Update to Ventura changed format of an external HD

[JoeLouis]

Hello. I recently update my iMac OS to Ventura.
I have two Seagate external HDs. Yesterday I couldn't work with one of them, where I buck up my Pro Tools sessions, because it was like Read Only.
I went to Get Info and I noticed that the format had changed from Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to Windows NT File System (NTFS).
Any ideas?. Thanks
JL

[JFreak]

First I heard from that. But since High Sierra, internal SSD's have been converted to APFS on upgrade.

[dominicperry]

Something odd there. MacOS can only read NTFS drives, not write to them, which is why you couldn't get it to work.

If you have session drives which don't need to be exchanged/read by Windows, then you should always use APFS.

If you need to exchange files with Windows then you can use ExFAT but the performance and reliability with MacOS isn't as good. Don't use FAT32, it limits volume and file sizes and is an older file system.

Don't use HFS (or HFS+) unless you need to exchange files with very old MacOS systems (up to Snow Leopard 10.6 I think).

Dominic

[JoeLouis]

Thanks. I'm a bit confused. I don't understand why the format suddenly changed.
Any ways. I just read on Google that I have to backup the HD, then reformat it. In that case, is it better backup to the Mac HD, or to iCloud?
I started to buck up to the Mac HD. Then reformat the external HD using APFS as suggested.
Am I right? Any suggestion? (I'm afraid of losing something in the process) Thanks again

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by JoeLouis

Thanks. I'm a bit confused. I don't understand why the format suddenly changed.
Any ways. I just read on Google that I have to backup the HD, then reformat it. In that case, is it better backup to the Mac HD, or to iCloud?
I started to buck up to the Mac HD. Then reformat the external HD using APFS as suggested.
Am I right? Any suggestion? (I'm afraid of losing something in the process) Thanks again

Yes, backup to your local disk - it will be much faster. But, if you have a (very) fast internet connection, or plenty of time (possibly days for a few hundred GB's), backup to the cloud too. Better still, backup to a separate external disk as well as the internal disk.
Then reformat the original disk as APFS and copy everything back.

Personally I make a rule to never delete stuff on an external disk - I just buy another one. Good SSDs are not partcularly expensive any more, but I understand that doesn't mean you can necessarily spare the cash.

I have no idea how a MacOS Extended partition could become an NTFS partition. That is a mystery. MacOS can't do that, so either it got plugged into a Windows machine which converted it (which doesn't normally happen without your explicit instruction) or something is actually wrong and that isn't the file system at all.
Either way, best to make a backup of the data while you can still read the contents.

Dominic

[JoeLouis]

Dominic, it's a really mystery. I've never worked in Windows.
Great idea, buck up to the internal HD and an external too. I'll buy a brand new HD.
Using the Mac Utility to reformat is OK, righ?
Tanks

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JoeLouis

Thanks. I'm a bit confused. I don't understand why the format suddenly changed.
Any ways. I just read on Google that I have to backup the HD, then reformat it. In that case, is it better backup to the Mac HD, or to iCloud?
I started to buck up to the Mac HD. Then reformat the external HD using APFS as suggested.
Am I right? Any suggestion? (I'm afraid of losing something in the process) Thanks again

There is absolutely no way the format just changed to NTFS. It would have taken somebody working on a PC with third party HFS+ compatible software or on a Mac with NFTS compatible software some time to copy off the files, reformat the drive and put the files back. So before you go any further and potentially cause harm, are you sure you are looking at the correct drives? This was not some other drive? The drive could not have been accidentally swapped by you or others? This NTFS format drive really contain the data you think it should? Session names, sizes, file creation/modification dates make sense? etc. Power off your Mac, remove all external drives, make sure that also includes all SD cards, USB thumb drives etc, and power the Mac back on, then connect back only the external drive. Does that drive show up? Run the mount command in a Terminal window (it will just show what volumes are mounted) , and paste the text output of the mount command here.

--- ---

Assuming you do want to reformat the drive... then...

We cannot guess how much data is on the external drive and how much free you have on your system drive. But ideally you would backup separately to the local system drive and cloud storage. The old rule of thumb is unless it's backed up three times, in separate places, it's not backed up.

And if your internal drive is a fast SSD you could (should?) be working your sessions from there without needing an external drive. Simpler and less things to go wrong, the current situation case in point. Then use some combination of external SSD, HDD, and cloud backups. And be careful with cloud backups, a file dragged into an cloud mirrored folder on you local machine is *not* separately backed up to the cloud.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by JoeLouis

Dominic, it's a really mystery. I've never worked in Windows.
Great idea, buck up to the internal HD and an external too. I'll buy a brand new HD.
Using the Mac Utility to reformat is OK, righ?
Tanks

Yes, use the utility that comes with MacOS. It’s called Disk Utility in Monterey - not sure if they changed the name in Ventura. It’s in the Utilites folder inside Applications.

Dominic

[JoeLouis]

Yes Dominic, a true mystery. I've never used Windows.
Good idea to buck up to the internal HD and an external too. I'll buy a brand new one.
The mac Utility is OK for reformatting, right?
I have another question. For work with Pro Tools is it better to use my internal HD (3.7 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5), or an external one? If external, some recommendation for a good HD for Pro Tools? I have a 2019 2 TB Seagate. Thanks again.

[JoeLouis]

Thanks Darryl. I understand. I'll be very careful.
For sure I've never used Windows. Everything I work with is Apple/Mac. I've even never share my stuff.
It is so rare to me. I've been thinking about a hacker
The data I need to back up is around 900 GB. The other disk I have, is 3 TB
My Mac: 3.7 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5. You think it's enough fast?
Maybe a pretty good new HD just por Pro Tools could be better? Any recommendation about a Brand and type?
I'll do triple BU, good idea.
Thanks again .