Hello Gals and Guys -
I have a 2018 Mac Mini that I'm using as a HTPC. I bought it recently, but my previous HTPC was a Windows machine, so the external drive I have attached to it is formatted NTFS. I would like to convert it to APFS, but is that possible without deleting the NTFS partition? I saw some sites saying it could be done, but when I tried, it told me it was going to delete the NTFS partition. Thanks for any help.
Reformatting destroys the data.
You can still use it but as read-only since macOS cannot write NTFS drives (I believe it is due to some agreement between Apple and Microsoft from years past).
However, if writing the drive is necessary, there are apps/drivers that will allow a macOS to write to NTFS drives. There are two commercial apps from Paragon and Tuxera to allow this.
Also, for just for data storage, it is not recommended to use APFS with a standard HDD anyway and HFS+ is the preferred format. Also, APFS requires a GUID partition table and is not compatible with an MBR partition table common on external PC drives.
Reformatting destroys the data.
You can still use it but as read-only since macOS cannot write NTFS drives (I believe it is due to some agreement between Apple and Microsoft from years past).
However, if writing the drive is necessary, there are apps/drivers that will allow a macOS to write to NTFS drives. There are two commercial apps from Paragon and Tuxera to allow this.
Also, for just for data storage, it is not recommended to use APFS with a standard HDD anyway and HFS+ is the preferred format. Also, APFS requires a GUID partition table and is not compatible with an MBR partition table common on external PC drives.
You need to copy the files elsewhere and then reformat the drive. Use APFS with GUID Partition Map.
fredgarvins wrote:
Hello Gals and Guys -
I have a 2018 Mac Mini that I'm using as a HTPC. I bought it recently, but my previous HTPC was a Windows machine, so the external drive I have attached to it is formatted NTFS. I would like to convert it to APFS, but is that possible without deleting the NTFS partition? I saw some sites saying it could be done, but when I tried, it told me it was going to delete the NTFS partition. Thanks for any help.
Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac
Convert NTFS Patition to APFS
