Can this be deleted...just asking !

Just asking to learn do's and don'ts. Can this be deleted without causing any damage to my operating system. Have a full backup of my system on an external hard drive. The attached is a copy of a fresh install of high sierra that was downloaded after installing a new ssd hd. Realize that I have a ton of storage available and its presence is not complicating anything. Just wondering what would happen if removed. And if removable how would I go about doing so without causing any issues with my startup drive (Samsung MBP).
Did i unknowingly partition my Samsung MBP ssd by installing the fresh install of high sierra after replacing old drive with the new ssd.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Can i delete this ?

You must be running High Sierra with APFS File system. That Container is part of the file system and contains the partition. If you remove that all will be gone.

Put another way, that IS your operating system and all of its data. So no, you cannot delete it.

Raz0rEdge said:

Put another way, that IS your operating system and all of its data. So no, you cannot delete it.

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I guess that's a more emphatic answer than the old expression "if you have to ask or don't know — the answer is No and leave things as they are"!!!

Now, let's hope there's a backup.






- Patrick
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MBP Pro 15" late 2011 8gb.
Learned my lesson the hard way so yes...there is a backup.
Can you explain the difference in the meaning of the Samsung MBP, which is the name I assigned the ssd when I installed it as to the above screen shot of "container disk 1".
When the ssd was installed only the Samsung MBP was visible. I than proceeded with a re-install of high sierra of which than container disk 1 showed up.
What is the difference in the two names and what exactly did I do or accomplish when doing the re-install ?

Can you explain the difference in the meaning of the Samsung MBP, ... ...

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I would suggest you just start googling and read up on Apple's APFS file system and how it works.

Some of the sites with illustrated diagrams should make it easier to understand.





- Patrick
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The drive has been, as Patrick said, formatted to APFS. Unlike HFS+, the "old" file system, in APFS there are "containers" and "volumns" inside the container. So in your image, on your Samsung drive is one container named "container disk1" and inside that container a single volume named "Samsung MPB" and that appears to be your boot drive. Normally the boot drive is named "Macintosh HD" or something similar, but you named it Samsung MBP, and that's fine. If you "partition" again, a new volume will be added into container disk1 and will be given whatever name you give it. The neat part of APFS is that within the container, APFS will dynamically allocate space for the volumes in it, so you don't really have to worry about having to re-partition when one volume gets full. APFS will dynamically add more space as needed, to the limit of what is available. Basically, if you have more than one volume, size doesn't matter, at least as much as it used to.

Here is a pretty good article on APFS: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/apfs-apple-file-system/

And here is another: https://blog.macsales.com/44596-par...ontainers-for-space-sharing-with-disk-utility

Normally the boot drive is named "Macintosh HD" or something similar, but you named it Samsung MBP, and that's fine.

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"Normally"...??? I'd just say it's usually just the default name. I have renamed my boot drives with a custom name since it was possible, like almost forever, but have always used "HD" at the end of the custom name.





- Patrick
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But not everyone does that, Patrick. I'm happy with the default, and I suspect a majority are still named with the default. But you are correct, the proper term is "default." So please consider the sentence corrected to, "The default is that the boot drive is named 'Macintosh HD' or something similar, but you named it Samsung MBP, and that's fine."

Thanks Jake for the explanation. All is understood now.
I did take Patrick's suggestion and googled Apple's APFS file system but, after a long day of work, the reading at times was a little too much IT related than what I could handle at the time.
Your explanation was simple and to the point whereas a layman like myself, and new to the mac world could easily understand !
Again, thanks to all.