Dead iMac Late 2015 Need Access to Fusion Hard Drive

[tgear6878]

Hi, I had an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) that died (power source and logic board)
I asked the Apple Store to remove the two fusion drive components (hard drive and flash storage (SSD)) and recycle the rest.
I purchased a SATA to USB adapter cable with power that connected to my laptop. It worked for the hard drive, which turned on but didn't show up on my desktop (it did show in utilities (I forget exactly where I navigated to?), but I couldn't run first aid on it or mount it (possibly because it was encrypted by FileVault?)
I think I need to connect the flash storage (SSD) to my laptop as well to complete the fusion and hopefully bypass the encryption. Does anyone know what I need to buy to connect that component? I can't find instructions anywhere.
Hopefully that will work, but if you think it won't do you have any other suggestions besides getting an old matching iMac and swapping in the hard drive and flash?
Thanks!

 

[macguru9999]

You can buy a 2012 mac pro tower, an apple ssd to pcie adapter, get the two components ie the ssd and the sata HDD mounted simultaneously in the mac pro, running the appropriate MacOS, read and clone the fusion drive, and transfer the data to your laptop. BTW, it will also work if you get an OWC case for the ssd, provided its not nvme and i dont think yours is, and of course a case or whatever to mount the HDD at the same time. Then it should show up on your laptop

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You're in a difficult situation. If you were previously using Filevault, that makes things all the more difficult.

The two components of the fusion drive (SSD and HDD) are "melded" together with software so that they "appear to the user" as ONE drive (as would a RAID setup, but not the same).

You can't access either drive "by itself". They have to be "together".

You DON'T want to be buying a 2012 Mac Pro.

As mentioned above, what MIGHT work (NO promises) is to get an OWC case for the SSD portion (these will cost you about $80), and with that (using the SATA adapter for the HDD), try to mount the "re-created" fusion drive so that you can then access it.

If that doesn't work, there are data recovery firms that might be able to mount/re-create the drive and get your data off of it, but expect to pay a thousand or more for this service. Is it worth it to you?

Ahem.
Where is your backup?
Don't have one?

If that's the case, you've learned a hard lesson here.
Go forth from this day and learn... a sadder, but wiser man.

 

[tgear6878]

I will try the OWC case for the SSD and report back! I do have a backup, but I got laid off and airdropped everything from my work laptop onto my desktop then soon after it didn't even turn on before I could even go through what I transferred. I'm still hopeful though! Thanks

 

[macguru9999]

OP:

You're in a difficult situation. If you were previously using Filevault, that makes things all the more difficult.

The two components of the fusion drive (SSD and HDD) are "melded" together with software so that they "appear to the user" as ONE drive (as would a RAID setup, but not the same).

You can't access either drive "by itself". They have to be "together".

You DON'T want to be buying a 2012 Mac Pro.

As mentioned above, what MIGHT work (NO promises) is to get an OWC case for the SSD portion (these will cost you about $80), and with that (using the SATA adapter for the HDD), try to mount the "re-created" fusion drive so that you can then access it.

If that doesn't work, there are data recovery firms that might be able to mount/re-create the drive and get your data off of it, but expect to pay a thousand or more for this service. Is it worth it to you?

Ahem.
Where is your backup?
Don't have one?

If that's the case, you've learned a hard lesson here.
Go forth from this day and learn... a sadder, but wiser man.

Both the methods I mentioned above will work, provided the ssd is not too new as i dont think nvme ssds are recognised by the owc case. If its not then the mac pro method will still work and I was not kidding.... also, the encryption will not matter, you will just be prompted for the password when mounting the volume.

 

[tgear6878]

SOLVED!
I purchased this for the SD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B38V1T9D?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
(USB C 3.2 Gen2 MacBook SSD Enclosure for Apple Flash SSDs 12+16 PIN iMac from 2013 to 2017)
And this for my HD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MYU0EAU?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
(UGREEN SATA to USB 3.0 Adapter Cable for 3.5 2.5 Inch SSD/HDD Hard Drive Reader SATA III Hard Drive Disk Converter)
When I plugged them both in to my new MacBook, the old hard drive popped right up! I was able to transfer all my data and now can use it as an external. Thanks all!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Now, before you bump into this scenario again- without a very positive outcome- get back on the backup train and back it all up... and keep up with your backups.

Time Machine is free and works well. Or CCC or Super Duper can do it too. Back up to at least TWO drives and store one of them offsite to protect against fire/flood/theft scenarios... then regularly rotate onsite backup with offsite backup to keep the offsite one pretty fresh. Else, next time this happens, you might not be so lucky.

You were very fortunate this time. I wouldn't tempt fate twice on this kind of thing... especially with BIG storage priced so cheap these days.

 

[macguru9999]

I have done another failed fusion drive this week, thats 2 in 2 weeks. This one has slowed down 100 fold so I booted from an ssd and cc cloned selected files to another drive, without taking the imac apart. still, its like emptying an olympic swimming pool with a garden hose ....

 

[Fishrrman]

Macguru wrote:
"I have done another failed fusion drive this week, thats 2 in 2 weeks"

I think we're going to start seeing a LOT of these kind of "fusion failures".
Those that are reported here, and probably many more that are not.

 

[rin67630]

I think we're going to start seeing a LOT of these kind of "fusion failures".

I can only urge everybody using an iMac with a fusion drive beyond Mojave (i.e. with APFS as file system) to
-get a USB3 SSD and install macOS on it as the main system,
-make a backup of the Fusion Drive and reformat it to hfs+,
-then playback the data to the Fusion drive.