Mac Disk Utility Explained: Volumes vs Partitions (External Drives Made Simple)

Video Description

Struggling to understand volumes vs partitions on a Mac? In this video, I walk you through Disk Utility step by step and explain how to properly create, delete, and manage partitions and volumes on external hard drives. You’ll learn when to use each option, how APFS containers work, and how settings like quota and reserve size affect storage behavior. This tutorial is perfect if you’re organizing photos, videos, backups, or work files on an external drive — and want to avoid formatting mistakes that could cost you data. 00:00 | Welcome & Why Volumes vs Partitions Matter 01:56 | Opening Disk Utility on a Mac 04:12 | What a Partition Is (And When You Need One) 08:49 | Re-Partitioning an Existing Drive 12:36 | Creating Volumes on an External Drive (APFS) 13:42 | Erasing a Drive and Starting Over Safely 17:17 | Quota vs Reserve Size (Critical Difference) 21:18 | Deleting Volumes or Partitions 22:07 | Customizing External Drive Icons 23:45 | How to Properly Eject External Drives Understanding how to FORMAT your NEW External Hard Drive for your MAC - A look at Apple Disk Utility https://youtu.be/caYfZWyN4CQ How to CUSTOMIZE your FOLDERS and EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES on your MAC! - Why? Because you can! 😀 👨🏻‍💻 https://youtu.be/aU5C4aMq1mQ File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac https://support.apple.com/lt-lt/guide/disk-utility/dsku19ed921c/mac If you have a video suggestion, let's chat! https://www.youtube.com/c/Learnwithjoel/community –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– CHECK OUT MY FAVORITE TECH GIZMOS AND GADGETS: https://www.amazon.com/shop/joelfeld We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Influencer I earn from qualifying purchases from some of the links above. Website: https://joelfeld.com #joelfeld #learnwithjoel #volume #partition #apfs #format