Very old iMac, extract photos from harddisk

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Level 1

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Very old iMac, extract photos from harddisk

I bought my first iMac in 2007, unfortunately it gave in a few years later and at the time I didn't have money to repair it.

A friend with some IT skills looked at it though and told me that the harddisk was gone/had burned or something like that so there was not much to do. I stored it in my flat and found it this summer while moving.

I know that I had a few nice videos and pics stored on it that I would like to get back - but....is it even possible this long afterwords. I mean, it's old and outdated and if the harddisk is gone, then probably the pics too.

Can someone please guide me on what to do ? Should I just throw it away or would it be possible to extract something out of this lovely iMac ?

What do y'all think ? Thanks in advance for any suggetions or advice :)

Best regards,

Vib

Posted on Aug 4, 2025 06:23 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 4, 2025 09:37 AM in response to vibeke99

From what you are saying, the hard drive is either

Completely dead – in which case there will be no recovery from it, or
Nearly dead – in which case any sort of recovery will be iffy, even if you remove the drive from the Mac and place it in an external case.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

214,368 points

Aug 4, 2025 09:58 AM in response to vibeke99

See if you can boot the old Mac into Target Disk Mode. If you can you might be able to connect it to another Mac in TDM and recover the photos from the old Mac.

In TDM the old Mac will look like an external drive to the other Mac.

If the old Mac can't boot into TDM then it's toast and the best you can do is to follow den.thed's suggestion and keep your fingers 🤞.

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Answer 3

Aug 4, 2025 10:19 AM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad wrote:

See if you can boot the old Mac into Target Disk Mode. If you can you might be able to connect it to another Mac in TDM and recover the photos from the old Mac.

That's won't work unless the newer Mac is itself an old Mac.

Apple added a restriction (see the Support article to which you linked) that "If either of the computers has macOS 11 or later installed, you must connect the two computers using a Thunderbolt cable." 2007 iMacs predate Thunderbolt by several years. So no Thunderbolt connection is possible, which implies that no Mac that is running Big Sur or later can even try to use that old Mac as an "external disk."

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

220,950 points

Aug 4, 2025 06:38 AM in response to vibeke99

If the had drive failed, you are not going to be able to extract anything from it. it doesn't matter if it failed 18 years ago or yesterday.

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Answer 5

den.thed

Level 10

89,008 points

Aug 4, 2025 08:05 AM in response to vibeke99

One way to find out if the Hard Drive is truly dead, is to remove it from the 2007 iMac and test it in a USB Dock, USB Drive enclosure or on a USB to SATA adapter.

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

214,368 points

Aug 4, 2025 11:49 AM in response to Servant of Cats

His original post didn't say if his newer Mac is an Intel or Silicon Mac.

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