thunderbolt 1 to thunderbolt 3 cord?

Question

thunderbolt 1 to thunderbolt 3 cord?

Hi,

I have a an older iMac that won't boot. A couple years back I worked with apple to troubleshoot. The final thing they told me that I could do was to revive/restore using a thunderbolt cable. At the time I didn't have a second computer, so it wasn't really an option.

Now I have another computer, and I want to revive this old iMac so that I can either get it working or clear the hard drive and send it off for recycling.

The old iMac has a thunderbolt 1 port, the newer iMac has a thunderbolt 3 port. What kind of cord do I need? Am I going to have to buy a thunder bolt 1 cord, a thunderbolt 3 cord and a converter? I'm likely only going to use this one time, so what's my most cost effective approach?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 28, 2022 12:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,404 points

Jul 28, 2022 12:50 PM in response to oatmealandcinnamon

If the old computer will not boot then no cable will do you any good, you simply will not be able to make the connection. Your best alternative is to remove the old Mac's HD and put it into an enclosure such as a https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3NH7T00/ and then connect that up to the newer Mac and move your files.

If you have a Time Machine backup of the old computer you can also connect that to the newer Mac and move over your files.

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Answer 2

Mal-S

Level 5

5,056 points

Jul 28, 2022 12:55 PM in response to oatmealandcinnamon

Thunderbolt 3 is compatible with Thunderbolt 1 so I should think that a Thunderbolt 1 cord is the one to take data from the old machine to the new machine.

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Answer 3

Mal-S

Level 5

5,056 points

Jul 28, 2022 1:28 PM in response to VikingOSX

It's a matter of the version on the receiving side, Version 1 can only receive & transmit via a V1 cord but a V3 can receive 3 , 2, 1 with the appropriate cord from the matching source. I'm not an expert on Thunderbolt but I understand it is quite complicated and is why the cables can be very expensive.

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Answer 4

VikingOSX

Level 10

122,898 points

Jul 28, 2022 1:16 PM in response to Mal-S

If Thunderbolt 3 is compatible with Thunderbolt 1, why would Apple sell a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 cable, and a thunderbolt 1/2 cable for that connection completion?

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