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NTFS drive—should I reformat it?

I bought a Western Digital external 5TB drive to use for storage. I'd like to move my Photos system library to it. I installed the new drive today, and it's nagging me about installing "NTFS for Mac.app". I've done a little reading in the community, and I understand this app allows Windows on a Mac to write to the drive. Well, I do have Windows 11 running (Parallels), but I mostly want to use the drive for storage on the Mac side. What should I do? I have this notion that I can simply reformat the drive, but I thought I should first ask for suggestions.


I read yesterday that if I want to move my Photos system library to an external drive, that drive must be formatted as "either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format." As I interpret that advice from Apple Support, it seems I should just erase and reformat this new drive—that is, just dump all the software that WD so kindly installed on the drive and start fresh.


Agree ... ?

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Nov 11, 2023 5:40 PM

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Posted on Nov 11, 2023 6:06 PM

Lucas1948 wrote:

One more question. I mentioned that I will move my Photos system library to the new external drive. Should I partition the drive to give the library its own workspace? Any advantage to that?

Partitioning a drive is an older concept used on older slower drives. Modern drives are so fast and efficient there is no need to format for different uses. Just create folders for each app/file type/etc.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 11, 2023 6:06 PM in response to Lucas1948

Lucas1948 wrote:

One more question. I mentioned that I will move my Photos system library to the new external drive. Should I partition the drive to give the library its own workspace? Any advantage to that?

Partitioning a drive is an older concept used on older slower drives. Modern drives are so fast and efficient there is no need to format for different uses. Just create folders for each app/file type/etc.

Nov 11, 2023 6:04 PM in response to Lucas1948

Drives like the MyBook came with software, and the manufacturer suggested you install that software.


What that software does is to "spare you the annoyance of having to re-initialize the drive" from its factory set Windows New Technology File System (NTFS, the W is silent because there are no other Operating Systems) or similar unusual (on a Mac) format. Instead, the software they provided would simulate a MacOS drive inside an NTFS file for your Mac.


The downside of using the manufacturer's software is that if the manufacturer's software is not loaded, the Macintosh Volume may not readable, or may not be writable. This means that in startup manager, Installer, and in Recovery such as after a data loss, the Macintosh Volume may not be visible.


The standard advice given here to all users, including novice users, is to discard the manufacturers software and NEVER use it. "Best Practice" is to erase the physical device when new, using only MacOS Disk Utility, and create the fundamental data structures needed for consistent, reliable use by MacOS.


Be sure to "show all devices" which will allow you to ERASE the entire Physical Device by its immutable manufacturer-given device-name, not just user created Volume-name such as ‘Macintosh HD’.


NTFS drive—should I reformat it?

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