My 2017 iMac running OS Catalina will no longer power on. I swapped out the power supply, but that didn't fix the problem. I also have an older 2010 iMac running OS Sierra...if I remove the hard drive from the 2017 iMac can I connect it to the 2010 iMac using a SATA to USB cable and then see and recover the files on it?
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.6
What rkaufmann87 posted is correct, but there is one caveat.
In order for your older iMac to read the drive from your newer Catalina iMac it must be running macOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer. MacOS 10.12 Sierra and older OS versions will not recognize the APFS format of the Catalina OS drive.
The good new is that yes, that old iMac can be upgraded to 10.13.6 High Sierra, if it is not already running that version. 👍🏽
What rkaufmann87 posted is correct, but there is one caveat.
In order for your older iMac to read the drive from your newer Catalina iMac it must be running macOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer. MacOS 10.12 Sierra and older OS versions will not recognize the APFS format of the Catalina OS drive.
The good new is that yes, that old iMac can be upgraded to 10.13.6 High Sierra, if it is not already running that version. 👍🏽
Yes, you can remove the drive, then put it into an enclosure like:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3NH7T00/ then connect it to the other Mac and if the drive is okay you can recover the data you want.
rollosan1 wrote:
The version on my old mac is 10.12.6 with no option to upgrade the OS. So I guess if I purchase a new MacBook Pro, I should be able to read the drive using a SATA to USB C adapter cable?
Yes, that is correct. A new Mac would be able to read the old drive connected with a SATA to USB-C adapter cable.
APFS was in beta release during the latter stages of macOS High Sierra. By the time one gets to Catalina, APFS had undergone several revisions by Apple and even the firmware of the drive on Catalina likely was updated. Although one hopes for a positive outcome in accessing the Catalina drive on High Sierra, there be dragons in the mix.
See if the Mac can boot into Target Disk Mode. If it can you can connect it to another Mac via cable and access it as an external drive to copy the files you need to the other Mac.
If you have a last Time Machine backup from the old mac, you can use Apple's Migration assistant with that Time Machine drive and an Apple USB-C to USB-A adapter. Do not migrate applications as they will likely be incompatible with the new Mac's macOS Sonoma.
You should also confirm that your printer/scanner vendor still offers drivers for macOS Sonoma (macOS 14), or you may be looking at additional purchases there too. Ideally, devices supported by Apple's built-in AirPrint so no vendor drivers are needed.
Unfortunately, the last backup I had was on an AirPort Extreme and the hard drive in that died a few months ago. Of course I never got around to establishing a new backup drive and the files I need are newer than the last backup.
Agree.
I saw conflicting info in the OP's post and tag line and thought to clarify that 10.12 Sierra was right off the table for this.
The version on my old mac is 10.12.6 with no option to upgrade the OS. So I guess if I purchase a new MacBook Pro, I should be able to read the drive using a SATA to USB C adapter cable?
Recover files from Dead iMac
