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Hi, recently my 3TB Fusion Drive started to fail inside my 2012 27" iMac and it was swapped out for a new SSD by a Mac repair store.
I have my old internal drive in my hand now, is there a way to connect it to my iMac and see the contents of the drive? Is it possible?
Thanks for any advice.
Well, if it’s a failing hard disk drive (HDD) as would be typical, probably not. It’s failing, and failing hard disks tend to degrade over time, into bricks with powerful magnets inside, with the length of time to brickness varying. But if you want to try, there are USB HDD sleds—also called external hard disk docking stations and other such names, USB to SATA peripherals—that can work. If the HDD is working. Which seems less than certain. Most computer-peripherals vendors offer some variation of these sleds.
Well, if it’s a failing hard disk drive (HDD) as would be typical, probably not. It’s failing, and failing hard disks tend to degrade over time, into bricks with powerful magnets inside, with the length of time to brickness varying. But if you want to try, there are USB HDD sleds—also called external hard disk docking stations and other such names, USB to SATA peripherals—that can work. If the HDD is working. Which seems less than certain. Most computer-peripherals vendors offer some variation of these sleds.
OK cool, thank you for your answer. So will the USB HDD sled work on it's own, will the USB power the HDD?
Also I'm seeing different sizes for these sleds, do you know which one the fusion drive would be in inches?
Thanks
The USB sled—the USB external storage docking station, etc—connects to the USB bus, just as does an external hard disk drive you've seen and probably used. The difference with the sled is that the hard disk is a whole lot easier to get at. With the sled, you don't need to disassemble the USB device to get at the hard disk.
The USB sled here would preferably have its own separate power supply, and would not draw power from the USB.
The sled powers the contained SAS/SATA device, or whatever other sort of storage device that the sled was designed to hold.
Hard disk drives can over-draw the available USB power when connected to USB-A connectors and USB-prior-to-USB4 buses.
USB-C / USB4 / USB Power Delivery can have vastly more power available than does a USB-A connector and USB-prior-to-USB4.
But again, if your original Fusion drive was flaky due to a failing hard disk drive, there's a reasonable chance that this configuration won't work.
OK great, thank you for your answer. I will look into purchasing a USB sled soon :-)
Connect removed internal drive to new Mac
