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How should I partition MBP w/8TB of SSD

I've ordered a new 16" MacBook Pro (MBP) with the Max chip and 8TB of internal SSD drive space. I intend to primarily use this MBP for video editing with Final Cut Pro (FCP).


I've always used FCP with the OS and FCP on the internal (Macintosh HD) of whatever Mac I was editing with, and had the FCP Libraries I'm editing on an external RAID array. I was told to do it this way for maximum speed.


I've never had a Mac with a Macintosh HD larger than 1TB, but now I'll have 8TB. I presume I could treat all 8TB as one drive (the Macintosh HD), but I suspect that would not be wise. I'm guessing I should make around 1TB the Macintosh HD and the other 7TB a separate partition and put my FCP Libraries on those 7TB. However, I don't really know much of anything about partitioning or how one would normally use this much internal SSD space. I guess that maybe when I turn the MBP on and look in Disk Utility I will see something like 4 2TB drives or maybe 2 4TB drives?


Can someone tell me in basic terms what the best course of action is as far as using the 8TB of internal drive space (given that I will be editing video in FCP)?

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Oct 24, 2021 12:11 AM

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Posted on Oct 24, 2021 8:19 AM

In the new OSs, and I'm assuming your machine came with Monterey installed, the drive has a container. Inside the container are two volumes. One called Macintosh HD and another called Macintosh HD - Data. You can't touch the first one. It contains the system and the system installed applications, except for Safari. The data volume takes up most of the drive, that holds your stuff, and that's what Time Machine backups up normally. You can create more volumes by clicking the + button in Disk Utility.



Volumes are not like partitions. You don't specify a size. The volumes use the space in Data, and can grow and shrink as the contents of the volumes change, until the volumes fill the Data space. You can specify in Time Machine System Preferences which volumes you want to exclude from the backup using the Options button. You click + to add the volumes to exclude.



That's basically it. There is no advantage or disadvantage to making additional volumes except for organizing. If you delete the volume in Disk Utility with the - (minus) button the volume and its contents will be erased from the drive.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 24, 2021 8:19 AM in response to JDLee

In the new OSs, and I'm assuming your machine came with Monterey installed, the drive has a container. Inside the container are two volumes. One called Macintosh HD and another called Macintosh HD - Data. You can't touch the first one. It contains the system and the system installed applications, except for Safari. The data volume takes up most of the drive, that holds your stuff, and that's what Time Machine backups up normally. You can create more volumes by clicking the + button in Disk Utility.



Volumes are not like partitions. You don't specify a size. The volumes use the space in Data, and can grow and shrink as the contents of the volumes change, until the volumes fill the Data space. You can specify in Time Machine System Preferences which volumes you want to exclude from the backup using the Options button. You click + to add the volumes to exclude.



That's basically it. There is no advantage or disadvantage to making additional volumes except for organizing. If you delete the volume in Disk Utility with the - (minus) button the volume and its contents will be erased from the drive.

Oct 24, 2021 2:47 AM in response to JDLee

Your internal drive is formatted as APFS.

APFS makes partitions mostly unnecessary, as there is a better way. You can create additional volumes within the same APFS container. These volumes share the available space in the container and, unlike with partitions, you don’t need to specify a size for each.

So congratulations on your new mac, and create one or more volumes to organize your media as you see fit.

Oct 24, 2021 7:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis Sequeira1 & Tom Wolsky - Thanks for weighing in. I'm not very familiar with the features of APFS. The ability to create these volumes sounds a bit like what I was recommended to do with FCP Libraries years in earlier FCP versions years ago. I think I created something called Disk Images for them, but I think I may have had to specify a maximum size for those. IIRC, it was done to facilitate archiving of the Libraries.


One concern I have is that I want some separate disk (volume, from what you're saying) that can be treated as the Macintosh HD so that when I use Time Machine it doesn't try to backup all 8TB of what's on the drive.


I'm guessing the MBP will already have something designated as the Macintosh HD, and that it may well be all 8TB. How can I put that Macintosh HD that it comes with in its own volume to achieve what I want with Time Machine?


(And thanks! It's been a long time coming. I have a 2017 now and wouldn't upgrade to anything with the T2 chip due to the constant shutting down when I briefly owned one.)

Nov 10, 2021 8:16 AM in response to JDLee

I also have thought about this as these internal SSD are so fast and I Usually edit off of an external drive usually in a 8 terabyte raid - But seems like a good way to go considering SS D’s externally are pricey anyways why not have an internal partition 2 TB for the main operating system 6 TB for editing projects

Nov 10, 2021 8:21 AM in response to 8TB

The answers I got here were great. I didn't understand the new system. You just create a volume. Each volume can grow or shrink as it needs to within the 8TB of space.


The 8TB was the only way to go for me. I have external SSD RAID drives, but, even though they are small, they are hardly fully portable. For one thing, they are not bus powered. If you truly want to go portable, you need your Libraries on internal drives.


They are blazing fast. The new MBP is astonishingly fast.

How should I partition MBP w/8TB of SSD

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