Looking at buying an Apple Laptop

I have been a PC user forever and I am tired of Microsoft! I have several iPads & iPhones and love the format. Will I be able to use my external hard drives with an Apple Laptop? If yes, will I have to format them first? Do the Macbooks come with an optical drive? Can you connect an externad CD/DVD-RW? Do you use the APP store for software on the laptops? Newbie questions I know....

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, you can use external drives with an apple MacBook Pro.

No, you don't HAVE to format them, as the Apple operating system can read (but not necessarily write) to Windows formatted drives. macOS can read all formats, but cannot write to NTFS formatted drives. There are third party drivers that allow macOS to write to NTFS drives, the one recommended here is ParagonNTFS.

New MacBook Pros do not have optical drives. Yes, an external optical drive will work.

Yes and No on the App store. I have some from the app store and some directly from developers.

One thing to note is that the new Apple machines all use USB-C, so you will need an adapter to use older USB drives and optical drives with the newer portables.

One more terminology: there are two types of portables sold by Apple, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro (usually abbreviated MBP). You can find them both at apple.com.

You mentioned "MacBooks" in your original post. Not sure if you were using term to group all Apple notebook/laptop computers. Or if you were actually interested in a "MacBook"model. Apple laptop/notebook computers include:

- MacBook Pro's
- MacBook's
- MacBook Air's

If you are actually interested in a "MacBook" model. Jake did a great job above answering your questions.

- Nick

Guys, Thank you for the replies! I have never used an Apple laptop so I am unsure of what all they can do. I have everything backed up on external hard drives in NTFS format from my computer. Not sure how many apple models there are. I am on Newegg looking at refurbished MacBooks that have HDMI & standard USB ports.

Here is another good site to get refurbished Apple products, http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac.

Definitely check out the refurbished link member ferrarr provided. The Apple refurbished area is the area I would ALWAYS check first...when considering a refurbished computer.

Why you may ask? I don't know what the Newegg refurbished process is (what they do to refurbish the units)...or what Newegg's refurbished computer warranty is. But with Apple refurbished units...you get exactly the same 12 months of Applecare warranty...just like a brand new computer.

- Nick