Can I take my old mac and make it into an external hard drive

Can I take my old mac and make it into an external hard drive? It does not work anymore but I would like to make it into an external hard drive. I heard it is not to hard to do myself but I have important information I would like off of it and only really trust the apple store to do it. I know it is possible because I have had a friend that had it done after water went on her laptop. I would like to also know how much is this going to cost and if it is even worth getting done at the store or just do it myself.

Can it boot to Target Disk Mode
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
Otherwise just take the HD out and put it in an external enclosure.

Similar Messages

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    I have recently upgraded to the new MacBook Pro and have a new 2T external hard drive. I used my old MacBook Pro to transfer all my files from my old 1T hard drive of the same make to the new one. This all worked without isssue and I can open the ne external hard drive on my old Mac but my new Mac is reading it. It does not show up in finder at all but it does show up in Disk Utility. Any suggestions? Do I need to do something on my new Mac for it to be read? The new Mac has no problem with the smaller USBs I use.

    How do you have Finder Preferences set?
    Ciao.

  • Can I or how can I move my "Project Library" and "Event Library" to an external hard drive and work from there?

    I am running low on hard drive space and would like to move my imovie "Project Library" and "Event Library" to an external hard drive.   I cannot figure out how to find these libraries on my hard drive to move them.    How do I tell iMovie to look to the external hard drive to find them?

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  • Can I dual boot windows 7 and mountain lion with an external hard drive.

    I have Mac OSX mountain lion installed and running on my 2TB external hard drive. Boot camp says that I have to use the default flash storage that came with my computer.. Is there a way to put it on my external hard drive if I partition it? I also am having a problem when I tried to use the default storage the setup would not let me format it to NTFS

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  • I want to take all the data stored on my mac and put it on an external hard drive, what all can be moved off the computer and still work and what can't?

    Im looking to get some external terabytes and move data or files from my internal drive to the external drive, i was wondering what has to stay on the computer to function still and what can me moved if not all of the files on the internal drive. i know i can move the videos and pictures, but what about program data or files or whatever may be nedded to run all of the apps and programs i have on my computer. if i could get some insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

    Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
      1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
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      3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
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      6. See The Storage Display.
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  • I recently bought my first mac and am wondering if my external hard drive that I used with my pc will be compatible?

    I know that it will not be formatted for a mac, so does that mean I will be able to pull up information but not change or add to the content at all?

    MelK1983 wrote:
    How do I know that?
    Use Disk Utility which can be found in Applications - Utilities.  Select the external drive in the left-hand sidebar and info will appear at the bottom of the window, including formatting information.

  • Hi Everyone.  I have an old Mac Book.  I have saved a ton of emails in my inbox 'On My Mac'.  There are so many it is slowing down my computer.  Where do I find the folder with all the emails so I can cut and paste them to an external hard drive?Pls.help.

    Hi Everyone.  I have an old Mac Book with software updated to 10.6.8.  I have saved a ton of emails in my inbox 'On My Mac'.  There are so many it is slowing down my computer.  Where do I find the folder with all the emails so I can cut and paste them to an external hard drive? Pls.help.  Tks.

    Depending on which email client software you use
    the files should be in 'your home folder' library, esp.
    if you use Mail application.... ~/Library/Mail
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    that would most be associated with the file.
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    where it says "more like this' so that may be worth a
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    Help viewer in your system is a searchable database.
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  • Is there a way to take an existing PDF and make it into a form that will aggregate the responses?

    Is there a way to take an existing PDF and make it into a form that will aggregate the responses? 

    Sabian has pointed you to an older Acrobat X tutorial.
    It depicts the use of acrobat.com "workspaces".
    "Workspaces" are going away soon.
    See:
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  • Can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

    can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

    Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
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    3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
    4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
    Regards
    TD

  • HT4927 I have just downloaded iPhoto from the app store. The photo library from my old laptop was backed up on an external hard drive and I retrieved the photos from there.  Now when I open the photos on my new Mac Book Pro, they are small - am I missing

    I have just downloaded iPhoto from the app store. The photo library from my old laptop was backed up on an external hard drive and I retrieved the photos from there.  Now when I open the photos on my new Mac Book Pro, they are small - am I missing something?
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    I dragged the Photo library icon from the backup drive on to iPhoto on the laptop
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    Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
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  • I had a windows laptop, and I save files like photos, documents, videos and other things on an external hard drive, and now I want to move those files to the Mac book Pro, and then move those files again to another external hard drive 1T. My question is:

    I had a windows laptop, and I save files like photos,documents, videos and other things on an external hard drive, and now I want tomove those files to the Mac book Pro, and then move those files again toanother external hard drive 1T. My question is: Is it possible? Doing this willnot affect the files that I had in windows? No information is lost? or how cani do it?

    Connect the external drive to your Mac and drag the files from it to your Mac's internal drive. Then dismount and disconnect the external drive, connect the 1TB external drive, and drag the files from the internal drive onto the external. Nothing will have been deleted from any of the drives up to this point; the files will only have been copied. Verify that the files are readable. There's no reason they shouldn't be; this is just a precaution.
    Now if you wish to delete the files from any of the drives, drag them to the Trash, and Empty the Trash while the drive from which they came is still connected. If you disconnect the drive before emptying the Trash, the files you were trying to remove from it won't be deleted. They'll remain in the Trash and continue to take up space on the drive.
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  • How do I combine an old itune library thats on an external hardrive and a newer library thats on a newer computer into 1 library and keep them on the external hard drive so I won't use up all my memory on my newer laptop

    I copied an old iTunes library off my old Toshiba laptop with windows xp and put it on an external hard drive.  I have a newer Microsoft surface pro laptop with windows 8.1.   I have a small iTunes library on my newer laptop.  I want to combine the 2 libraries into 1, add newer podcasts to the combined library daily, but keep it all on my external hard drive, so I don't use all my memory on my surface pro.  I have an older ipod classic that I have all my old library on.  I love it and don't want to stop using it, but want to be able to add podcasts from my 1 library from time to time.  What I usually do is download podcasts for a few weeks then, download them to my ipod.  Haven't done any of this in about a year.  But want to start getting regular with it again.   PS  I'm not very computer savy  Thanks for any help or advice!

    This article explains how to open a different library: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one. The assumption is that the whole library was copied to the external drive from the old Toshiba laptop, not just the media. If that isn't the case make a new library on the external drive in a folder called \iTunes and move the media inside \iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library.
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    Should your library contain duplicates after merging see this recent post on deduping.
    If there are ratings, playlists, play counts, or content stored on the iPod classic and not located anywhere else then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
    Ideally you should backup your library to a second drive for security. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested strategy.
    tt2

  • Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad not recognised as device when plugged in? Do i reset my ipad2!!!

    Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad2 not being recognised as a device when plugged in so can't sync? Do i reset my ipad2?!!!! Its only taken 7 months to get to this point.
    My ipad is set to sync via wifi but it is still trying to look for my old laptop which has been trashed..but i have deauthorised it and removed it from my account and still not recognised.
    Please help (an extreme novice to Apple products)

    Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data
    http://www.howtogeek.com/104298/sync-your-ios-device-with-a-new-computer-without -losing-data/
    iPad not appearing in iTunes
    http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
    iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
    iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
    IOS: Syncing with iTunes
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
    Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
    http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
     Cheers, Tom

  • I moved all my photos and videos from iPhoto to external hard drive and now can't play any videos. Please help!!!

    I moved all my photos and videos from iPhoto to external hard drive, then totaly formated my macbook and now trying to play videos of external hard drive, but they wont play and they in "quicktime containers" and really small in size (50 - 150 Kb). Please Help!!! My misuse will kill me if find out that we have no more videos from our honeymoon...

    I moved all my photos and videos from iPhoto to external hard drive, then totaly formated my macbook and now trying to play videos of external hard drive, but they wont play and they in "quicktime containers" and really small in size (50 - 150 Kb). Please Help!!! My misuse will kill me if find out that we have no more videos from our honeymoon...
    You may need to prepare yourself for a "World of Hurt" from your wife...
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    If you created reference files and saved them to an external drive, you should be getting an error message telling you the app needs to know where the source files are located so the reference file can re-connect to the resource data. If the original files were also saved, then simple navigate to the source files in oder to tell the app where they are now located. If the source files were deleted as part of the reformatting process, then you are up the proverbial creek whithout a paddle with little or no hope of doing anything about this issue. (I.e., reformatting and then re-installing a system drive usually means you would have little hope of recovering the specific "lost" data you want as there is always a good chance that some of the data segments were overwritten during the process.)

  • I turned off my fire vault by accident and is there a way to stop it from decrypting cause that is going to take a long time and i want to keep my hard drive encrypted

    I turned off my fire vault by accident and is there a way to stop it from decrypting cause that is going to take a long time and i want to keep my hard drive encrypted.
    is there a way to stop it in the middle so it does not go through the whole process

    It's called, "FileVault." If there is no option to stop the process, then the best bet would be to wait until decrypting is finished. Otherwise you run the risk of borking the whole thing. It's hard to imagine how you can accidentally turn off FileVault.

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