Is it possible to remove and access hard drive from a late 2011 macbook pro on another macbook? or clone onto another macbook?

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Level 1

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Is it possible to remove and access hard drive from a late 2011 macbook pro on another macbook? or clone onto another macbook?

Having logic board failure and need files off of hardrive. Would be okay if it was just cloned in to new computer of just being able to access it in new laptop

Posted on Aug 7, 2017 5:20 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 7, 2017 5:35 AM in response to Fgmtheatre

get an external hard drive
boot to recovery mode and format the disc using disk utility
use recovery mode to install MacOS on the external HD
boot computer up using external hard drive
copy your user folder to the external hard drive

Message back here if you have a question

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Answer 2

Esquared

Level 6

12,415 points

Aug 7, 2017 5:36 AM in response to Fgmtheatre

Yes, that hard drive can be removed fairly easily: MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Late 2011 Hard Drive Replacement - iFixit

Take it out and put it in an external enclosure. Alternatively you could try if your MacBook still is able to start in Target Disk Mode: Use target disk mode to share files between two Mac computers - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Esquared

Level 6

12,415 points

Aug 7, 2017 6:11 AM in response to Fgmtheatre

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

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Answer 4

Fgmtheatre Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 7, 2017 6:03 AM in response to hercules-king

How do you boot to recovery mode? Also not sure if this would help given that I may not be able to get my laptop to even boot up again. LB failure sometimes prevents me from even doing that.

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Answer 5

Fgmtheatre Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 7, 2017 7:44 AM in response to Esquared

What happens when you restore from time machine backup from a older os onto a machine running the latest OS?

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