[Guide] Avoid APFS conversion on High Sierra update or fresh install

[RehabMan]

@RehabMan Does Intel 600P M.2Pcle support apple APFS format?

APFS is a file system. It is not specific to particular devices.
The issue is whether a given device's TRIM implementation is good enough for the assumptions Apple has made.
Some devices you must disable TRIM.
If you don't want to do that or it is not possible (NVMe), then you should install to HFS+J.

 

[NeosHD]

Hello,
I bought a new ssd drive, Samsung 850EVO 500GB.
I did a fresh HS install with APFS, and everything was fine until the OS Freezed, I was able only to press the reset button, so I
thought was a filesystem bug, so i erased the SSD in HFS+ and fresh installed HS again. But the freezes keep going.. In a different drive, a Crucial SSD(dual boot with Windows), I have a Sierra Installation there and everything is fine, what it could be? HS Bug or something also?
PS all HS installations were made only with the Samsung SSD plugged in.
Thank you

 

[Henties]

Hello,
I bought a new ssd drive, Samsung 850EVO 500GB.
I did a fresh HS install with APFS, and everything was fine until the OS Freezed, I was able only to press the reset button, so I
thought was a filesystem bug, so i erased the SSD in HFS+ and fresh installed HS again. But the freezes keep going.. In a different drive, a Crucial SSD(dual boot with Windows), I have a Sierra Installation there and everything is fine, what it could be? HS Bug or something also?
PS all HS installations were made only with the Samsung SSD plugged in.
Thank you

I use the same Samsung 850EVO 500GB SSD's on both my builds as per my signature. Initially and up to High Sierra GM candidate (17A362a) I used HFS+ J as the filesystem of choice with trim enabled in Clover's
config.plist file, with no problems whatsoever. Then with the final release of High Sierra (17A365) on 25 Sept. I switched the 2 Samsung EVOS to APFS, also with trim enabled in Clover's config.plist file and again so far I have not encountered any problems whatsoever. To me it appears that perhaps your problems with your EVO SSD are caused by some compatibility issues with your particular hardware, but I would also not exclude the possibility of a configuration error on your part. Wishing you luck in your "Herlock Sholms's" activity to finally find a solution.

 

[RehabMan]

Hello,
I bought a new ssd drive, Samsung 850EVO 500GB.
I did a fresh HS install with APFS, and everything was fine until the OS Freezed, I was able only to press the reset button, so I
thought was a filesystem bug, so i erased the SSD in HFS+ and fresh installed HS again. But the freezes keep going.. In a different drive, a Crucial SSD(dual boot with Windows), I have a Sierra Installation there and everything is fine, what it could be? HS Bug or something also?
PS all HS installations were made only with the Samsung SSD plugged in.
Thank you

Open a separate thread.
No "Problem Reporting" files attached.
Read FAQ, "Problem Reporting" again. Carefully. Attach all requested files/output.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.164990/

 

[black.dragon74]

I cannot predict the future.

Oh. I see. Sorry.

 

[webhappyboy070]

@RehabMan Apple is a rogue, even if you default to GPT, 10.13 installed after the completion of the format will be forced to change to APFS

 

[RehabMan]

@RehabMan Apple is a rogue, even if you default to GPT, 10.13 installed after the completion of the format will be forced to change to APFS

You didn't read post #1.
Note: GPT has nothing to do with the format of a partition (GPT is a partition scheme, not a file system format).

 

[macnb]

If trimforce is not working for the expected scenario (SATA non-Apple SSD, after reboot), you should do a fresh install as it is likely you installed something else that has enabled trim.

So, I did a clean install via the USB installer and editing minstallconfig.xml on first reboot to change ConvertToAPFS to false.
Now I have a clean instal of 10.13 on HFS+ partition on my Crucial MX300 SSD. Thanks for that editing tip.
Did the usual post-install stuff (Clover install, required kexts, and config.plist in Clover).

And...TRIM is OFF by default. This confirms that 10.13 does not turn on trim on this particular 3rd party SSD.

I then enabled the kext patch to IOAHCIBlockStorage to enable TRIM to test.

Booting now takes ~6 seconds longer. But there's seems to be no degradation in SSD performance after the boot. Blackmagic tests return same results (TRIM on or off).

Also, I can turn ON and OFF trim at will using the kext patch unlike before using TRIMFORCE command.

 

[RehabMan]

So, I did a clean install via the USB installer and editing minstallconfig.xml on first reboot to change ConvertToAPFS to false.
Now I have a clean instal of 10.13 on HFS+ partition on my Crucial MX300 SSD. Thanks for that editing tip.
Did the usual post-install stuff (Clover install, required kexts, and config.plist in Clover).

And...TRIM is OFF by default. This confirms that 10.13 does not turn on trim on this particular 3rd party SSD.

I then enabled the kext patch to IOAHCIBlockStorage to enable TRIM to test.

Booting now takes ~6 seconds longer. But there's seems to be no degradation in SSD performance after the boot. Blackmagic tests return same results (TRIM on or off).

Also, I can turn ON and OFF trim at will using the kext patch unlike before using TRIMFORCE command.

Even HFS+J+TRIM sometimes suffers from long boot.

I had that way back in Mountain Lion with my Mushkin SSDs (and still have them, and still same problem with TRIM, regardless of HFS+J/APFS).

Key to understand:
- your ability to use TRIM without issues depends on your hardware.
- even on HFS+J
- APFS is even more picky, such that the set of "compatible" hardware has narrowed

 

[Henties]

Known problems with TRIM + APFS.
Have you not been reading this thread?

APFS disaster finally struck. I did some minor configuration changes to my APFS HS, with trim enabled in my config.plist file, after which I decided to reboot. The result of that reboot was pages and pages of inode errors. When the scrolling inode error pages finally stopped I tried to reboot again but the scenario was identical to my first boot with pages and pages of inode errors. I then fired up my spare High Sierra on HFS+ J, reformatted the SSD "Samsung 850 EVO 500GB with APFS. Using CCC I then recloned HS back to the SSD. Recloning just over 50 GB took 12 mins. 27 secs. I then implemented the original intended changes, rebooted and everything is working just fine again. HS on APFS was active and working flawless from 27 Sept. till today, merely 7 days. Food for thought indeed, and perhaps an eye opener for those that are prepared to put all their eggs in one basket and rely entirely on High Sierra on an APFS formatted drive. After this experience I have to conclude that APFS is certainly not ready yet to be deployed in a mission critical environment.
This problem manifested itself on my Skylake build.
Cheers