14 DAY TRIAL // The macOS High Sierra 10.13 operating system launched yesterday for supported Macs and it brought a lot of new features and improvements, starting with the all-new APFS file system that's superior to HFS+.
APFS or Apple File System is a brand-new and advanced storage architecture created by Apple to provide that lays the groundwork for future storage technologies on the Mac. It comes with many new features when compared to HFS+ file system that was used on previous macOS releases, including macOS Sierra 10.12.
For example, APFS supports all the latest high-capacity storage devices, it's more reliable and secure, and delivers enhanced performance. It's also a lot faster than HFS+, making common operations like copying or moving of big files and folders with multiple items almost instantaneous.
Apple File System's advanced data integrity features can also protect your data from unexpected disasters like system crashes or power outages, and it's available with the macOS High Sierra 10.13 update for all supported Macs with a flash-based internal storage drive.
Support for Fusion drives and HDD Mac systems coming soon
Unfortunately, APFS is not supported on Mac systems with hard disk drivers (HDDs), nor Fusion drives, which some iMacs and Mac mini computers have. But Apple said that it would add support for these drives in a future update of macOS High Sierra, which was recently confirmed by Craig Federighi. When exactly we don't know, but we'll let you know as soon as it's available.
In the meantime, you should hold on from updating your Mac to macOS High Sierra as the major release launched with a critical security issue that puts your stored Keychain passwords at risk, though it's also present in older macOS versions. Anyway, if you want to install macOS High Sierra, check out our quick tutorial.