how to format a drive for mac high sierra

diskutil apfs addVolume disk2s2 APFS newAPFS Replace “disk2s2” with the same device identifier you used above, and “newAPFS” with whatever you want to name the APFS volume. Second, run the following command to add an APFS volume.

diskutil apfs createContainer /dev/disk2s2

To format it with APFS, first run the following command to create an APFS container Remember, enter the correct identifier for your drive instead of “disk2s2”. If you choose the wrong device identifier, you could format the wrong drive and delete important files. We see the partition we want to format at “disk2s2”.īe very careful when finding the device identifier. Here, we’re looking for an external USB drive of 16GB in size. To do this, open a Terminal window and run the following command: diskutil list

APFS can’t be used in Fusion Drives, which are Apple’s type of hybrid hard drive that combines an SSD and mechanical drive.įirst, figure out which the device identifier of the disk you want to format.

Time Machine can’t back up to an APFS drive.

APFS file systems are currently case sensitive only, which means that “file” is different from “File”.

Mac startup disks can’t be formatted with APFS, so you can’t use this for your Mac’s system drive.

MacOS Sierra places a few limitations on the new APFS file system, as it’s still experimental: Don’t use an APFS drive for anything important. However, APFS is in development, so benchmarks performed with it may not be representative of the file system’s final performance.Īpple also warns that drives formatted with this prerelease version of APFS may not be compatible with future versions of macOS and the final version of APFS. Apple is targeting a final release in 2017, and your Mac’s system drive–and the drives inside iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches–should automatically convert to APFS at that point.įor now, the only reason to format a drive with APFS is to experiment with it. The new Apple File System is currently experimental. RELATED: The Best New Features in macOS Sierra (and How to Use Them) Why You Probably Don’t Want to Use APFS Yet

How to format a drive for mac high sierra