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Using old iMac internal hard drive as external USB drive in new iMac

Hello,


My old iMac stopped displaying video, was out of warranty so I bought a new iMac. I salvaged the old hard drive from my old iMac, bought a SATA to USB adapter and hooked it up to my new iMac.


I thought it would be a simple drag and drop of my old files but when the drive is plugged in I get the following message.User uploaded file



I can see the drive in disk utility but it's not in Finder or anywhere else.

User uploaded file

Hoping someone can assist.


Thanks!

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 5, 2015 4:31 AM

Reply
4 replies

Mar 5, 2015 3:43 PM in response to tbirdvet

Initializing will erase the drive. The OP apparently wants to access the old files, so initializing is the wrong path.


On the other hand, Disk Utility isn't showing any valid volumes on that external. Normally, under the "Innostor . . ." line (i.e., DU sees the enclosure's controller chip), there would be an indented entry with the name(s) of the volume(s) on the HDD. Two possibilities come to mind: (1) the HDD isn't properly seated in the enclosure or (2) the HDD is corrupt or has failed. One wonders why the old iMac "stopped displaying video"?

Apr 28, 2015 10:31 AM in response to StuartB29

Stuart, looks like this was a while ago and I am wondering if you solved

your problem and just left this question, or you still have your issue?


I want to make sure I understand what happened, so here is what I think

I heard. You had an old


First thing, you can see the drive in Disk Utility, right? Did you mount

the drive? Did you try to boot from the drive itself? If it is a functioning

system drive it should work, but there could be compilicating factors

like how old was your old Mac? I assume it was an Intel machine?


The fact that Disk Utility does not show a filesystem on the drive

doesn't look good. Did you verify that your old iMac was broken instead

of perhaps the disk was broken or the filesystem was corrupted?

Using old iMac internal hard drive as external USB drive in new iMac

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