Thunderbolt SSD will not format to APFS

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Level 1

6 points

Thunderbolt SSD will not format to APFS

I have a 27" 2017 iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6.

I just spent the big bucks on a Samsung 1tb X5 SSD with Thunderbolt 3. It shows up on the Thunderbolt 3 bus on the System Report at 40Gbps.

I want to set it up as a data drive only with encrypted APFS. When I try to erase, I do not get any other choices than Mac OS journaled, Mac OS journaled case-sensitive, ExFAT, and MS-DOS FAT.

I am able to format it to Mac OS, but I do not even get the option to encrypt it. The "Convert to APFS" is greyed out in the menu.

No matter what the format is, when running First Aid on the first listing of the drive, I get a 69874 error Fixing damaged partition map. The second listing of the drive gets no errors with First Aid. I am able to copy large files to it and get no errors.

I have a couple of USB external spinning hard drives that I have encrypted Mac OS HPFS on and functioning well.

I have to have encryption and would prefer to use APFS on this new SSD.

Any ideas?

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Oct 23, 2018 3:01 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

askoog66 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 24, 2018 9:03 AM in response to askoog66

I apologize for wasting everybody's time.

I could have swore that I had tried this yesterday but........you have to select GUID and not Master Boot Record under scheme. Once you have done that, then all of the formatting options for APFS, APFS encrypted, Mac OS, etc. will then appear. I swore yesterday, so I guess I will swear the rest of the day. Many apologies for this brain dead post.

So, as a wrap up, if you have plugged in your new Samsung X5 which comes reformatted ExFAT,

The following is assuming you want to ERASE and reformat everything! ! !

This is my personal policy anytime receiving a new/used hard drive or SSD which could contain viruses, etc.

Open Disk Utility

Select Samsung Portable SSD X5 Media in the left column

Select Erase in the top window bar

Select GUID Partition Map in the drop down for Scheme

Type in whatever you want for Name e.g. 1tbSSD

Select APFS encrypted (or whatever format you want, this is my personal recommendation-unreadable by Windows BTW)

Pause for 1 moment and make sure that erasing everything is OK............

Select Erase

I then select each of the Items under and including Samsung Portable SSD X5 Media and run First Aid on each item just to make sure there is no problems.

Quit Disk Utility and your new super fast Samsung SSD should now appear in your Finder windows under Devices

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,507 points

Oct 23, 2018 3:14 PM in response to askoog66

Have you tried their Activation SW for Mac OS?

Samsung Portable SSD X5 | Samsung External Storage | Samsung Semiconductor Global Website

No! Apparently, an unexpected behavior in this first release is that using the Finder-based option to encrypt a mounted physical drive converts HFS+ drives to APFS without warning. (That’s when you select a volume, right-click, and choose Encrypt “Drive Name.”)

https://www.macworld.com/article/3230498/storage/apple-file-system-apfs-faq.html

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Answer 3

askoog66 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 24, 2018 7:01 AM in response to BDAqua

I downloaded the software and do not find any "activation". The only thing the software offered to do was encrypt the drive which I do not really want Samsung to handle.

My ideal setup is to have it formatted APFS with Apple's encryption, but would settle for HPFS with encryption. As best as I can tell, APFS is not an option and only HPFS without encryption (unless I use Samsung's) is my choice.

Conversion is not a factor, as I don't have anything on the drive and could just format it initially to APFS with encryption if I could figure out how to do it. Disk Utility is not offereing that option.

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

245,507 points

Oct 24, 2018 8:17 AM in response to askoog66

For those frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to convert or format solid-state media (SSD or stick) to APFS, the screenshot below is evidence that it can be done, but doesn’t explain why their media fail every time.

https://eclecticlight.co/2017/11/30/a-tale-of-two-disk-utilities-sierra-and-high -sierra/

The SSD has now been formatted as a Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume named ‘MacOS’. Continue using this guide to format the disk as an AFPS volume, however if a Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume is desired you may now stop.

8) From the previous step we need to note the identifier of the new volume (red outlined box). It’ll be mentioned in the “Formatting identifier as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name MacOS.”

How to Format a New Internal SSD in macOS 10.13 High Sierra | Other World Computing Blog

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Answer 5

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Oct 24, 2018 9:04 AM in response to askoog66

Open DiskUtility, select the Samsung at the left, click the Partition icon at the top of DiskUtility, then select the format. If there is no possibility to select APFS or APFS encrypted, the disk controller is not "ready" or there is proprietary data on it. Format it as "Mac OS Extended (journaled)" and when that succeeds, try again to format it as APFS.

When that is still not possible, call Samsung aid.

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