You’re looking at a new Samsung T7 for your Mac. Maybe M1 Mac.
And you’re not sure that you can use it on your Mac.
The Samsung SSD T7 is formatted out of the box as ExFAT. And that means you can plug it in and use it right away on your Mac or a Windows PC.
But some Samsung T7’s are brand new out of the box formatted not quite right for Mac.
Maybe that’s not your issue and you simply don’t want an ExFAT formatted drive. And want to reformat Your Samsung T7.
Be confident. Roll up your Sleeves.
And in 5 minutes you’ll have your Samsung T7 drive in the format you want for your Mac.
You only have to read on.
At A Glance: How To Format Samsung T7 For Mac
1. Open up your Mac and Plug In your Samsung T7.
2. Start up Disk Utility.
3. Find your Samsung T7 in Disk Utility.
4. Click on your Samsung T7. And pick Erase.
5. Give your Samsung T7 a name. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Format. And GUID Partition Map for Scheme.
6. Then click on Erase.
If you want to format your Samsung APFS. Follow the steps again and the second time through you can pick APFS for format.
Formatting Your Samsung T7 For Your Mac
Have a MacBook Pro. Or MacBook Air or M1 Mac?
Running operating systems Big Sur or Monterey?
Got a Samsung T7 Touch or no Touch? It doesn’t matter.
Read on and you’ll be led step by step through how to format your Samsung portable SSD.
And find out the different formats you can have on your Samsung T7 and which is best for you and what you want your T7 for.
But if there are any files you want on your Samsung T7. Understand formatting wipes your drive clean.
Copy anything you want off somewhere safe first.
You may not know this but your Samsung T7 comes with Samsung portable SSD software on it.
If you think you’ll want to use this software in the future. Copy it off somewhere else before you start.
How To Format Your Samsung T7 For Mac
1. Log In And Plug In.
You’ll need to sign into your Mac computer. And plug in your Samsung SSD T7 into a USB port.
And you’ll want your Mac plugged into a power outlet.
Your Samsung T7 comes with a USB C cable. And it’s a USB-C drive.
But if you’ve limited USB ports on your Mac. Then you may want to consider a USB C hub.
A hub that’ll power your Mac and allow you to plug in lots of your gadgets at the same time.
The Satechi V2 Multiport USB hub is a good choice.
And you can take a look at the Satechi V2 Review here.
When you plug in your Samsung T7 SSD your Mac will see it. And in a tiny while you’ll see the Samsung T7’s icon on the desktop.
If you’ve waited and you still can’t see your Samsung T7’s icon. Then you’ll need to go into Finder Settings (Mac OS Ventura). In earlier Mac OS releases, it’s called Finder Preferences.
And make sure the box “External Disk” is checked on the General tab.
2. Next Start Up The Disk Utility Software.
You format your external SSD with the disk management software Disk Utility on your Mac.
Not sure how to find Disk Utility?
It’s in your Applications folder.
You find the Applications folder either by clicking on the folder in a Finder window.
Or from the dock at the bottom of your desktop window.
Inside the Applications folder look for another folder called Utilities.
Click to open that folder. You’ll Find Disk Utility in there.
Double Click to start up the program.
3. Pick Your Samsung T7 In Disk Utility.
The first thing Disk Utility shows you are all the drives on your MacBook Pro. Air or other Mac.
Both the internal ones and your external Samsung T7 portable SSD drive.
Look at the left hand of your Disk Utility window and you’ll see two lists. Internal and External.
You’ll see your Samsung T7 under the External Drives list.
You should see two entries for it. A 1st level and a 2nd level.
If you can only see the one level like in the picture below you’ll need to change a setting in Disk Utility.
Look at the top of your desktop. Click on the Disk Utility View option. And from the dropdown menu pick ‘Show All Devices’.
This is important as you won’t be able to format your Samsung T7 without this option picked.
Now you’ll see the 2nd level. And you need to click on your Samsung T7 at the 1st level.
The red arrow in the screenshot above shows you where.
4. Then Click Erase At The Top Of Your Disk Utility Pop Up Window.
Don’t worry.
Erase sounds very dramatic. But nothing happens yet.
The next screen is where you choose how you want your Samsung T7 formatted.
5. Choosing How You Format Your Samsung T7.
Give your Samsung T7 SSD a name.
Type in what you want to call your T7 external drive into the form where it says Name.
Next you tell your Mac what format you want for your Samsung T7.
The first time you format your Samsung T7 on your Mac always choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Even if you really want your Samsung in another format like APFS.
Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) first.
Click on the little up/down arrows at the end of the format option. And a window will pop-up. The second arrow in the picture above shows you where.
Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the list of options.
The next field in this window to fill in is Scheme.
The third arrow in the picture above show you where on the up/down arrows.
Choose GUID Partition Map from the options.
6. Then Click On The Erase Button.
Just before clicking.
Be sure you’ve nothing on your Samsung you want. If you do. Press cancel and copy those files off first.
Ready?
Then click the Erase button to format SSD.
Your Mac will run through formatting your Samsung portable SSD. And in a short while it’ll be all done.
7. Then Quit Disk Utility.
When you’ve finished then you can quit Disk Utility.
Your Samsung external SSD’s icon will be on your Mac’s desktop.
And once it’s there you can go ahead and use your SSD storage device.
What If You Want To Format Your Samsung T7 APFS On Mac?
APFS – Apple file system is a file system Apple created especially for solid state drives.
Your Samsung T7 is a solid state drive (SSD).
And when you want to get the fastest possible performance out of your drive. Then it makes sense to format it as APFS.
It’s easy to do. Follow steps 1 to 7 above. You’ll need to do that first.
Because unless the drive is first formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You won’t see the option to format it as APFS.
Is your Samsung SSD T7 formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?
Great.
Then follow the steps 1 through to 5 a second time. And now at step 5 you’ll see the option for APFS (Apple File System) appear in the format field.
The Different Format Forms Of APFS For Your Samsung T7 On Mac
You can now pick from the straight forward APFS.
Or if you’d like the files on your drive encrypted. You can pick APFS (Encrypted). You’ll be prompted to enter in a password.
Whatever you do don’t forget that password or you’ll lose access to all your files.
There are two other APFS options.
APFS (case-sensitive). This is where your Mac OS X treats a file called photo and Photos as two separate files. Normally Mac OS ignores case.
And you can have APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted). So not only will Mac OS take notice of the case you use when creating and opening your files.
All the files on your Samsung SSD T7 will be encrypted as well. And you’ll need a password to get to your files on your T7.
Finishing Off Formatting Your Samsung T7 For APFS On Your Mac
You still need to pick GUID partition Map as the scheme.
Then click the Erase button.
And simply take the short time to reformat your drive.
And then you have your Samsung T7 in APFS.
How To Format Your Samsung T7 For Time Machine On Mac
Time Machine uses APFS (Apple File System) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format to backup to. This format is also known as Hierarchical File System (HFS+).
Since Mac OS Ventura APFS is the default format for Time Machine.
You would use Mac OS Extended for compatibility with earlier Mac OS X releases.
The default format of ExFAT on your Samsung T7 can’t be used for a Time Machine backup. And you’ll need to change your SSD T7’s format.
And when you format your Samsung T7 as APFS or HFS+. And do a backup with Time Machine you’ll be thrilled with your superfast backup.
Follow the steps above 1 through to 7. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) first. Then format. Go through the steps again and at step 5 pick APFS. And you’ll be good to go for your Time Machine backup.
Then simply set up your Samsung T7 with Time Machine.
You can find out here in this article on the site. Samsung T7 Time Machine, How to Backup In A Flash.
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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I attempted to use the provided Mac software that came with the T7 Shield, and transfer my 1.23 T iPhoto folder to it, the transfer was going slow and went from 8 hours to 2 days in it’s estimate for completion. I found your article and reformatted by every step for AFPS and, wow, now it says under an hour for the transfer.
Thank you Gregory, I’m glad you took the time to follow the steps and got the result you needed. Just remember to have a backup of the Samsung external drive and your iPhoto folder. I’ve found the Samsung drive really reliable, even so it never pays to have your important information stored in the one place. 🙂 Always have a backup plan.
Thank you so much for clear, easy to follow instructions. I’m new to mac and to an ssd drive and you saved me from throwing both out the window .
You’re welcome. I’m so glad you found the post clear and easy to follow.
Thank you for such absolutely clear instructions that a novice could follow so easily. Great instructions on the various aspects of formatting Samsung T7 for Mac. Worked perfectly first time.
Thank you David. Good for you on getting your T7 nicely formatted.
Great Job Simon Irons on “Format Samsung T7 for Mac, When You Can’t Work Out How”
your info is clear, easy to follow and… it works ! many thanks keep on the good work.
Thank you. I am glad you found the post helpful. Well Done for sorting out your Samsung T7.