I just purchased a 1TB Portable SSD. I wanted to use part of it for a Time Machine Back up and another part for miscellaneous. What should I use as "Format"? And also what does it mean When it says "this volume has used space and will be erased? I have not put anything on the disc. I don't want to mess the disc up.
iMac 24″, macOS 13.3
It's important to understand that it is not a good idea to use the same drive for both Time Machine & file storage, regardless of how many partitions are used.
If you still wish to proceed then you will want to use the APFS formatting for both partitions. Actually the first time TM runs it will reformat its partition for its use.
The message you are seeing is normal, even with new drives. If you have any additional, please feel free to ask.
It's important to understand that it is not a good idea to use the same drive for both Time Machine & file storage, regardless of how many partitions are used.
If you still wish to proceed then you will want to use the APFS formatting for both partitions. Actually the first time TM runs it will reformat its partition for its use.
The message you are seeing is normal, even with new drives. If you have any additional, please feel free to ask.
Also do not recommend that you try to use the SSD drive for both Time Machine and other data.
If you are having difficulty getting Time Machine to back up to the new partition formatted APFS, try formatting the partition in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Set Time Machine up again to back up and you will find that Time Machine will automatically format the partition for backups in APFS (Case Sensitive) during the first backup. You don't have to do anything to make this happen, it will just happen.
External portable SSD Partitioning
