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)
🔎 Quick clarification (19:05):
When I refer to “Reserve Size,” this means the space is guaranteed to remain available for that APFS volume — not that the volume is fixed to that size. The volume can still grow beyond that if space is available. “Quota Size” is what actually limits the maximum size.
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!
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