Apple Partition Types: How and When to Use Them – Knowligent
Apple Partition Types: How and When to Use Them

Apple Partition Types: How and When to Use Them

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Summary by Lifewire • macmostvideo on Youtube • Published 15 years ago

This article explains partition schemes and how to change them in macOS 10.13 High Sierra and later.

Why You Should Never Partition Your Backup Drive

Partition types, or as Apple calls them, partition schemes, define how the partition map on a hard drive is organized. Apple supports three different partition schemes out of the box: Apple File System (APFS), Mac OS Extended, and MS-DOS (FAT)/ExFAT. With three different partition schemes available, which one should you use when formatting or partitioning a hard drive?

Apple File System (APFS): The primary file system used by macOS 10.13 or later. It is the default file system for macOS. There are several types of APFS.

Mac OS Extended: This file system is used by macOS 10.12 or earlier. Within Disk Utility it also has 4 different modes.