How to Format G-SPEED Q with Apple's New File System APFS Connected to iMac Pro via USB

G-Technology G-SPEED & G-SAFE
1

How to format G-Speed Q loaded with four new 8TB HGST drives with Apple’s New File System APFS, please? G-Speed Q is connected to an iMac Pro via USB 3.0 connector. Does G-Speed work with APFS filing system? Shall I format the drives individually to the APFS filing system before installing them into G-Speed Q? Is there anything I should be careful about, please?

I searched the web site but could not find any mention. I will appreciate your advice, please.

Thank you very much,

Tumay

2

We don’t have any support or recommendation for using the APFS. It is a file system meant for OS drives and small capacity flash drives. Large RAID volumes should stick to using HFS+ which is what the drive ships in.

3

Very clear explanation. I was confused because I read that MacOS HS automatically formats new drives using APFS. After your comment, I have to make sure that this does not happen.

Thank you very much,

Tumay

4

Hi Rydia,

My G RAID was automatically converted to APFS without my knowledge and I’m wondering if there are any known issues that I should be aware of?

See the link below for a description of what happened.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

https://bombich.com/blog/2017/09/29/think-twice-before-encrypting-your-hfs-volumes-on-high-sierra

5

External drives aren’t really great for APFS. Large rotational media is not what it is optimized for. It is meant more for an Operating system SSD.

Would recommend removing the APFS and restore it back to Mac OS Extended.