Constantly shutting down

[Hurf72]

Hello all.
I’m a total noob and know nothing about programming. I’m a musician. I’m currently having major issues with my late 2012 Mac mini running High Serria 10.13.4 16g memory. The damn thing keeps shutting down randomly, sometimes I get an hour and others I get a minute. I’ve spoken to Apple and they’ve been as helpful as can be, their next option was a full system restore. As much as I could do this, I’ve been a stupid and lazy person. I haven’t backed up anything for about 2-3 years. Problem with this is I could transfer files but the system now just shuts down and nothing transfers, I also have loads of photos of our son, bla bla bla.
I’ve done a reset of the SMC, reinstalled OS in recovery mode. It has been kept cool the power cord has been replaced and tested correctly. Plenty of space left on the hard drive and tested ok in diagnostics. The next solution is full restore. If anyone has any ideas of recovery of files so I can do this. Or do I just spend weeks transferring file by file, or send it to a Mac guru.

 

[Fishrrman]

Could be a weak power supply.
Could be something else. Do you hear the fan running? If the fan IS NOT running, could the Mini be overheating?

Some things to try.

Boot into safe mode.
Press power on button and hold down the shift key, keep holding it down.
Can you get logged in that way?
If so, does it still shut down after a while?

You could open the Mini (take the black cover off), then blow out any dust inside.
Another thing to try would be to GENTLY remove the RAM DIMMs, clean the contacts, and re-install them.

About backup:
Do you have an external drive that is large enough to hold the contents of the internal drive?
If not, get one, and then try this:
Download CarbonCopyCloner. CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Use CCC to create a cloned backup of the internal drive onto the external.
If the computer shuts down, just get rebooted and continue. CCC will pick up where it left off. Eventually, you should end up with a complete backup.

I'm a fan of the 2012 Mini, but if you come to conclusion that it's failing on you, it might be time to start shopping for a replacement.
The 2018's are worth considering.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

An easy way to find out if your fan is failing you is to install Macs fan control. It will display temps in your Mini. If the temperature goes critical it will set itself down. All modern PC's are designed to do that.

Macs Fan Control - control fans on Apple computers, also on Windows via Boot Camp

Control fans on Apple computers, also on Windows via Boot Camp. Monitoring of fan speed and temperature sensors. Solve fan noise and overheating problems, iMac HDD replacement

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