Old iMac and new Apple Mini

[SteveOL]

G'day folks.

My Late 2015 27" iMac is starting to run like its age. But I love the big screen. Not sure if you can help me but I would like to use the iMac as a screen with a new Apple Mini using the Luna Display aaaaaaaand if possible I would like to also use the hard drive in the iMac as an external hard drive at the same time. Is that possible?

Thank you.

Steve

 

[rm5]

What you could do is to use the iMac as a display with either Luna Display, as you mentioned, or AirPlay if it's running Monterey... those are kind of your options.

If you boot the iMac into Target Disk Mode, you might be able to use it as a hard disk. But you'd need a Thunderbolt 2-Thunderbolt 3 adapter/cable, which you should be able to find pretty easily. Personally, I've never gotten TDM to work properly, but that's probably because I've been doing it wrong. You can always refer to Apple's documentation for reference in case you need it.

However, as for doing them both at once (running it as a display AND in TDM), that isn't possible, unfortunately—because TDM is a completely different boot environment from normal macOS.

I hope I'm understanding your question—please let me know if you need more info!

 

[SteveOL]

Thank you very much for that.

Ahhhh. "However, as for doing them both at once (running it as a display AND in TDM), that isn't possible, unfortunately—because TDM is a completely different boot environment from normal macOS."

Bummer.

 

[rm5]

@SteveOL I mean, you could try Luna Display while in TDM if you wanted—I could be completely wrong, it might be worth a shot!

 

[zarmanto]

You can, however, use the iMac's drive as a network volume while using Luna Display.

Alternatively......... you could crack the case on your old iMac, gut the computer components and turn it into a DIY 5K external monitor. In so doing, while you're in there you could also harvest the internal hard drive from the iMac and put it into an external drive case.

Mind you, that would essentially destroy much of the "computer" that it is currently, leaving you with just the monitor and hard drive... and it would be a fair amount of work. But it's technically possible and could potentially result in a monitor that is arguably of higher quality than you could get anywhere, otherwise -- outside of splurging for an Apple Studio Display, of course.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

G'day folks.

My Late 2015 27" iMac is starting to run like its age. But I love the big screen. Not sure if you can help me but I would like to use the iMac as a screen with a new Apple Mini using the Luna Display aaaaaaaand if possible I would like to also use the hard drive in the iMac as an external hard drive at the same time. Is that possible?

Thank you.

Steve

Yes, it's possible.
But it requires some skills in working with electronic devices and connecting boards.
Basically you will have to give up the computer part of the iMac and convert it to a monitor.
I wouldn't do it because of the LCD panel issue with this year model.