APFS Fix Partition Sizes in One Container

Question

APFS Fix Partition Sizes in One Container

I have a nagging feeling I did this wrong. I have an 8TB external drive that I use for Time Machine as well as extra file storage. Am running Ventura.

I have one container.

I have two partitions in that one container. One is Time Machine and the other is for the files.

I am under the impression that with APFS, that the Time Machine partition will just keep growing until the drive is full, crowding out room for the external files in that one container.

1) Is that right?

2) If correct, is there anything I can do to restrict the partition size in that one container?

3) If no, then can I create a new container on the drive, set it to 4 TB (or whatever) and then copy the files over from one of the partitions to the new container and delete the old partition. And will this fix the Time Machine to a max of half the drive at 4TB? Or create a new container and move that one partition to it?

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Nov 1, 2024 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

g_wolfman

Level 4

1,978 points

Nov 1, 2024 3:53 PM in response to Lawrence Hammer

Just to make sure we are using correct terminology, APFS uses volumes, not partitions. All the volumes in a APFS container share the same container free space. You can set reserve and quota space (effectively minimum and maximum sizes for the volume), but as far as I know, you can only do that when creating the volume and can't change it afterwards.

Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

You might be able to create another APFS container and then play with the sizes of each of them - space is not shared between containers.

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

91,195 points

Nov 2, 2024 1:54 AM in response to Lawrence Hammer

Follow the Previous advise - First

Though, a slightly different take on using 1 Drive for dual purposes

Drives and especially External Drives do fail, at some time

Under the current setup - join the dots if you would

All Eggs in 1 basket and the basket fails - scrambled eggs sort of speak

For future purposes

To truly protect your non replaceable Data - have a 3-2-1 Rescue Plan in place and always current

3 Backups using 2 methods and 1 off site incase of natural disaster or un-natural disaster.

Each of the above should be done to a Dedicated Single Purposed External Drive

Yes, Time Machine Utilities figures in to this rescue plan

To Augment TM Backup consider https://bombich.com which can to many things including Backing Up the drive

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