Reformatting an External Hard drive for Mac

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Duncan1984 Author

Level 1

4 points

Reformatting an External Hard drive for Mac

I am using a MacBookMy MacBook Air uses Ventura 13.5 and I plan to use Time Machine. When I reformat my LaCie external drive, should I use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - HFS or Apple File System - APFS?

Posted on Aug 26, 2023 06:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

153,538 points

Aug 26, 2023 06:57 AM in response to Duncan1984

Read External drive connected to your Mac:

Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire port on your Mac. If the disk isn't using the correct format, Time Machine will prompt you to erase it.

The required format will be APFS.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

153,538 points

Aug 26, 2023 10:13 AM in response to Duncan1984

Ventura's version of Time Machine uses APFS. If that option does not appear in its version of Disk Utility something is fundamentally wrong.

Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for now and determine if Time Machine works.

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Answer 3

Duncan1984 Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 26, 2023 06:59 AM in response to John Galt

Thank you!

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Answer 4

Duncan1984 Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 26, 2023 07:07 AM in response to Duncan1984

Ugh, my LaCie device doesn't give me AFPS as a choice, only ExFAT or Mac OS extended journaled (or Mac OS extended journaled case-sensitive). What's the best choice of those three?

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Reformatting an External Hard drive for Mac

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