Partitioning an External Drive. HFS+ and APFS?

[jaybar]

Hi

I have an external SSD. Can I have two partitions, with one being HFS+ and the other being APFS? Are there any problems? Would it be better if they were the same format? I am asking because I think Time Machine requires HFS+.

Thanks.

 

[techwarrior]

You won’t get any real benefits with APFS on external drives, but yes, you can if partitioned before defining it as a TM drive.

 

[BLUEDOG314]

Like techwarrior said you won't see any benefit in typical usage. That being the case, I have a Samsung T3 1TB formatted to APFS simply because I use it as the downloads directory for Transmission, but also have three other separate partitions, one for work stuff that is encrypted, and two other general use. I fill and delete a large amount of data frequently, and the space share feature is nice.