Formatting Hard drives in High Sierra

[Shmendrik69]

Simple question, I think:
Can I format 2 new 8tb drives in my old Mac Pro 2010 to full 8TBs in OS 10.13.9?
Would be grateful to hear back. Thank you!

 

[MacsBug]

Yes, Just format them to MacOS Extended Journalled with a GUID partition Scheme.

You can get more information about formatting in High Sierra at https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-a-volume-dskutl14079/16.0/mac/10.13

 

[TonyAguila]

Simple question, I think:
Can I format 2 new 8tb drives in my old Mac Pro 2010 to full 8TBs in OS 10.13.9?
Would be grateful to hear back. Thank you!

Not very simple answer, APFS was introduced by Apple with High Sierra. I suggest giving APFS a try. Hard drives perform much better when formatted as APFS. However, do not rely on Disk Utility that came with High Sierra because the first few versions were very problematic. Instead, try booting in Recovery and use Disk Utility provided. That will guarantee that your APFS format will be up to the latest standard.

 

[Shmendrik69]

Not very simple answer, APFS was introduced by Apple with High Sierra. I suggest giving APFS a try. Hard drives perform much better when formatted as APFS. However, do not rely on Disk Utility that came with High Sierra because the first few versions were very problematic. Instead, try booting in Recovery and use Disk Utility provided. That will guarantee that your APFS format will be up to the latest standard.

Thanks for the response, Tony. My understanding is the APFS is meant for SSDs. I'm using mechanical drives and HFS+ seems to be recommended.

 

[Shmendrik69]

Yes, Just format them to MacOS Extended Journalled with a GUID partition Scheme.

You can get more information about formatting in High Sierra at https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-a-volume-dskutl14079/16.0/mac/10.13

Thanks very much. I'll check that link. Why a GUID scheme?

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks for the response, Tony. My understanding is the APFS is meant for SSDs. I'm using mechanical drives and HFS+ seems to be recommended.

That’s not true. All of my hard drives (4 x 8 TB each) are formatted as APFS. Hard drives are especially optimized in APFS when used as Time Machine drives. The only reason for not using APFS is when you need ExFAT for Windows compatibility. If you are initializing blank drives, why not try erasing them as APFS and testing them out for a bit before making your final choice.

 

[Shmendrik69]

That’s not true. All of my hard drives (4 x 8 TB each) are formatted as APFS. Hard drives are especially optimized in APFS when used as Time Machine drives. The only reason for not using APFS is when you need ExFAT for Windows compatibility. If you are initializing blank drives, why not try erasing them as APFS and testing them out for a bit before making your final choice.

Sounds like a plan. I'm just trying to get info on whether High Sierra will format the 8tb drives, and if my old 5,1 can accomadate them.

 

[MacsBug]

This is something that I disagree with.

APFS is optimized for SSD's, and even though you can format an HDD with APFS, if you are not using the HDD for Time Machine or booting a Mac with macOS 10.15 or later I would recommend using HFS+ for external HDD's when your formatting it with a single partition.

APFS does have some advantages when using it on a drive that you want multiple volumes on, or if you want to use encryption.

When you use APFS on a HDD the copy-on-write feature puts undue stress on an HDD and from my experience using APFS on an external HDD has caused the HDD to either slow down or become unreadable.

 

[TonyAguila]

Sounds like a plan. I'm just trying to get info on whether High Sierra will format the 8tb drives, and if my old 5,1 can accomadate them.

I would not try to erase the drive with the High Sierra version of Disk Utility. Believe me, when APFS first came out, I tried numerous times to format in APFS, both hard drives and SSDs. It’s natural that the first issue of Disk Utility would not be close to what it is now. I even tried hard using the command line to execute the APFS commands, to no satisfactory outcome. Either way, whether you decide to go APFS or HFS+, it’s still safer to format with Disk Utility from Recovery.

I think it was the second incarnation of Disk Utility when it matured enough to become reliable, and I ended up with my MacPro5,1 in the end, running macOS Mojave with the metal upgrade. All four bays had 8-TB hard drives loaded, all APFS, and two PCI cards with SATA SSDs, both APFS. Oh, and two optical drives!

When I switched over to the 2018 Mac mini, I just moved the hard drives to a 4-disk SATA Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, and the two SATA SSDs to a second Thunderbolt 3 external enclosure. They are both still running, connected to my M1 Mac Studio Max.

Anyway, see for yourself if APFS will work for you. Again, I suggest running Disk Utility from Recovery. It will load the newest version of Disk Utility over internet. I myself, if I’m felling patient, will go into Recovery, if I have disks to format using Disk Utility, even though I now have a volume running macOS Sonoma.