Working with Partitions and Volumes in APFS format.

[Cyberdevs]

APFS partitions and volumes work a bit differently compared to previous Apple file systems:

- Partitions - These are divided sections of the drive used to separate data. In APFS, partitions are more flexible and can be created and resized without erasing the entire drive.

- Volumes - Volumes are what contain the actual files in a partition. APFS allows for multiple volumes in a single partition.

- Container - The container is the top-level structure in APFS. It contains one or more partitions. The container holds volume metadata and manages the partitioning scheme.

 

Some key things to know about APFS partitions and volumes:

- A partition can have multiple volumes inside it. Each volume acts as its own separate drive.

- Volumes within the same partition don't take up additional disk space. They share allocated space.

- You can have volumes with different formats in the same partition like HFS+ and APFS.

- Partitions can be resized without reformatting the entire drive. Adding a new partition doesn't erase data.

- Volumes can span across multiple partitions on different disks. This is used for Fusion drives.

- Encryption, snapshotting and cloning operate at the volume level, not the entire physical disk.

 

So in summary, APFS allows for much more flexible management of partitions and volumes compared to previous Apple file systems. The multiple volume concept is a very useful APFS feature.