How can I extract data from iMac 2015...

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How can I extract data from iMac 2015...

My iMac 2015 is too full to boot properly. Finally got it to boot into Target mode, only to just be told (after Apple said otherwise) my iMac 2021 and MacBook Pro 2020 do NOT support Target mode. (Apple support was not helpful. I was assured if I bought the proper cables I would be able to link the new 2021 to the 2015, boot into Target mode and the 2021 would recognize the 2015 as a device and I could extract data).

How can I get to the data in the 2015 iMac?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 31, 2023 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

May 31, 2023 1:28 PM in response to lswaterford

There are two "target" modes which might have led to the confusion. It is Target Display mode that is limited to certain models, not Target Disk Mode.

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support

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Answer 2

lswaterford Author

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May 31, 2023 6:31 PM in response to BDAqua

If I've understood correctly, my options are:

Pull the hard drive. Trying to determine if I can pull the drive myself or if it must be taken to professionals.
Restore from a time machine backup? (I do have time machine backups, but there's a gap between the last backup and when the 2015 would not operate.) If I wanted to "start over" and restore from a time machine backup, I'd have to erase the HDD through disk utility first, right?

Thanks!

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,645 points

May 31, 2023 7:50 PM in response to lswaterford

2015 iMac isn't easy, + there are 3 different models...

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_21inch_late_2013_hdd/iMac14-4/

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_27in5k_14late_hdd/iMac15-1/

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_21inch_late_2013_hdd/iMac16-2/

Yes, you could try restore 1st, if not then Erase might work. My recommendation is a second external drive to Instal to & se what data can be pulled off the internal drive.

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Answer 4

lswaterford Author

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May 31, 2023 5:21 PM in response to BDAqua

Neither the 2020 MBP or the 2021 iMac recognize the 2015 iMac when the 2015 is in the TDM. Finally have gotten the 2015 into Disk Utility through Recovery Mode via the internet (ethernet cable). Any suggestions on what/if I can extract data without wiping out the drive? Ran first aid but says everything is ok.

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Answer 5

May 31, 2023 8:30 PM in response to lswaterford

According to the article, if either Mac is running macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later, you have to connect the machines using Thunderbolt – not using USB or USB-C.

All of the 2015 iMacs had Thunderbolt 2, which lived on a Mini DisplayPort connector, rather than on a USB-C one. To connect a Thunderbolt-2-equipped Mac (like your 2015 iMac) with a Mac that has Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ports, you'd need to daisy-chain a Thunderbolt 2 cable with Apple's Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter.

I don't know why they took away the "plain" USB or USB-C option with Big Sur, but this is what I get out of the support article.

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Answer 6

May 31, 2023 8:43 PM in response to lswaterford

Disk Utility is claiming that your drive is Unformatted (even though it is also completely full).

If Disk Utility does not believe that there are APFS or HFS+ volumes on the internal drive, that can't be a good sign. Target Disk Mode might provide access to the disk to a remote Mac only for the remote Mac to conclude that the disk was equally unreadable.

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Answer 7

May 31, 2023 8:50 PM in response to lswaterford

Disassembling a 27" iMac enough to be able to pull the hard drive, and then reassembling it afterwards, is not easy. If it's more involved than pulling the drive (the drive isn't showing up with APFS or HFS+ volumes) – and you're talking about trying to do professional data recovery from a corrupted/dead drive, that can be extremely expensive, with little guarantee that it will recover much of your data.

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Answer 8

lswaterford Author

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Jun 1, 2023 8:29 AM in response to BDAqua

Sorry, the 2015 is the late 2015 27". I'm wondering if I can use any external drive (i.e. WD with 5TB) or if it must be a SSD external as I've seen mentioned?

Wondering if I should try deleting any files via Terminal first?

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Answer 9

Jun 1, 2023 9:23 AM in response to lswaterford

You can use either an external SSD or an external HDD as a startup drive. The reason people that people usually choose SSDs (these days) is that SSDs have a huge speed advantage over HDDs for the kinds of random access that take place during startup and application launch.

Doing any sorts of writes to, or deletes from, a corrupted drive may corrupt it further. If Disk Utility doesn't think that there is an APFS or HFS+ volume on the internal drive, that might mean that the drive is corrupt enough that you won't even be able to see what's on it with the usual Unix directory ("ls") command.

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Answer 10

lswaterford Author

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Jun 1, 2023 8:47 PM in response to lswaterford

Entered Recovery mode and formatted a new external HDD using disk utility. Tried multiple times to install macOS Sierra on the external HDD (the only drive the 2015 is recognizing). Each try gets to just a few seconds remaining and then says, "an error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

Suggestions? (The drive was formatted for Mac)

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Answer 11

Jun 1, 2023 9:15 PM in response to lswaterford

I'd suggest using another Mac to prepare the external Sierra startup drive, then moving that drive over to the 2015 Mac. But it doesn't sound like any of your other Macs are old enough that they would let you successfully tun the Sierra installer.

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Answer 12

lswaterford Author

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Jun 3, 2023 5:47 PM in response to Servant of Cats

I was finally able to load Monterey on an external HDD and get the 2015 running, using the external as the startup drive. I was able to restore from the last backup of the TImeMachine.

I would still like to access the internal drive if possible.

The internal drive is still listed as "not mounted" in disk utility. When I try the "mount" option I receive an error "Could not mount "disk0s2".(com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error-119930868.)

Suggestions?

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

245,645 points

Jun 3, 2023 6:02 PM in response to lswaterford

See if you can get one of these to test that internal drive...

You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Thanks to Jack-19…

It may be wise to run SMART Utility to check the drives' health.

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Answer 14

Old Toad

Level 10

210,991 points

May 31, 2023 2:56 PM in response to lswaterford

Did you connect the two Mac by cable before booting the old Mac into Target Disk Mode and the other Mac normally?

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Answer 15

lswaterford Author

Level 1

13 points

May 31, 2023 1:42 PM in response to Keith Barkley

Thanks for the clarification Keith. I have the 2015 iMac in Target Disk Mode but it does not appear on either my 2020 MacBook Pro or my 2021 iMac. (I have tried both) Any suggestions?

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How can I extract data from iMac 2015...

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