External hard drive with MacBook Pro

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I'm going to have a Macbook Pro soon, I'm waiting for the 2018 models to arrive to my area.
I'm planning to connect a 8T 7200 RPM external hard drive to my Macbook Pro.
This hard drive will be connected to my MacBook Pro permanently, and I will put there most of my media files, and maybe even run some programs from there.

Few questions:
1. For spinning hard drive, what file system is better: HFS+ or APFS(I don't want to use exFAT because I want the most reliable file system)?
2. If APFS is the better choice, how am I going to transfer all my files from my current PC to the external hard drive? there are only beta version softwares of "APFS for windows" (Paragon and Macdrive).
3. If I'm going with HFS+ should I be afraid that this file system will be abandoned soon by Apple?
4. Is there any reliability issues I should afraid of, about using external hard drive along with a MacBook Pro, considering that I want to use it permanently like it was an internal drive(the hard drive I'm thinking to get has Thunderbolt interface and USB3 interface)?
5. Will a 7200RPM USB3 external Hard Drive be slower than a PC 7200RPM SATA III internal hard drive(that's what I have now in my PC)?
6. How can I protect an external hard drive that powered by external power supply from power outage possible damage(I wish there were UPS devices for external hard drives)?
7. Sometimes I'll have to connect another storage device breifly for data transfer(disk on key or another hard drive or SSD), is there any issue with connecting multiple external storage devices to MacBook Pro?

Thanks in advance.
 
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I'm going to have a Macbook Pro soon, I'm waiting for the 2018 models to arrive to my area.
I'm planning to connect a 8T 7200 RPM external hard drive to my Macbook Pro.
This hard drive will be connected to my MacBook Pro permanently, and I will put there most of my media files, and maybe even run some programs from there.

Few questions:
1. For spinning hard drive, what file system is better: HFS+ or APFS(I don't want to use exFAT because I want the most reliable file system)?
2. If APFS is the better choice, how am I going to transfer all my files from my current PC to the external hard drive? there are only beta version softwares of "APFS for windows" (Paragon and Macdrive).
3. If I'm going with HFS+ should I be afraid that this file system will be abandoned soon by Apple?
4. Is there any reliability issues I should afraid of, about using external hard drive along with a MacBook Pro, considering that I want to use it permanently like it was an internal drive(the hard drive I'm thinking to get has Thunderbolt interface and USB3 interface)?
5. Will a 7200RPM USB3 external Hard Drive be slower than a PC 7200RPM SATA III internal hard drive(that's what I have now in my PC)?
6. How can I protect an external hard drive that powered by external power supply from power outage possible damage(I wish there were UPS devices for external hard drives)?
7. Sometimes I'll have to connect another storage device breifly for data transfer(disk on key or another hard drive or SSD), is there any issue with connecting multiple external storage devices to MacBook Pro?

Hello and welcome to the forum! :) I'm assuming that the 8TB HD will be a new purchase (and not the one w/ all of your current files)? Let me just address several of your questions, others will come along w/ further advice, especially as you add more posts to this thread; also, take a look as this LINK which may answer many of your listed items above.

First, the new APFS applies only to SSDs at the moment - Apple may address their 'fusion drives' in the near future (or not?) - so for your spinning HD, APFS is not an option presently - HFS+ is likely your best choice (although others may propose differently). Second, if you plan to use Time Machine for backup, then a HFS+ drive will be needed (the app will not work w/ APFS at the moment - more info HERE). Hopefully, these comments will get your started along w/ the first link. Dave :)
 
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Hello Haggai, welcome to the forum.

1. Right now APFS is only for SSDs, not spinning drives. Once (or if) Apple amends that to work on spinners, I suspect either format will work about the same. APFS is optimized for SSDs, not spinners.
2. Eventually Paragon will move from beta to production. But the best way to move from either exFAT or NTFS to either apple format is to copy the entire drive to some other place, reformat the drive and then copy back. MacOS can READ exFAT and NTFS drives just fine, so when you get your new Mac, assuming there is sufficient space on the internal drive, one way to accomplish what you want is to create a folder on the internal Mac drive, copy everything from the external to that folder, reformat the drive as you want, copy everything from the folder back to the drive, test that it's all there and then delete the folder from the internal and empty the trash.
3. If HFS+ is abandoned by Apple then you can convert at that time. No need to get ahead of Apple. If your system can read HFS+, then no matter what Apple may do, as long as you don't update your system you can still read HFS+. So, just make sure any update from Apple does NOT take away read capability for HFS+ before you install it.
4. No, reliability should be good with an external drive. I have 9 attached.
5. I think any external will be a bit slower than an internal just because of the interface. But I cannot actually talk with science about USB3 vs SATA III.
6. You can use a UPS with an external drive, if the drive is powered by the mains. I have several. And if the drive is powered by the USB port, the battery of the MBP will provide the power.
7. The only limit of drives is the connection ports. If you get a good, powered hub you can plug in as many drives as you want, up to the limit of the powered hub. And if the drives are mains powered, then the limit is the number of ports. There may be some internal limit to the total number of devices, but I suspect it's pretty high. As I said, I have 9 external drives (plus two network attached storage devices).
 

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By the time you get your new Mac APFS will be supported fully on external drives. I'm running the beta of OS X 10.14 (Mojave) and you can use APFS on external drives. I'm using it on at least one drive right now with no issues. If I remember correctly High Sierra (the current OS) gives you the choice to format external drives as APFS. It does not force you to do so on a traditional / spinning hard drive.
 
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Hey, thank you all.
You answered almost all my questions.
One issue still remained:
I'm not aware of any 8T external hard drive which powered by USB bus, so I'm still not sure what damage could power outage do to my(future) hard drive.
 
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It's not easy to forecast. When on mains power, if the power goes off the drive stops. If the drive was in the process of writing to the drive, it will most likely be corrupted but may be repairable with some utilities. If it was writing to the directory or partition map, it may be totally lost and require reformatting. But if it was idling, or just reading, it is most likely that no damage will occur. Because neither you nor I can forecast what the drive may be doing when the power fails, it is impossible to assess in advance what damage will be done. That's why it's wise to have a battery backup for drives, so that if/when mains fail, the drive keeps going long enough for you to take steps to quiet the drive by unmounting it and powering down the Mac.
 
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Yes, a UPS is a battery backup to the mains. I cannot tell you if that particular unit you said you have now will work because I don't know what you have plugged into it. The sum total off all devices needs to be below the 700W rating. And yes, if that UPS has sufficient remaining capacity, it can protect the external hard drive. What you linked to will not provide the right power for an external drive powered from the mains.
 
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But first I need to find a bus powered external hard drive, right?
 
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But first I need to find a bus powered external hard drive, right?
I'm confused. Nobody said that anywhere. You said
How can I protect an external hard drive that powered by external power supply from power outage possible damage(I wish there were UPS devices for external hard drives)?
I said any UPS will do as long as there is capacity for it. I told you in Post #3
You can use a UPS with an external drive, if the drive is powered by the mains. I have several. And if the drive is powered by the USB port, the battery of the MBP will provide the power.
You then said in Post #5
I'm not aware of any 8T external hard drive which powered by USB bus
Now I don't know if there is a USB powered 8TB drive anywhere, but if there is, and you get it, then you don't need a UPS for the drive as it will take the power from the laptop, which has a battery in it. The MBP will manage the power so that if the battery starts to get really low, it will start to shut down to make sure that nothing is lost when the battery goes out completely. When the MBP is plugged into the mains, the battery in the laptop will recharge. If the mains suddenly dies, the battery in the MBP will then take over and keep everything going with no interruptions. That would include any USB powered drives.

But if you get a mains powered drive, then you should get a UPS to power the drive as it will NOT draw power from the laptop.
 
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ups-adapter.jpg
Hey, just wanted to update.
I did some research and I must use an adapter like in the picture above in order to connect an external hard drive to a UPS.
That was the source of the confusion between us, earlier in the discussion.
I just couldn't understand how am I going to connect an external hard drive to a UPS, since external hard drive with IEC connection is vary rare.
 
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I am confused again. That is an IEC adapter that will allow you to plug into an IEC Socket and then use what looks like a power adapter to fit a plug that I can't quite make out from the image. I don't know why you think you MUST use such a thing. If you buy a power supply in your home country, whatever that is, it should come with plugs and adapters for your country and should then also have sockets that match your country standards, or come with adapters to fit. You should not need that. All you need is an adapter that plugs into your UPS and has a socket that matches whatever is on the end of the cable of the power lead of the 8TB drive. How about telling us where you are and maybe we can get more specific? What brand/model UPS do you have? What kind of sockets on it?
 
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OK, now it makes sense. The UPS has IEC sockets, so you need to convert from that socket to the Israeli type C dual-pin socket to fit the plug on the drive. The other alternative is to see if there is a UPS in Israel with type C sockets (or whatever plugs come on the external drives) instead of IEC. I don't know what your electrical code or safety codes require of the UPS.
 

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