less space compared to HFS.

I am still runnig High Sierra in my computer in HFS+ (cloned from an outside spinning hard drive) and have no drive inside or outside the computer upgraded to Mojave yet for 2 reasons:
First, I follow the advise of some people to wait for the last upgrade of any MacOS and jump then to the newer OS when all the bugs should hopefully have been solved (I went from Sierra to High Sierra in 10.13.6) and

the second reason is that some applications I find very useful like "DiskWarrior" do not work yet with APFS.
Besides I use third part drivers to work with NTFS on the MacOS side of my partitioned inner drive and on the BootCamp Windows volume in it to see and deal with HFS+ files.
Some of these drivers might AFAIK have been adapted to APFS in the meantime but... I would have to spend money I need for other purposes in order to buy them.
As for TimeMachine Hard drives, all posts in this forum still say it needs to continue to be in HFS+.
Ed

 

[Fishrrman]

I prefer HFS+ for EVERYTHING on my 2018 Mini.

Booting and running Mojave from HFS+ works fine.

(my opinion only)

 

[ctwentytwo]

I went ahead and formatted to APFS. Everything is going smooth so far. No beach balls, behaving quite nicely so far.