Mac Formatting Guide

Covers Disk Utility For:

10.13 and later

Introduction
This guide focuses on the Disk
Utility application, specifically
the changes made starting with
macOS 10.13, and the process
of formatting your Apple or
OWC storage device. If you’re
accustomed to earlier versions
of the Disk Utility, we please read
this document to get familiar with
the above-noted changes.

Interface Changes:
The user interface (right) is largely
the same when compared to the
Disk Utility in 10.12, but there
are key differences that will be
discussed in this document.
The most important of these is
the transition to a new start disk
format called ‘APFS’ — short
for APple File System) and the UI
conventions related to that format.

Another difference you may notice right away is that there is a new View menu in the top-left corner of the window.
This item can be useful if you have connected a disk and it doesn’t appear right away in the sidebar area —in that case
choose the ‘Show All Devices’ option. Let’s take a look at the formatting process.

1
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Step 1:
Typically the easiest way to access
the Disk Utility application is to use
the Spotlight search tool built into
your OS X Menubar.

Click the magnifying glass icon in

the top-right corner of your screen.
Type ‘Disk Utility’. The first search
result should automatically highlight
the application. Press the Return
key to open the utility.

Step 2:
Examine the device tree (i.e. the
Sidebar). Previous versions of the
Disk Utility allowed interaction
with your drive at two levels in the
device tree. The physical device
was referred to as the ‘Disk’ or
‘Physical Disk,’ and any logical
storage spaces on that disk
were referred to as ‘Volumes’ or
‘Physical Volumes.’ Disk Utility in
10.13 changes the default behavior.

For volumes using the new APFS

format, there are now three levels
of interaction: ‘Physical Disks,’
‘Container Disks,’ and ‘APFS
Volumes,’ as shown above-right.

For volumes not formatted with

APFS, Disk Utility maintains backward compatibility with the original method, listing ‘Physical Disk’ for the device and
‘Physical Volume’ for the logical spaces defined on the device. Examples of both types are shown above-right. Under
the ‘External’ tree listing, the ‘SMI USB Disk’ (highlighted) shows the legacy behavior that many people are used to, while
the two devices above it show the new APFS behavior for internal and external devices. Notice how the three levels are
grouped; the importance of this will become obvious as we move through the remaining steps.

2
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Step 3:
For our example we disconnected
the previously shown devices and
replaced them with what you will
typically see with a pre-built OWC
storage solution that is connected
“out of the box.”

Beneath the ‘External’ portion of

the device tree, notice that the
highlighted device does not have a
‘Container’ level —this is because
OWC does not ship drives in APFS
format. Instead it is shipped in a
format that will work out of the box
on either a Mac or PC.

The steps that follow will show

options for creating a new APFS
volume —typically the best choice
for SSDs (and the macOS 10.13 default).

Step 4:
a) Click the ‘Erase’ button at
the top of the window. This
will open a macOS ‘sheet’
(highlighted) that will provide the
formatting options.

b) Open the ‘Scheme’ menu and

switch the setting from ‘Master
Boot Record’ to ‘GUID Partition
Map;’ APFS settings will be
added to the ‘Format’ menu.
It is not possible to use APFS
with other scheme types.

c) Give your drive a name.

d) Finally, within the ‘Format’

menu choose ‘APFS’. Note
there are three other APFS
formatting options, but unless you or your system administrator have a specific reason for choosing one of them,
‘APFS’ is recommended for most uses. If you prefer HFS+ — also called Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and often a
better option if you’re using mechanical hard drives — you can choose that option from the ‘Format’ menu instead. If
you’re interested in understanding why APFS is better-suited to SSDs, please see this blog post.

e) Note the location of the ‘Erase’ button on the sheet.

3
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Step 5:
Click the ‘Erase’ button mentioned
in Step 4e.

This will begin the formatting

process and open a new sheet
(shown at right) that provides the
option for displaying the details of
said process. Once the process
is complete the ‘Done’ button will
become active. Click it to continue.

Afterward, you may have to click

the expander widget to the left of
the physical disk listing, in order to
see the newly created container
and volume (right).

4
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Containers vs. Partitions

Before we continue, recall that with previous versions of Disk Utility you could create multiple ‘Partitions’ within a single
physical disk, allowing some flexibility to how the total amount of disk space was used. While it is still possible to partition
a physical disk to create multiple APFS volumes, APFS uses the new method of multiple volumes sharing a single
container. The primary advantages of Apple’s new method are that it is less complex than the prior method and that the
newly added volumes use the disk space more dynamically, setting —in effect —minimum and maximum capacity values
for the volume. This allows unused space to be utilized by other volumes that might require it. We cover both processes.

Creating Additional Volumes (optional):

With previous versions of Disk Utility, you could create multiple ‘Partitions’ within a single physical disk, allowing some
flexibility to how the total amount of storage space was used. While it is still possible to partition a physical disk in order to
create multiple APFS volumes, APFS uses the new method of multiple volumes sharing a single container.

The primary advantages of

Apple’s new method are that it
is less complex than the prior
method, and that the newly added
volumes use the disk space more
dynamically, setting —in effect —
minimum and maximum capacity
values for the volume. This allows
unused space to be utilized by
other volumes that might require it.

Step 6v
To create a new volume within
the Container you created in the
previous steps, highly the container
and then click the ‘Add Volume’
button at the top of the window
(highlighted above-right).

5
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Step 7v
Give the new volume a name,
select one of the four available
APFS format options — standard
APFS is recommended for more
uses —then click the ‘Size
Options...’ button.

Note that only APFS volumes can

share the same Container, due
to the inability of older formats to
have their capacity dynamically
adjusted.

Step 8v
Use the ‘Reserve Size’ feature
to set a minimum capacity for
the new volume; this is the only
setting of the two available that is
required. Additionally you can set
a ‘Quota Size’ in order to ensure
the new volume does not occupy
more of the available capacity than
you want.

For the example shown, the

volume will not occupy less than
50GB or more than 100GB.
GB 50-100 can be dynamically
allocated by the system to allow
other volumes to use this space, if
necessary.

Click OK. When you’re done, then

click the ‘Add’ button shown in the
screenshot at the top of the page.

6
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Adding Volumes - Wrap Up

Once you have completed the
previous steps, you should see
two (or more) volumes sharing a
single container on your disk. How
much capacity is available to each
of them will depend on how you
set them up and how much data
you place within each one. Note
the Reserve and Quota amounts in
the blue highlighted area.

To Remove a volume — warning:

this will erase all of that
volume’s data! — highlight it and
click the ‘Delete Volume’ button,
highlighted above in red. (You can
also right-click on a volume to
access this command, as well as
the ‘Add Volume’ command and
others.)

Creating Additional Partitions (optional):

While it is a more complex process, the one advantage to creating a new partition, is the volume can have a fixed capacity
that is wholly dedicated to the new volume — none of the capacity can be dynamically re-allocated to other volumes.

Step 6p
To create a new partition and fixed
capacity volume, highlight the disk
and click the ‘Partition’ button.

The first time you do this a sheet

will appear with a notice explaining
the two options available, and
providing an option to ‘Always
Partition’ if you wish to work that
way. When you’re ready click the
‘Partition’ button on the sheet.

7
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Step 7p
The disk partition sheet will appear,
including a blue pie chart. Click
the ‘+’ button beneath the pie
chart (highlighted) to create a new
partition.

Step 8p
A new partition will be created,
splitting the total capacity in half
(assuming there are only two
in total), with the new partition
selected.

Type a name for the new partition,

select APFS or Mac OS Extended
(Journaled), and then click the
‘Apply’ button. Here the new
volume within the new partition will
be called ‘Other Files.’

Note that if you create a new APFS

partition, a new Container will be
created as well.

8
 Mac Formatting Guide (10.13 / APFS)

Step 9p
A warning sheet will appear,
notifying you that a new partition
is being added and the existing
one resized. Click ‘Partition’ to
continue with the process.

Step 10p
Similar to the initial formatting of
the drive, a new sheet will appear
during the re-partitioning process.
When the process is complete,
click the ‘Done’ button.

Now the main Disk Utility screen

will display an updated capacity
graph, indicating it has been split
into two partitions. Note in the
device tree we now show a mixed
environment with both an APFS
and Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
volume on the same external disk.

This completes the formatting

and partitioning instructions. If
you have questions about how to
properly set up your OWC storage
solution, please contact our
technical support team.

R1 12/11/17 DM 9 OWC1013FORGUIDE