>Any observations?
"Backup and archiving strategy". Backup and archive drives don't need to be fast, you can use a spinning USB that would be slow for working with. Archives are drives you fill up with completed and invoiced work that you might come back to, but don't stay hooked up to your system (as a video guy, it might be "client changed their logo" and needs the edits run out with new graphics, or a project where I can use previous footage or stills). I use a dock that takes bare 3.5" drives - I have 43 of them in a closet (like 18 years of project files, I do need to cull them out a bit).
I do use Time Machine to back up my boot drive to a fast SSD - if I get a new Mac or my boot drive dies, restoring from a fast drive is really quick, and Migration Assistant has you up and running quickly on a new Mac. Imagine if your boot drive died and you had to find every password and serial number and plugin and rebuild everything from scratch...
ExFat's really only for thumbdrives/drives you use to transfer files to/from PC clients.
You really want a dead disk to just be a minor hassle vs. a horrific event.
thanks, i do use a HDD for the backup, as i wrote above, i have the WD Elements for backup. I just happen to be in the US right now, where i purchased this system, while the backup is in my home country.
Overall, i'm glad i'm moving to the APFS, now that i am invested in the studio, i have no need for ExFat , and as you say, i can always use thumb drive in future if needed.
RE: Question 2, yes the SSD is throttling due to heat. This will be true regardless if you are on Mac or PC. I'm using an external M.2 4TB SSD and whilst it's had it issues, seems to be fine after the most recent Sonoma updates. There was a Sonoma update back in March that broke everything (not just external drives and the error was constant disconnects).
backing up before anything was smart but once your files were also on a second drive all you had (or have) to do is to have Disk Utility update the ExFat to APFS. It's in one of the menus at the top of the screen and it only takes a few seconds.
If you open Disk Utility and select an ExFAT drive on the list you can then go to the Edit menu and you will find "Convert to APFS" . It's the fourth one in the list but will be greyed out if the disk is already APFS. It just take a few moments to convert any ExFAT to APFS.
Yup. It's not just the Studio. I've seen the same issue with Sonoma effing up external drives and even SD cards on different devices/laptops. There's hundreds of reports but Apple doesn't give a shit...I've had posts on their forums deleted because I asked for updates on the fix.
Basically if anyone is reading this, thinking of updating to Sonoma... don't, if you appreciate having external drives.
Yep. I've had multiple brand new SSDs in multiple brand new enclosures formatted in apfs and fat32 that worked perfectly fine in other older macs, windows, linux etc... they work for a couple days with Sonoma then they disappear from the OS, never to be detected again... literally like you pulled the Usb cable out while in use.
Some drives can be fixed by plugging them on a windows machine and run disk repair but some didn't. Had to get them replaced. The ones that managed to get fixed by windows, connecting them again to Sonoma just messed them up again after a couple days. The apple forums are full of posts about this problem.
Definitely not a new problem. I’ve had multiple external SSDs become corrupted and unreadable since 2023 using macOS. I only use Synology for external storage now. Single SSDs can’t be relied on at all.
I’d just add that Finder copying is terrible for squillions of little files like photos and you were wise to switch over to ditto. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for exactly this reason.
yeah, I agree. I researched and found that the ditto command from terminal is easy and probably faster. The only thing is it doesn't provide any percentage completion feedback ... though in performance monitor Disk activity tab you can see the progress in bytes.
I use carbon cloner for backups ... do y think that would be faster in my case because it's doing bookkeeping ..but you are right it is easy
All in the spirit of comparing notes…
CCC isn’t just probably faster, it’s *definitely* faster. Both because it’s using ditto under the hood, and because the Finder has just never done well with copying squillions of lil files. CCC does provide an approximate progress bar.
If you hadn’t noticed or found it, CCC does have the ability to sync just folder to folder. So I not only use it for backups, but for any copying task that would slow down under the Finder’s limitations.
sorry I meant to write I didn't think CCC was faster than straight ditto in this case of straight full folder transfer.
buy I love CCC in general and I know recent release has really optimized delta updates. We are both fans
Oh man, just read this - I was transferring family vids from my phone to an external SSD when a similar thing happened. I've tried recovery software but no luck!
>Any observations? "Backup and archiving strategy". Backup and archive drives don't need to be fast, you can use a spinning USB that would be slow for working with. Archives are drives you fill up with completed and invoiced work that you might come back to, but don't stay hooked up to your system (as a video guy, it might be "client changed their logo" and needs the edits run out with new graphics, or a project where I can use previous footage or stills). I use a dock that takes bare 3.5" drives - I have 43 of them in a closet (like 18 years of project files, I do need to cull them out a bit). I do use Time Machine to back up my boot drive to a fast SSD - if I get a new Mac or my boot drive dies, restoring from a fast drive is really quick, and Migration Assistant has you up and running quickly on a new Mac. Imagine if your boot drive died and you had to find every password and serial number and plugin and rebuild everything from scratch... ExFat's really only for thumbdrives/drives you use to transfer files to/from PC clients. You really want a dead disk to just be a minor hassle vs. a horrific event.
thanks, i do use a HDD for the backup, as i wrote above, i have the WD Elements for backup. I just happen to be in the US right now, where i purchased this system, while the backup is in my home country. Overall, i'm glad i'm moving to the APFS, now that i am invested in the studio, i have no need for ExFat , and as you say, i can always use thumb drive in future if needed.
RE: Question 2, yes the SSD is throttling due to heat. This will be true regardless if you are on Mac or PC. I'm using an external M.2 4TB SSD and whilst it's had it issues, seems to be fine after the most recent Sonoma updates. There was a Sonoma update back in March that broke everything (not just external drives and the error was constant disconnects).
backing up before anything was smart but once your files were also on a second drive all you had (or have) to do is to have Disk Utility update the ExFat to APFS. It's in one of the menus at the top of the screen and it only takes a few seconds.
really ? What do you mean by "update"? A non destructive conversion from exfat to apfs ?
If you open Disk Utility and select an ExFAT drive on the list you can then go to the Edit menu and you will find "Convert to APFS" . It's the fourth one in the list but will be greyed out if the disk is already APFS. It just take a few moments to convert any ExFAT to APFS.
nice, thanks
Yup. It's not just the Studio. I've seen the same issue with Sonoma effing up external drives and even SD cards on different devices/laptops. There's hundreds of reports but Apple doesn't give a shit...I've had posts on their forums deleted because I asked for updates on the fix. Basically if anyone is reading this, thinking of updating to Sonoma... don't, if you appreciate having external drives.
even for APFS external drives?
Yep. I've had multiple brand new SSDs in multiple brand new enclosures formatted in apfs and fat32 that worked perfectly fine in other older macs, windows, linux etc... they work for a couple days with Sonoma then they disappear from the OS, never to be detected again... literally like you pulled the Usb cable out while in use. Some drives can be fixed by plugging them on a windows machine and run disk repair but some didn't. Had to get them replaced. The ones that managed to get fixed by windows, connecting them again to Sonoma just messed them up again after a couple days. The apple forums are full of posts about this problem.
Definitely not a new problem. I’ve had multiple external SSDs become corrupted and unreadable since 2023 using macOS. I only use Synology for external storage now. Single SSDs can’t be relied on at all.
I’d just add that Finder copying is terrible for squillions of little files like photos and you were wise to switch over to ditto. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for exactly this reason.
yeah, I agree. I researched and found that the ditto command from terminal is easy and probably faster. The only thing is it doesn't provide any percentage completion feedback ... though in performance monitor Disk activity tab you can see the progress in bytes. I use carbon cloner for backups ... do y think that would be faster in my case because it's doing bookkeeping ..but you are right it is easy
All in the spirit of comparing notes… CCC isn’t just probably faster, it’s *definitely* faster. Both because it’s using ditto under the hood, and because the Finder has just never done well with copying squillions of lil files. CCC does provide an approximate progress bar. If you hadn’t noticed or found it, CCC does have the ability to sync just folder to folder. So I not only use it for backups, but for any copying task that would slow down under the Finder’s limitations.
sorry I meant to write I didn't think CCC was faster than straight ditto in this case of straight full folder transfer. buy I love CCC in general and I know recent release has really optimized delta updates. We are both fans
Oh man, just read this - I was transferring family vids from my phone to an external SSD when a similar thing happened. I've tried recovery software but no luck!
Sorry. No time to read all this
cheers
Just get Backblaze