Transferring Data from dead Mac to new Mac

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Level 1

8 points

Transferring Data from dead Mac to new Mac

How do I transfer my data from my old Mac (Mac OS Sierra) to a new Mac Pro (Mac OSBigSur) if the old one (Ma. OS Sierra) cannot be opened?

iMac Pro

Posted on Oct 24, 2021 1:19 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,615 points

Oct 24, 2021 1:44 PM in response to tiverbel

See if the old Mac can be booted into Target Disk Mode. If so then you can connect the new Mac to it and copy the files you need to the new Mac.

Otherwise you may have to remove the hard drive from the old Mac, get an enclosure for it and see if it will run so you can recover files from it.

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Answer 2

tiverbel Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 24, 2021 4:09 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for the reply. Apple Support were not able to reboot the Mac. The funny thing is that I can see all my files through Dropbox, but unless I open the dead Mac, I cannot seem to be able to do anything with them.

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Answer 3

tiverbel Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 26, 2021 1:56 PM in response to Old Toad

I'm sorry "Old Toad" but this information is beyond me. I'll try to contact Apple

again tomorrow and ask them. I'll also try to contact Dropbox support if there

is such a thing.

My old Mac is a 2011 iMac. When I try to power it on, the apple appears and the "booting" bar only goes about half way and stops. Apple tried to reboot it twice virtually, but the same thing happened. It's frustrating to be able to see all my files from my new iMac through Dropbox and not be able to transfer them. I was able to open a file and copy the content of a "Microsoft Word" document and paste it to a "Pages" document on my new Mac but the formatting was lost. I could do that with some very important documents and reformat them...excruciating work.

Thanks for trying to help. Will keep you informed if you're interested.

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