Who knows about Macs

[cb1111]

I'm completely Mac illiterate. My sister has two old (one very old) Mac laptops that no longer boot (the newer one is missing the battery and the other one starts to boot then powers down

She has photos on the laptops that she'd like to get off. Can I just pull the hard drives, stick them into my hard drive docking station (connected to my Win 11 computer) and just suck the folder with the pictures down? I know that Macs use a different file structure, but does that matter?

Would it be easier to hook the docking station to her current mac and get the pictures that way?

Any other thoughts?

 

[gixxerfool]

I'm completely Mac illiterate. My sister has two old (one very old) Mac laptops that no longer boot (the newer one is missing the battery and the other one starts to boot then powers down

She has photos on the laptops that she'd like to get off. Can I just pull the hard drives, stick them into my hard drive docking station (connected to my Win 11 computer) and just suck the folder with the pictures down? I know that Macs use a different file structure, but does that matter?

Would it be easier to hook the docking station to her current mac and get the pictures that way?

Any other thoughts?

They do use a different file structure, but the data is data. While you won’t be able to access everything, assuming FileVault wasn’t enabled before they went bad, you could do either. I would probably hook to a Mac, so it will mount as an external drive and let her drag and drop and anything she wants to her current machine. You could still most likely use your machine as well. I have pulled Windows drives and used them on my Mac to retrieve old files. I had to hunt around to find the correct path, but everything was intact with no corruption.

If she did have the drive encrypted, they may require a little extra foot work. Since most people don’t enable, I will assume she didn’t.

 

[cb1111]

I doubt she encrypted anything.

I'm also trying to figure out why I am so ignorant when it comes to Mac. I'm the "go-to" guy for most people when it comes to computers, but I can't wrap my head around Macs - it starts with no right click and goes downhill from there.

I'll pull the drives and try it on my computer first. It should be easier on me.

I'll post back tomorrow

THANKS!

 

[gixxerfool]

I doubt she encrypted anything.

I'm also trying to figure out why I am so ignorant when it comes to Mac. I'm the "go-to" guy for most people when it comes to computers, but I can't wrap my head around Macs - it starts with no right click and goes downhill from there.

I'll pull the drives and try it on my computer first. It should be easier on me.

I'll post back tomorrow

THANKS!

The right click can be enabled in the system preferences. Or on a track pad two fingers with a click is a right click.

No worries. Good luck.

 

[GolNat]

If she is getting another Mac I’d recommend she use Time Machine (it’s a program on the computer) to back it up to an external hard drive. It’s a feature that makes it easy for none computer people (me) to keep everything important backed up.

2 fingers right click
3 fingers to swipe
Pinch to zoom
4 fingers is bring all open programs up

 

[cb1111]

The right click can be enabled in the system preferences. Or on a track pad two fingers with a click is a right click.

No worries. Good luck.

You can? I never new.

The 1,2,3,4 finger swipe somehow doesn't feel intuitive to me - and it looks like 80+% of computer users agree with me

But maybe I'll have to get smarter on Macs

 

[cb1111]

If she is getting another Mac I’d recommend she use Time Machine (it’s a program on the computer) to back it up to an external hard drive. It’s a feature that makes it easy for none computer people (me) to keep everything important backed up.

2 fingers right click
3 fingers to swipe
Pinch to zoom
4 fingers is bring all open programs up

yes, I'm setting her up with my old NAS to back it up using time machine - but thanks for the reminder to do it now.

 

[gixxerfool]

You can? I never new.

The 1,2,3,4 finger swipe somehow doesn't feel intuitive to me - and it looks like 80+% of computer users agree with me

View attachment 249255

But maybe I'll have to get smarter on Macs

Should be able to under mouse or track pad, depending on the peripheral used.

It’s not intuitive, but once you use it it becomes second nature. So much so it works on my iPad as well, so it carries over.

 

[the]

Should work just fine, you can access the files from your Windows PC like any other USB. https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/

The thing with encryption is a lot of modern computers have it enabled without the user ever setting it. Newer Thinkpads have (in my experience) Bitlocker enabled by default. The partition unlocks automatically at boot, but if you move the drive to another system you get a recovery key prompt. No idea what Macs looked like 10 years ago in this kind of regard.

 

[gixxerfool]

Should work just fine, you can access the files from your Windows PC like any other USB. https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/

The thing with encryption is a lot of modern computers have it enabled without the user ever setting it. Newer Thinkpads have (in my experience) Bitlocker enabled by default. The partition unlocks automatically at boot, but if you move the drive to another system you get a recovery key prompt. No idea what Macs looked like 10 years ago in this kind of regard.

Macs have/had FileVault for as long as I’ve owned them, and likely before. It’s defaulted to off, but is easily turned on. Time machine is a really good suggestion for this use case.

 

[cb1111]

Should be able to under mouse or track pad, depending on the peripheral used.

It’s not intuitive, but once you use it it becomes second nature. So much so it works on my iPad as well, so it carries over.

Probably, but right now I can avoid technical assistance for people with Macs by feigning ignorance....

Should work just fine, you can access the files from your Windows PC like any other USB. https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/

The thing with encryption is a lot of modern computers have it enabled without the user ever setting it. Newer Thinkpads have (in my experience) Bitlocker enabled by default. The partition unlocks automatically at boot, but if you move the drive to another system you get a recovery key prompt. No idea what Macs looked like 10 years ago in this kind of regard.

Yes, most Dells have bitlocker enabled too. If it is defaulted to "off" on Macs then there is a 99.999% chance that it is still off on these two.

One is a pretty ancient white case 14 inch and the other is 2015ish Mac Air sized unit

Macs have/had FileVault for as long as I’ve owned them, and likely before. It’s defaulted to off, but is easily turned on. Time machine is a really good suggestion for this use case.

Unlikely that she turned it on.

I got sucked into a list of honey do things, so I'm not sure that I'll get to it today.

 

[GIACUser]

Should work just fine, you can access the files from your Windows PC like any other USB. https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/

The thing with encryption is a lot of modern computers have it enabled without the user ever setting it. Newer Thinkpads have (in my experience) Bitlocker enabled by default. The partition unlocks automatically at boot, but if you move the drive to another system you get a recovery key prompt. No idea what Macs looked like 10 years ago in this kind of regard.

Encryption would be software based so even if the hardware were 10years old the operating system is generally updated automatically. FileVault encryption was first introduced in 2003. Still a built in option to the OS and it is off by default.

 

[snobrdrdan]

I don't know much at all, except from having my iPhone, but I just bought a 27" Mac anyways
Hopefully I'll figure it out, lol

 

[shovelhd]

MacOS is like Windows 95. That's all you need to know.

 

[Maiden69]

Macs have/had FileVault for as long as I’ve owned them, and likely before. It’s defaulted to off, but is easily turned on. Time machine is a really good suggestion for this use case.

Like stated above it is unlikely that it is turned on. Since they no longer boot, get an adapter for the hard drive and connect it to your computer to remove the files.

'There is a lot of information on this site on how to do almost anything on a Mac, I'm sure you can find free software links to use to change the picture format to jpeg, but it should be a straight forward operation.

MacOS is like Windows 95. That's all you need to know.

If that was true I would still be running a desktop... I switched to a 27" iMac in 2011 after about 7 Dell, Hp, Compaq desktops/laptops, all in the $1000 up range. All Windows crap, blue screen, black screen, virus up the a$$, random ransomware from my sons gaming sites. All that BS GONE! I still running that Mac, on High Sierra that was replaced in 2018, still no anti-virus, no anti crap... still no viruses and the Mac still runs like new with only one upgrade, a switch from the HD to an SSD. I don't think anyone can say the same thing out of a Windows OS.

Since then I bought an HP Omen 15 with almost every upgrade available, following recommendations from the dean at my college as I was about to start my cyber classes... within 2 weeks I started getting a fail to boot error. wipe out and re-loaded every thing, including new Windows 10 Pro, worked good, but still had the occasional fail to boot. Finished the class and gave it to my son. Will never spend that kind of money into a Win based piece of crap, will do virtual desktop if I need to run Windows for something inside my Mac.