Unable to format external HDD as APFS

[JHZR2]

Ive formatted external SSDs as APFS. But I just got an external 5TB USB drive, and it will not format as APFS. It came formatted as NTFS, and after the first failure, it shows as Mac Journaled formatting. But I think Id like APFS, as it seems like its better at preventing/avoiding corruption.

Disk utility tells me the following:

Partitioning disk “WD My Passport 260D Media” (disk2)

Running operation 1 of 1: Erase “My Passport” (disk2s2)…
Unmounting disk
Erasing
Initialized /dev/rdisk2s2 as a 5 TB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 385024k journal

Mounting disk
Creating a new empty APFS Container
Unmounting Volumes
The volume “My Passport” on disk2s2 couldn’t be unmounted because it is in use by process 167 (fseventsd)
Couldn’t unmount disk. : (-69888)

Operation failed…



Any ideas?

 

[wwillson]

The volume “My Passport” on disk2s2 couldn’t be unmounted because it is in use by process 167 (fseventsd)

Maybe the automounter mounted the disk as soon as you plugged it in.

Try deleting any partitions on the disk, create a new partition, then format it as APFS.

 

[simple_gifts]

Not an apple guy, but what version of OSX do you have; i seem to recall it is an old one. Any chance the APFS version does not support 5Tb filesystems

 

[wwillson]

Any chance the APFS version does not support 5Tb filesystems

APFS is a new filesystem designed by Apple to replace and fix some of the shortcomings of HFS+. Its maximum partition size, file size, and number of files are based on 64 bit file descriptors. The maximum file size is 8 exabytes. Yes, it can handle a 5TB partition

 

[simple_gifts]

As mentioned "not an apple guy"; The funny thing is your supposition I run into all the time with my linux desktop. I like mounting things as /mnt, not /media/username/somelongassuidname so i unmount it and remount it.

Being from a solaris background I've become accustomed to questioning anything with a limit of less than say 2^128th.... j/k

 

[JHZR2]

Not an apple guy, but what version of OSX do you have; i seem to recall it is an old one. Any chance the APFS version does not support 5Tb filesystems

Im running Catalina 10.15.7 on the machine Im using currently. We have a few.

 

[uc50ic4more]

I haven't been an Apple guy for a while but here are my thoughts:

1) I would double and triple check the drive isn't mounted when trying to perform operations on the file system.
2) Maybe erasing the existing partitions first would make creating a new layout easier; or at least abstract where the issues might lie.
3) Maybe try this operation via the terminal instead of the GUI application? I'd tend to think that you'd get more informative error messages spat out at you.
4) Is this 5TB drive a spinning HDD? I am not sure why but I am under the impression that APFS was for SSD.

 

[edhackett]

4) Is this 5TB drive a spinning HDD? I am not sure why but I am under the impression that APFS was for SSD.

It does appear that it was designed with SSD in mind. I spent a few minutes searching for APFS and mechanical drives and like everything else on the internet, three articles gave three different answers. All of the articles I found dated back to 2017 or 2018. It's at least something to pursue. The following article may prove helpful:

Using APFS On HDDs ... And Why You Might Not Want To

After 16 months of using and testing APFS—Apple's new file system—I’ve come to the conclusion that you probably don’t want to use it on HDDs (disks with rotating platters).

eshop.macsales.com

Ed

 

[JHZR2]

I haven't been an Apple guy for a while but here are my thoughts:

1) I would double and triple check the drive isn't mounted when trying to perform operations on the file system.
2) Maybe erasing the existing partitions first would make creating a new layout easier; or at least abstract where the issues might lie.
3) Maybe try this operation via the terminal instead of the GUI application? I'd tend to think that you'd get more informative error messages spat out at you.
4) Is this 5TB drive a spinning HDD? I am not sure why but I am under the impression that APFS was for SSD.

It does appear that it was designed with SSD in mind. I spent a few minutes searching for APFS and mechanical drives and like everything else on the internet, three articles gave three different answers. All of the articles I found dated back to 2017 or 2018. It's at least something to pursue. The following article may prove helpful:

Using APFS On HDDs ... And Why You Might Not Want To

After 16 months of using and testing APFS—Apple's new file system—I’ve come to the conclusion that you probably don’t want to use it on HDDs (disks with rotating platters).

eshop.macsales.com

Ed

The drive was unmounted, and I had erased the partition (it was a blank drive).

I had read that APFS was ok for spinning drives, but subsequently I have read some places that it isnt as good for spinning drives, or, for some reason, drives that are swapped between machines (Ive done that with our Samsung T5 external SSDs that are APFS).

I formatted HFP+ and am transferring data. Painfully slow...