iMac 27in (2011) Hard Disk is damaged.
Hello,
I have an old iMac 27in and the hard drive is damaged. It makes a clicking noise when you turn on the computer. It went loading and then just a white screen and reloading again, and again. Now, it is just a white screen with Folder and ? I have tried every recovery step on the Apple Website. No keyboard combinations work to get into Recovery Mode and did not work as well when trying to reset NVRM.
My current system (iMac 21.5in 2109) is running Sonoma so it will not allow me to create a High Sierra.app to make a USB boot disk or use Disk Drill. Do I need to back up my entire system and downgrade to High Sierra in order to create the High Sierra. app so I can use Terminal or Disk Drill to create the USB.
How do I run recover software like Test Disk if I cannot actually get the disk recognized? Is there a way to remove the hard disk from the iMac 27in and connect it to something like an external drive where I can run this software.
I apologize about the length, but I wanted to try and provide as much detail as possible.
Thank you very much!
Earlier Mac models