Can I make this internal HD external

[terry1121]

I want to retire my iMac (late 2013). I installed a 4TB INT Seagate Barracuda Drive some years ago. The iMac is shared to my Mac mini and I can access my files on the iMac from the mini. However, I never need any programs on the iMac anymore so I would like to pull it out and insert it into an external holder to clear desk space. Can that be done and have exactly what I have now...access to its files? Will it still boot up? As a photographer, my main concern is tens of thousands of photos I've taken since 2004 stored in the photo Library. The initial transfer of photos didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked so there are some photos I need access to (on the iMac) when the need arises. If you have any advice or need more information please let me know.

Thanks.

Terry

 

[salamanderjuice]

Yes it can be done. Unless the drive is literally dead you should be able to access the files from a newer Mac when the drive is placed in a drive enclosure.

 

[Fishrrman]

If those photos are important to you, I suggest that you buy a NEW drive (and perhaps enclosure), and move them over from the old drive.

How much drive space do the photos occupy?
You might be able to do with a 2tb.
Perhaps an SSD...

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I want to retire my iMac (late 2013). I installed a 4TB INT Seagate Barracuda Drive some years ago. The iMac is shared to my Mac mini and I can access my files on the iMac from the mini. However, I never need any programs on the iMac anymore so I would like to pull it out and insert it into an external holder to clear desk space. Can that be done and have exactly what I have now...access to its files? Will it still boot up? As a photographer, my main concern is tens of thousands of photos I've taken since 2004 stored in the photo Library. The initial transfer of photos didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked so there are some photos I need access to (on the iMac) when the need arises. If you have any advice or need more information please let me know.

Thanks.

Terry

4TB with tens of thousands of files....
You will need at least 12 hours to completely back up them to another HDD, provided that both HDDs don't heat-up too much during the copy process.
I once asked an acquaintance to copy 5TB of music files from his computer to an external Seagate HDD box for me. Later, he told me that it had taken him 3 days to complete the job. The copy was fast as first, then slow, then almost halted for a couple hours, then fast again....

 

[pukifloyd]

If you're a photographer you should definitely look into a better system to protect thousands of important files. You should google the 3-2-1 backup strategy.

Personally I'd recommend getting a NAS like Synology with at least 4 bays. You could start with 2 drives in RAID 1 for redunancy and expand your pool later if you need more space. They are super easy to set up and will protect the data of all devices in your household, even your mobile devices.

But just getting a NAS isn't enough. You should look into having an offsite backup in another NAS or in the cloud.

I understand it's a bit of an investment but it's well worth it to protect all your data.

 

[terry1121]

I appreciate everyone's response. I do have my entire system backed up every night online through Backblaze. I only want to retire my old computer without much issue. I have 1.01TB in my Photo Library folder on my 4TB internal disk in the iMac (with 2.63 TB available).