But remember there’s no Time Machine backup for you using APFS. You do have the choice of APFS for your SSD drives and for your hard disk drives. You can use your HFS+ external disk for a Time Machine backup. Here again HFS+ is the best choice because it gives you the widest options on your formatted hard drive. Best Format For External Hard Drive Mac Catalina Or you plan to share your SSD with a windows computer. The exception to this is if you plan to share your drive with an older Mac running Sierra or earlier. As long as you don’t intend to use the drive for Time Machine. You can use a HFS+ formatted disk as a backup disk for Time Machine.īut if you’ve an external SSD. Other External Hard Drive Formats You Can Use On Your Macīest Format For External Hard Drive Mac Big SurĪnd the default Mac format for external disks on Big Sur is APFS.īut for external hard drives the best format for your Mac formatted drives is HFS+.īecause it runs the best on hard drives.An HFS+ Format External Drive is Not For.A HFS+ Format External Drive is Good For.
