Can I Format a Windows SSD to Apple APFS (High Sierra)?

[Sugar Kaine Mostly]

I just bought two 480GB Toshiba OCZ TR200 SSD's that were used in RAID 0 mode for some 4K work in Adobe Premiere. I am planning to sell my MacBook Pro 2011 and was thinking of adding these drives in there to boost the sale. I already have a Crucial 275GB SSD in the MacBook Pro now and a 500GB 5400 RPM drive in the 2nd DVD drive caddy.

My concern is can I just place one 480GB drive in the caddy and format it to APFS within High Sierra? I don't want to damage the SSD. I've had bad experiences with drives coming from Windows and Apple. However, I once went to the Mac store and they used one of my old Intel 40GB SSD SATA 2 drives that had Windows 7 on it and they were able to format it to Apple in Yosemite with no problem.

What do you guys think? T hanks

 

[canadianvice]

You'd lose your data, but there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Drives are generally preformatted for FAT32 or NTFS due to their prevalence in the market, but all that is just the way the bytes are ordered.

Basically, a filesystem is like an excel spreadsheet stored in the first sectors of the hard drive that links up files with their locations on the disk - the filesystem is exposed to the operating system, which then gives the controller the address it wants the file data for, and things go from there. As long as the OS understands how to read that filesystem, it's fine. If it doesn't, there's nothing that says you can't just overwrite it with a new filesystem that your new OS understands - but beware you will lose your data.

TLDR: It's fine. Just format it for the new filesystem and it should be fine, but be aware that you will lose any existing data on the drive.

 

[Alabalcho]

Plug that drive in Windows PC, and delete all partitions. Your MAC should be able to repartition and use it.

OTOH: Why you think putting a turbocharger in '90 Honda Acord will "boost the sale"? If I were to buy seven-year old laptop (even a Mac), I would want it cheap, not fast for something I wont use it.

 

[Sugar Kaine Mostly]

Plug that drive in Windows PC, and delete all partitions. Your MAC should be able to repartition and use it.

OTOH: Why you think putting a turbocharger in '90 Honda Acord will "boost the sale"? If I were to buy seven-year old laptop (even a Mac), I would want it cheap, not fast for something I wont use it.

I see so I need a PC at hand to do this? I had inserted the Toshiba's into the MacPro but to no avail could I format them to APFS nor MacOS Journaled etc... Something about the GUID Partition problem that I have seen loads of times when using Windows based formatted SSDs into Mac Disk Utilites format.

Is there a particular software I need to use to format the Toshiba drives into a pure state ready for Mac OSX? I do get rid of all or any of the partitions? Is there a go to program for these particular scenarios? Please note I don't have a Windows based PC at the moment, the best I could do is buy a used PC and attempt this. Thanks

 

[Sugar Kaine Mostly]

You'd lose your data, but there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Drives are generally preformatted for FAT32 or NTFS due to their prevalence in the market, but all that is just the way the bytes are ordered.

Basically, a filesystem is like an excel spreadsheet stored in the first sectors of the hard drive that links up files with their locations on the disk - the filesystem is exposed to the operating system, which then gives the controller the address it wants the file data for, and things go from there. As long as the OS understands how to read that filesystem, it's fine. If it doesn't, there's nothing that says you can't just overwrite it with a new filesystem that your new OS understands - but beware you will lose your data.

TLDR: It's fine. Just format it for the new filesystem and it should be fine, but be aware that you will lose any existing data on the drive.

I put the SSD in the MacBook Pro and it didn't allow me to format it, mainly with Mac OSX Journaled. It gives an error regarding the GUID partition map or something. Again my theory is that it was initially formatted in Windows based file system so even in Disk Utility you can't master override that. Unfortunately now I don't even have a PC at hand, just bought a used PC for about 60 bucks just hopefully format these in Windows FOR Mac? I hope this works.

 

[canadianvice]

You'd lose your data, but there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Drives are generally preformatted for FAT32 or NTFS due to their prevalence in the market, but all that is just the way the bytes are ordered.

Basically, a filesystem is like an excel spreadsheet stored in the first sectors of the hard drive that links up files with their locations on the disk - the filesystem is exposed to the operating system, which then gives the controller the address it wants the file data for, and things go from there. As long as the OS understands how to read that filesystem, it's fine. If it doesn't, there's nothing that says you can't just overwrite it with a new filesystem that your new OS understands - but beware you will lose your data.

TLDR: It's fine. Just format it for the new filesystem and it should be fine, but be aware that you will lose any existing data on the drive.

I put the SSD in the MacBook Pro and it didn't allow me to format it, mainly with Mac OSX Journaled. It gives an error regarding the GUID partition map or something. Again my theory is that it was initially formatted in Windows based file system so even in Disk Utility you can't master override that. Unfortunately now I don't even have a PC at hand, just bought a used PC for about 60 bucks just hopefully format these in Windows FOR Mac? I hope this works.

If not, use Linux. Linux is basically the best way to give a middle finger to anything getting in your way with the drive, just boot a liveCD like ubuntu or something. Mac is just playing nice, my guess would be some people have had issues with GUID partitions and bootcamp and losing data.