I purchased a new Samsung T7 Shield SSD drive to use as a time machine. The recommended format for Time Machine is AFPS. When I try to use Disc Utility to format, AFPS is not an option. Only MacOs Extended, ExFat and MD-DOS. AFPS is an option for another older hard drive I am trying to replace.
Will this drive work for Time Machine? Which format should I use?
Mac mini, macOS 15.2
It will work with Time Machine. Just be careful with it. I bought one of those and the USB port is really delicate. I touch the drive and it disconnects.
In Disk Utility, go to the View menu and choose "View all devices". Then, instead of being able to see only the current volume, you can click on the top-level drive itself and erase that. You should have all formats to choose from.
However, Time Machine is special. Just format the drive as MacOS Extended Journaled. Time Machine will change it to APFS for you.
It will work with Time Machine. Just be careful with it. I bought one of those and the USB port is really delicate. I touch the drive and it disconnects.
In Disk Utility, go to the View menu and choose "View all devices". Then, instead of being able to see only the current volume, you can click on the top-level drive itself and erase that. You should have all formats to choose from.
However, Time Machine is special. Just format the drive as MacOS Extended Journaled. Time Machine will change it to APFS for you.
Did you pick GUID partition map in the scheme line? If not the APFS choice will not show.
Thank you.
Format for SSD to use with Time Machine
