Chosen Solution
I am going to build a PC. Can I use the hard drive and slim optical drive from an old Mac laptop in an HTPC? Do I need to format the drive first, and how would I format it?
It really depends on what kind of Mac you have. For systems like the iMac, it will depend on the age of the system and the kind you want to build. The Intel models use laptop RAM (DDR2/3) and while this is easier to carry over, you need to find a SODIMM compatible board. These exist, but aren’t super common (but have become easier to get in recent years due to the small PC trend). The old models like the G5 use DDR and are only useful in really old systems. Don’t hold your breath with PPC Macs outside of the hard drive in the few systems blessed with SATA (iMac/PowerMac) and RAM (legacy systems only). For GPU’s, don’t hold your breath. It may work, but the Apple cards have a different ROM then PC retail cards. And that’s if it’s modular or workable. You may be able to flash it for a Mac Pro card, but this will make it useless on a Mac without going back to the old firmware. Hard drives will work in a PC, however, you probably want a newer (faster) drive. The optical drive is generally easy to reuse, but finding a bezel may be tough since Apple uses the chassis in lieu of one. The Mac Pro is a different beast altogether with fewer (or more) transfer issues. RAM will be easy to move as these use DDR2 or DDR3 DIMM modules (age dependent), but may support ECC which most consumer parts do not use and it tends to not stay dormant which may create an issue with the system booting. This isn’t a problem for a Xeon (since it’s designed for it), but it will be an issue for common consumer parts. These use a 5/14” optical drive, so not a good choice for a slim build unless your case has space for it. Apple’s laptops are mostly soldered parts - pre 2012 systems use SODIMM memory with the exception of the Air. 2012-present has soldered RAM and a proprietary SSD (or a soldered SSD). You can’t reuse anything in the rMBP. Don’t bother if it’s newer then 2012.
