Anyone have luck with APFS?

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Patrick Burden

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Feb 20, 2025, 11:58:16 AM2/20/25
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Hi there I have a drive from a donor that is written in APFS (Apple File system).  When plugging it into BC, I get an error saying that the kernel is unable to read from this format.  Outside of borrowing a MAC, has anyone found a workaround to get access to the files?

Corey Forman

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Feb 20, 2025, 12:08:45 PM2/20/25
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Hi Patrick, you can try installing the libfsapfs library in the version of Ubuntu you're using. They should be libfsapfs1, libfsapfs-utils, and if necessary, libfsapfs-dev.

From: bitcurat...@googlegroups.com <bitcurat...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Patrick Burden <patrick...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2025 11:58:16 AM
To: BitCurator Users <bitcurat...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Anyone have luck with APFS?
 
Hi there I have a drive from a donor that is written in APFS (Apple File system).  When plugging it into BC, I get an error saying that the kernel is unable to read from this format.  Outside of borrowing a MAC, has anyone found a workaround to get access to the files?

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Donald Mennerich

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Feb 20, 2025, 12:20:17 PM2/20/25
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This may not help, but, if you have access to a Windows system Paradox makes a 'APFS for windows' driver. This is paid software, like 20 dollars iirc. It works fine. I keep it and their HFS+ package on my acquisition laptop.

Don


On Thursday, February 20, 2025, Corey Forman <co...@digitalsleuth.ca> wrote:
Hi Patrick, you can try installing the libfsapfs library in the version of Ubuntu you're using. They should be libfsapfs1, libfsapfs-utils, and if necessary, libfsapfs-dev.


Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2025 11:58:16 AM
To: BitCurator Users <bitcurator-users@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Anyone have luck with APFS?
Hi there I have a drive from a donor that is written in APFS (Apple File system).  When plugging it into BC, I get an error saying that the kernel is unable to read from this format.  Outside of borrowing a MAC, has anyone found a workaround to get access to the files?

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Donald R. Mennerich, Senior Digital Archivist
Digital Library Technology Services
New York University Libraries

Kam Woods

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Feb 20, 2025, 12:25:03 PM2/20/25
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For anyone interested in trying the open source lib in Ubuntu, note that the mount utility provided by libapfs is "fsapfsmount", and you *must* provide a password if the source is encrypted (try "man fsapfsmount" to see the full list of options).

YMMV on actually mounting volumes depending on the age/config of the drive, as libapfs has some documented limitations (per the README at https://github.com/libyal/libfsapfs/tree/main): 

Read-only supported APFS formats:

* version 2

Supported APFS format features:

* ZLIB (DEFLATE) compression
* LZVN compression
* encryption
* extended attributes

Unsupported APFS format features:

* APFS version 1
* Fusion drive (NX_INCOMPAT_FUSION)
* snapshots
* LZFSE compression, compression methods 11 and 12
* "uncompressed", compression methods 1, 9 and 10
* T2 encryption

On Thu, Feb 20, 2025 at 12:20 PM Donald Mennerich <don.me...@nyu.edu> wrote:
This may not help, but, if you have access to a Windows system Paradox makes a 'APFS for windows' driver. This is paid software, like 20 dollars iirc. It works fine. I keep it and their HFS+ package on my acquisition laptop.

Don

On Thursday, February 20, 2025, Corey Forman <co...@digitalsleuth.ca> wrote:
Hi Patrick, you can try installing the libfsapfs library in the version of Ubuntu you're using. They should be libfsapfs1, libfsapfs-utils, and if necessary, libfsapfs-dev.


Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2025 11:58:16 AM
To: BitCurator Users <bitcurat...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Anyone have luck with APFS?
Hi there I have a drive from a donor that is written in APFS (Apple File system).  When plugging it into BC, I get an error saying that the kernel is unable to read from this format.  Outside of borrowing a MAC, has anyone found a workaround to get access to the files?

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Donald R. Mennerich, Senior Digital Archivist
Digital Library Technology Services
New York University Libraries

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