I have just retired my late 2014 27” 5K Retina iMac but have saved the display which I have rebuilt as a standalone display (works really well too) Before i took the iMac apart the HDD was working perfectly. I bought a UGreen USB caddy which read another HDD no problem. This was previously in a windows machine however. I am using a new mac mini and also a macbook air. The iMac drive in the caddy isnt recognised by either. In disk utility it shows greyed out and states it is unmounted. Really stuck on what to do as I really need the info on it. Any suggestions as to how to get the drive to read gratefully received
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Reusing 2014 iMac HDD as external drive. Not working!
- Thread starter davee77
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Mr_Brightside_@
macrumors 601
The only config for that year was either a Fusion Drive or straight SSD.
Unless you ever explicitly separated the Fusion Drive into its small SSD and hard drive, it's still configured as Fusion and that's why it's not mounting as usual.
I had this happen once with a client and simply inserting the HD back into the Mac and accessing it over target disk worked well-the Fusion Drive was restored, in a sense.
I assume you still have the board for the iMac so if you connect the hard drive back into it and can power it on, it may be ok.
Alternatively, you can get an enclosure for its SSD, but I'm uncertain if connecting both that and the Ugreen will mount nicely.
Unless you ever explicitly separated the Fusion Drive into its small SSD and hard drive, it's still configured as Fusion and that's why it's not mounting as usual.
I had this happen once with a client and simply inserting the HD back into the Mac and accessing it over target disk worked well-the Fusion Drive was restored, in a sense.
I assume you still have the board for the iMac so if you connect the hard drive back into it and can power it on, it may be ok.
Alternatively, you can get an enclosure for its SSD, but I'm uncertain if connecting both that and the Ugreen will mount nicely.
Thanks, it is the fusion dive and i have the ssd as well as the HDD. Reinserting back into the mac is a bit like doing open heart surgery….your explanation makes sense, i guess i better find another donor imac.
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
Just a suggestion, not sure if this will work, but...
Take the drive and caddy to a PC running Windows.
See if can be mounted and then erased using a Windows (NOT Mac) format.
Any format, doesn't matter.
Does that work?
If so, NOW take it back to Mac and see what happens next.
Take the drive and caddy to a PC running Windows.
See if can be mounted and then erased using a Windows (NOT Mac) format.
Any format, doesn't matter.
Does that work?
If so, NOW take it back to Mac and see what happens next.
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
"Mmm, but I dont want to erase the drive without getting the info off of it first"
If it was "half of" a fusion drive, then there's a very high probably you will NEVER "get the data off of it" -- because by dismantling the iMac it was in, and separating it from the SSD portion of the [former] fusion drive, you have made the data on it all-but inaccessible...
I welcome correction from others about this.
If it was "half of" a fusion drive, then there's a very high probably you will NEVER "get the data off of it" -- because by dismantling the iMac it was in, and separating it from the SSD portion of the [former] fusion drive, you have made the data on it all-but inaccessible...
I welcome correction from others about this.
spyguy10709
macrumors 65816
this could be right but
dave says he's got the original SSD still. I'm not sure why connecting the SSD and HDD to a donor imac *wouldn't* work, here.
I'd give it a shot! (and remember to back up important files before beginning hobby projects next time 😉)
Mr_Brightside_@
macrumors 601
Reusing 2014 iMac HDD as external drive. Not working!
The only config for that year was either a Fusion Drive or straight SSD. Unless you ever explicitly separated the Fusion Drive into its small SSD and hard drive, it's still configured as Fusion and that's why it's not mounting as usual. I had this happen once with a client and simply inserting...
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Mr_Brightside_@
macrumors 601
Did you re-seal the iMac? If not, it's trivial to get the HDD back in. The SSD, on the other hand...
Mr_Brightside_@
macrumors 601
Ahhh, I didn't know the size of the work that went into changing them to displays. That's so cool.
Mr_Brightside_@
macrumors 601
If you've got an ESD workspace, you may get lucky just re-assembling the parts and connecting to power and a keyboard, then booting holding T.
spyguy10709
macrumors 65816
The iMacs exposed PSU would make me… concerned about handling this setup 😅
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
OP wrote:
"Well the take down ended up like this, and the new display now looks like this...regrettably not trivial."
Sumthin' tells me you won't be gettin' "back, get back, get back to where you once belonged" with the old iMac. That's over and done.
And unless you have a backup, I reckon it's time to kiss the data on the HDD (and the rest of the fusion drive) goodbye. Adieu...
And having said that, my advice as given in reply 4 above still stands.
"Well the take down ended up like this, and the new display now looks like this...regrettably not trivial."
Sumthin' tells me you won't be gettin' "back, get back, get back to where you once belonged" with the old iMac. That's over and done.
And unless you have a backup, I reckon it's time to kiss the data on the HDD (and the rest of the fusion drive) goodbye. Adieu...
And having said that, my advice as given in reply 4 above still stands.
Whats an ESD workspace? I wouldn't mess with the naked psu though. I might try and get hold of another imac of the same vintage and swap both the ssd and the hdd over and see if that works. I could at least convert that to another 5K display for someone else after.
I do have a Carbonite backup but it would be so much easier if I could access the drive.
Grateful for all your interest and comments
Yay, success! I bought an identical iMac to the one I repurposed, swapped the HDD & SDD with mine, put it back together and voila all working exactly as before.
Now to get the files I want then rebuild the iMac as another 5K monitor screen
Now to get the files I want then rebuild the iMac as another 5K monitor screen