Written by
Amanda WongSummary: This post guides you to converting an external hard drive to APFS without losing data. You can follow this guide to convert an external hard drive formatted with HFS+, exFAT, FAT32, or NTFS to APFS on Mac. If any important files are on the drive, quickly clone the drive with iBoysoft DiskGeeker to avoid data loss.
APFS(Apple File System) is a proprietary file system developed and deployed by Apple Inc., used to store, organize, and retrieve data on the storage device. APFS was introduced with macOS High Sierra in 2017 and replaced Mac OS Extended as the default file system, featuring strong encryption, space sharing, snapshots, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals.
As the most suitable and powerful file system for Mac running macOS High Sierra and later, many people would like to use APFS on their external hard drives to enjoy a better experience. This post will provide 3 ways to convert external hard drive to APFS.
| How to convert external hard drive to APFS | Suitable for |
| Convert external hard drive to APFS directly in Disk Utility | Mac OS Extended drive - use the Convert to APFS option |
| Convert external hard drive to APFS by partitioning | exFAT/FAT32 drive - partition the drive as HFS+ first, then convert to APFS |
| Convert external hard drive to APFS via reformatting | NTFS formatted drive - use NTFS for Mac driver or erase it in Disk Utility |
Before you proceed to the detailed step of converting the file system of the external hard drive to APFS format, you need to make some essential preparations:
Back up important files on the disk
Whenever you attempt to operate on a drive with your important files kept, especially a startup disk, you should create a backup for it in the first place. Even if some operations such as converting HFS+ to APFS don't affect the store data of the drive, you should always be cautious to avoid data loss from a hard drive failure or misoperation.
If you want to clone the whole drive, it is recommended to clone the entire drive, the cloning software such as iBoysoft DiskGeeker can help you to create a 1-to-1 copy of the target disk easily and quickly. Free download it if you need this all-in-one disk management tool for macOS.
Upgrade macOS to High Sierra or later
Using APFS requires that your Mac must run on macOS 10.13 and later versions, therefore, you need to upgrade macOS on your Mac to be compatible with APFS. Not all Mac models support macOS High Sierra and later versions, so you need to identify which macOS can your Mac run.
If you are prepared well to convert the external hard drive to APFS, now you can follow our steps to dive into different ways, even without losing data on the external disk. Share this post with others with the same needs.
Convert external hard drive to APFS directly in Disk Utility
In case the file system of your external hard drive is HFS+, also called Mac OS Extended(Journaled), Apple enables you to convert it to APFS directly in Disk Utility, the built-in macOS disk manager. This method can convert external hard drives to APFS without losing data. Here is how:
- Connect the external hard drive to your Mac.
- Open the Disk Utility tool from Finder > Applications > Utilities.
- Tap the View button and choose Show All Devices.
- Find and highlight your external drive on the left sidebar, the drive information displayed on the right side tells you it is an HFS+ volume/partition.
- Control-click the HFS+ volume and choose the Convert to APFS option on the menu.
- Tap on the Convert button to convert the external drive to APFS.
- When it completes, you can use the APFS external drive on Mac now.
If the above steps help to convert the external hard drive to APFS without losing data, share it with more by clicking the button below.
Convert to APFS Option is not Available or Greyed Out in macOS
This article will show you how to fix the "Convert to APFS" option that greyed out or is not available in the Disk Utility issue. Read more >>
Convert external hard drive to APFS by partitioning
Perhaps the file system of the external hard drive is exFAT or FAT32, a format compatible with both Windows and macOS, then there is no Convert to APFS option you can use to convert the external drive to APFS. But you can partition a hard drive on a Mac. Here are steps to partition drive on Mac.
- Plug the external hard drive into your Mac's port.
- Use Spotlight Search to find Disk Utility and launch it.
- Click View and choose Show All Devices to display all drives on the left side.
- Select the external hard drive on the left panel, and make sure you choose the right one.
- Choose the Partition option on the toolbar of Disk Utility.
- Make sure the scheme listed for the device information is "GUID Partition Map".
- Name the drive and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the format drop-down menu.
- Click Apply to partition the external hard drive.
- Now continue to convert HFS+ to APFS with the same steps in way 1.
Convert external hard drive to APFS via reformatting
For other incompatible file systems such as NTFS, you can only view the contents on the Mac, you don't have the write permission to move, copy, add, and delete files, and you can neither straightforwardly convert the NTFS external drive to APFS, nor partition the NTFS disk on Mac due to the incompatibility between NTFS and macOS. Therefore, the last resort is to convert NTFS to APFS by reformatting.
Reformatting the external hard drive to APFS deletes all files on the disk, you will get a blank APFS drive to use after formatting. If you need to switch between macOS and Windows to use the same external hard drive, you can try professional NTFS for Mac software to get rid of read-only NTFS on Mac issues without losing data.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac automatically mounts the NTFS drive on Mac in read-write mode, it enables you to access the NTFS drive on Mac without any limitations just as you use the drive on a Windows PC. You can view, copy, move, and edit NTFS files on Mac without formatting the drive.
If you still decide to format NTFS to APFS, follow the steps below:
- Connect the NTFS-formatted external hard drive to your Mac.
- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities, find and launch the Disk Utility tool.
- Click the View button and select Show All Devices.
- Under the External area on the left, select the target external hard drive.
- Use the Erase button of Disk Utility to format the NTFS drive.
- Name the drive as you prefer, then choose the format as APFS.
- Choose Erase to start the reformatting process.
Have you got an APFS external hard drive Now? If so, share this useful post with more people.
The bottom line
We provide 3 ways to convert external hard drives to APFS on Mac. If the file format of the external drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled), you can directly convert the external hard drive to APFS without losing data in Disk Utility. For exFAT/FAT32-formatted drive, you can change the file system by partitioning. In case it is an NTFS drive you want to change to APFS, you can use an NTFS driver or format it to APFS.
