Exploring an old time machine backup disk from 2014

I have an old 4 Tb disk that I was evidently using about 10 years ago as a time machine backup. Almost certainly most of what's on there I have no interest in, but there may be some photos which otherwise seem to have disappeared. I don't want my current Sequoia iMac to start using this as a backup disk, or restore great quantities of files from this old backup, but I would like to take a look at what's there. What's the best way to accomplish this? Thanks!

Hold down the Option key and select Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu item. You can then browse the backups in the Time Machine interface and restore whatever you want.

FWIW, you can simply select the drive and do a Finder search for what you are looking for; images, music, videos, etc.

If your storage capacity of your newer machine is less, you are best off connecting the drive and locate the folder that the files are most likely in. Once you know where it is, open the Photos App and make sure Photos menu -> Preferences has the following setup. Most important is that importing option is unchecked. You don't want it to try to import the files into your boot drive. You are trying to locate all the original photos you want.

Photos lets you locate the files in the Finder upon selecting. Then you can make a folder on your desktop to collect the photos in one central location on your computer.

If you are syncing iCloud with your Desktop folder, don't as this will slow down the process.