Can't format Samsung T5 to APFS

Similar issues trying to get the Samsung T5 ssd to APFS.

I found this article which helped. Basically Disk Utility is trying to help by having a simple interface, but it's actually being confusing. You need to use the top left drop-down to "Show All Devices". From there I was able to select the drive, and proceed with APFS. They also had a videohere, but I found the article more helpful and quicker.

I am in the exact same situation with the same T5. Even if the T5 is formatted for Mac, High Sierra Disk Utility will fail with Error 118 when trying to convert it to APFS. I also had the same error when converting an external Kingston SSD to APFS.

Macintouch's Ric Ford reports that he successfully converted an external Corsair SSD to APFS.

APFS conversion is not limited to internal SSDs or boot drives. I just converted to APFS a 10-year-old Hitachi Deskstar HDD, connected to a new MacBook Pro via USB3. Performance of this HDD seems to be enhanced.

C'mon Apple, fix Disk Utility so we can convert these external SSDs!

I had no trouble formatting two T5’s to APFS Encrypted and cloning them using CCC v5.

Perhaps you need to run the Samsung utility to update the firmware and then to remove any proprietary software from the disk as well.

This is not correct, here is an article by the developer of Carbon Copy Cloner:

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/everything-you-need-know-about-carbon-copy-cloner-an d-apfs

By the way, I would not use the Samsung encryption method advocated in their software. APFS has it's own encryption.

I have solved this problem by removing all formatting and partitions from the T5.

I did this using Gparted, the well-known Linux disk management utility, running on Lubuntu - this of course on a Linux computer. While Gparted immediately offered to reformat the drive with a Linux file system, I simply declined any formatting.

With the T5 showing in Gparted as entirely unallocated, I removed it from Lubuntu and reattached it to the High Sierra Mac. As is normal, the Mac reported that this drive was not usable and offered to Initialize.

I launched Disk Utility. NOTE: The unallocated T5 did not appear in Disk Utility until I used the Show All Devices command in the View menu.

Selecting the T5 I was able to Erase this drive as APFS. Interestingly, Disk Utility first automatically formatted the drive as HFS+ and continued on to APFS.

The T5 mounts, identifies as APFS and passes Disk First Aid as an APFS volume.
Obviously this solution required Linux, so hopefully there is a Mac-only alternative.

I think I solved this... (after an hour of trying different things).

From what I can see High Sierra Disk Utility no longer gives the options of choosing a scheme (GUID vs MBR) when formatting a drive. (I've submitted a request to Apple for them to put it back in). APFS needs a GUID partition.

(See below, it used to look like this before High Sierra, but now the third option is gone)

Screen+Shot+2017-10-09+at+9.18.42+PM.png

I ended up taking my external HDD and plugging it into a Windows 10 computer, using Disk Management to convert to GUID and then tried to convert the drive to APFS. (Note APFS isn't even an option when erasing a disk in MBR format, but when erasing the drive after converting to GUID it gave me the option).

However, I ended up having issues because I couldn't convert the drive to APFS or even to Mac OS Journaled after it was converted to GUID. It gave me errors stating that there is not sufficient free space on the drive. (Even though I had just wiped it clean): "Mediakit reports not enough space to complete operation"

I figured out how to fix the "Mediakit reports not enough space to complete operation"... Follow the instructions from this Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqico9ENA-4

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Now, this is very embarrassing for Apple, but after some hard work, and a Windows 10 computer I was able to solve the error: com.apple.StorageKit error 118

I was able to format my T5 by simply using show all devices and I was given all of the format options which included APFS. I had also chosen GUID scheme which was also an option given by disk utility. I had just converted to High Sierra two days ago so maybe disk utility got updated.

I just received and installed the T-5 500gb. Don't know if I'll have problems down the road but installed the package and accompanying drivers and working great/read-write and its FAST! . Didn't do anything with Disk Utility. Perhaps Samsung updated the driver. The format shows ExFAT...

I believe Victor had the right solution.

And Richard the issue has never been using the drive with ExFAT, it's been reformatting it to APFS to take advantage of all that new Apple awesomeness. If you're happy with ExFAT, fine, but I wouldn't be.

I would like to add that the included software with the Drive should be avoided. I stupidly installed mine only to have issues because it was not written in 64 bit. It doesn't work, at least for me, and it took a fair amount of effort to get rid of it. Its not just trash canning a few things......

If you follow my first post then all will work well. The drive is very fast and extremely small.

Victor

You are correct and thank you for your input. But, I’m interested in speed (read/write) and APFS on my T-5 for speed is negligible. For me, to jump through all those hoops for that; it’s just not worth it.

Actually apfs is much faster then hfs+ I imagine it would be faster then exfat as well.

For example apfs is almost instantaneous when copying a file because it actually just makes a link to the file and tracks any changes instead of actually making two files. (Which obviously also saves a ton of space)

I did a black magic test on my hdd external before and after upgrading to apfs and my results are Crazy much faster.

Hfs+ was 61.7 MB/s and 59.5MB/s

Apfs is 125.2MB/s and 114.3 MB/s

(Read /write)

That's the same drive on the same computer on usb 3.0.

That's double the speed!!!

I didn't text exfat but being a really old format I'd imagine it won't be faster then hfs+ (Mac os extended)

Follow the instructions on this website and you’re good to go.

At first I was a bit perplexed by this issue but once reading this article and following the directions, my T5 was converted to APFS.

Preparing your backup disk for a backup of macOS | Carbon Copy Cloner | Bombich Software

This is going to seem like an odd fix. But I had a similar issue that was because my T5 was somehow formatted HFS+, but MBR and not w/ a GIUID Partition Table (GPT).

I found a ton of random links to thinks and options to use Windows in bootcamp and other tools/methods of getting it back to GPT. Then there was something about EFI partitions having enough space, etc....all stuff you can't really control with Disk Utility in MacOS.

But then I started looking for other free disk utilities to see if it could help. I ended up trying Disk Wiper (Paragon Disk Wiper 15 for Mac® OS X Free - Overview). Now, it didn't at all do what I thought it would. It downloaded something that tried to create some kind of bootable disk when I ran it on the T5. I don't really care what it did, but it failed. EXCEPT that it apparently got as far as reformatting to MS-DOS and THEN Disk Utility gave me the option to reformat in ALL the new APFS and older formats. So problem solved. Deleted the application (I actually never had to install it, just ran it from the mounted DMG) and I was good to go.

Seems like it might be worth a shot for some who are having this issue. Whatever it does, that application seems to reformat and convert everything just the way it needs to be -- not other OS or Terminal or computer needed.

Thanks. This worked. Show all Volumes. Then select GUID Partition. Only after selecting GUID does APFS become a formatting option. Wow. What a nuisance. I wonder if Apple's tech support feels they are addressing an unreasonably high volume of problems that result from users messing with system files or doing things they don't understand and can't fix? Seems like a long and ongoing trend toward dumbing everything down. Good that you can press the Option button to reveal additional items or commands that open packages, make certain folders visible, etc. But, annoying that every iteration of the OS brings a whole new crop of things Apple seems to have made more obscure or hidden which then must be found again.