Samsung Portable SSD T5 revealed

[Clix Pix]

Just out of curiosity I plugged in one of my T5 drives, went to Disk Utility and looked to see if I would now be able to convert it to APFS, and apparently not; looks as though the option is greyed-out when I right-click on the drive, and when I go to the "erase" tab APFS is not offered as one of the choices. Interestingly, though, it is possible to do with an external "platter" drive, as I just did that the other day.

ETA: Did some Googling and then looked again at the drive in Disk Utility and this time saw that for some strange reason the drive did not say GUID Partition Map and instead said something like Master Boot Drive..... Aha!! I went ahead and erased it, this time being sure to properly specify GUID Partition Map and bingo -- the option to convert to APFS was no longer greyed-out and I was able to quickly convert the drive to APFS. This drive is one that I use for swapping stuff back-and-forth rather than for storage so didn't have anything on it anyway, making it a no-brainer with which to experiment. My other, larger-capacity T5 drives will need to have files cleared off before I erase and convert them.....a project for another day!

 

[CoastalOR]

Did some Googling and then looked again at the drive in Disk Utility and this time saw that for some strange reason the drive did not say GUID Partition Map and instead said something like Master Boot Drive..... Aha!! I went ahead and erased it, this time being sure to properly specify GUID Partition Map

Clix Pix, your problem with MBR could be a very good clue for metter.

Thank for your detail directions. Appreciate that. when i proceed with CCC, it said the destination disk may not be bootable. I proceed to copy and will try to reinstall the High Sierra and see if that will let me boot from the SSD. Thank you again for guidance. I will let you know the outcome.
I ccc the the internal hard disk to the t5. It works without having to reinstall the OS. However, each time, I have ti press the option button. Is there a way to redirect to reboot from the t5 and not having to press option each time?
Note. The boot up time does not improve dramatically but the access to the application improves.

The warning you got when using CCC is a clue for what may be your problem with the T5. You may not be using the GUID (GPT) Partition Map. Use Disk Utility to check the T5 Partition Map.

This is a quote from the CCC Manual, "Every disk has exactly one partition scheme. A disk can be partitioned as "Apple Partition Map" (APM), "GUID Partition Table" (GPT), "Master Boot Record" (MBR), or the Fdisk partition scheme. PowerPC Macs could only boot from a disk that is partitioned with the APM partitioning scheme. Intel Macs can boot from a disk that is partitioned with either the APM or GPT partitioning scheme. Note, however, that Apple only supports booting an Intel Mac from a disk partitioned with the GPT partitioning scheme. Because Apple no longer supports the APM partitioning scheme, CCC will warn you if your destination disk is not partitioned with the GPT partitioning scheme. As the warning indicates, you may have difficulty booting from the destination volume, but it may work just fine. We expect that Intel Macs will eventually drop support for booting from APM- partitioned disks."

 

[user1234]

Thank you guys for your experience. So far I have manage to CCC from the hard dish to the T5. But High Sierra Start up do not offer the T5 icon to be part of the start up disk. Not sure what I can do to rectify that.

I have noticed some weirdness with bootable drives not showing up during boot with option, in which case I had to select another boot drive in system preferences. After then booting it once it did show up, but so did another drive that I had erased.

For a CCC clone to be bootable you need it to meet the following requirements:

• Same filesystem as source drive
• GUID/GPT partition table
• Successful clone

Make sure all these are met.

 

[metter]

Thanks guys. I tried the first T5 and managed to get it to APFS. The CCC would not let me copy. I return it to the shop and got a new one and this time , I used the disk utility that came with it and CCC let me continue. The current status is that I managed to get to duplicate the hard disk but High Sierra is not letting me use the second T5 as a Startup disk. Only was is to manually select it each time. I am wondering if there is a way to fix this as the icon of the T5 is not showing at Startup disk selection.

 

[Clix Pix]

In my case, I wasn't interested in using the T5 as a bootable disk and yet apparently at the time I did the initial reformatting -- back in September, I think -- something occurred during the process of reformatting which I didn't notice then..... I took a look at a couple of my other T5s and the same situation, so I suspect that what was able to be done back then is different than what can be done now. At any rate, yes, the GUID partition map is significant. Somewhere along the line, too, when I was Googling I saw mention that while the T5 can be converted if it is to be used only as a data drive, it cannot be converted if it is to be used as a bootable drive. Apple may still not be allowing someone to convert an external SSD to APFS if the intention is to use it as a bootable drive. That would be unfortunate since a lot of people use an external to quickly boot up an otherwise slow machine (i.e., one with the 5400 rpm platter). My use is specifically for supplementary drives to retain data files that I don't need on the internal SSD of my computers but want to have easily and quickly available (as opposed to storing/archiving/backing up over the long term). I use slower external drives with platters for backup/archival/storage purposes.

Bottom line here: it seems as though the T5 (and its predecessors) can be converted to APFS and successfully utilized if they are to be used for data only, but not if they are intended to be bootable disks. ?? At this time it just may not be possible to use a T5 (or any external SSD) as the startup/boot up drive.....

 

[metter]

Thank you Clix Pic, I will ask Samsung if there is a way.

 

[Clix Pix]

My guess is that the issue lies with Apple rather than with Samsung.

 

[CoastalOR]

Thanks guys. I tried the first T5 and managed to get it to APFS. The CCC would not let me copy. I return it to the shop and got a new one and this time , I used the disk utility that came with it and CCC let me continue. The current status is that I managed to get to duplicate the hard disk but High Sierra is not letting me use the second T5 as a Startup disk. Only was is to manually select it each time. I am wondering if there is a way to fix this as the icon of the T5 is not showing at Startup disk selection.

What is your Partition Map on the T5?

 

[Feenician]

In my case, I wasn't interested in using the T5 as a bootable disk and yet apparently at the time I did the initial reformatting -- back in September, I think -- something occurred during the process of reformatting which I didn't notice then..... I took a look at a couple of my other T5s and the same situation, so I suspect that what was able to be done back then is different than what can be done now. At any rate, yes, the GUID partition map is significant. Somewhere along the line, too, when I was Googling I saw mention that while the T5 can be converted if it is to be used only as a data drive, it cannot be converted if it is to be used as a bootable drive. Apple may still not be allowing someone to convert an external SSD to APFS if the intention is to use it as a bootable drive. That would be unfortunate since a lot of people use an external to quickly boot up an otherwise slow machine (i.e., one with the 5400 rpm platter). My use is specifically for supplementary drives to retain data files that I don't need on the internal SSD of my computers but want to have easily and quickly available (as opposed to storing/archiving/backing up over the long term). I use slower external drives with platters for backup/archival/storage purposes.

Bottom line here: it seems as though the T5 (and its predecessors) can be converted to APFS and successfully utilized if they are to be used for data only, but not if they are intended to be bootable disks. ?? At this time it just may not be possible to use a T5 (or any external SSD) as the startup/boot up drive.....

I can boot my Carbon Copy Clone from my T1 without an issue. Just did, to make sure nothing has happened since I tested it previously. Encrypted APFS -> Encrypted APFS. Bombich document that it works too https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/everything-you-need-know-about-carbon-copy-cloner-and-apfs#bootable

 

[Rockadile]

Open questions for anyone who has the t5:
- Does it come with proprietary software installed?
- Does it come with a factory-installed custom partition that cannot be removed using Disk Utility?
- If so, is there Samsung software available to REMOVE that partition?

Just comes with Samsung program in it to do the AES-256 hardware encryption if you wish. It's formatted as ExFAT.
I get 499.41GB / 500GB after I format to mac journaled.

 

[user1234]

Bottom line here: it seems as though the T5 (and its predecessors) can be converted to APFS and successfully utilized if they are to be used for data only, but not if they are intended to be bootable disks. ?? At this time it just may not be possible to use a T5 (or any external SSD) as the startup/boot up drive.....

I have been booting from my APFS formatted T5 without issue. I did have to do some terminal work to recreate the partition table before disk utility would allow me to format as APFS though.