Has all the data disappeared off my old core2duo iMac?

[Amanda Ripanykhazov]

I have this old computer as a living room backup. It wasn't started for
a while and then started booting to a shut down when just past the
halfway mark on the blue ribbon progress bar. First aid wouldn't
complete its verification and nor would fsck in single user mode.

Eventually I managed to get FSCK -Rc to repair a huge number of clusters
(?) and now the whole drive appears to be completely empty in DU

But First Aid runs fine.

I dont remember what OS was on it (it may have been Mojave) but trying
to reinstall seems to want to run El Capitain.

Whatever it was, I can't re-install anything. At first it says drive
locked and then it wants to do a fresh install of El Capitain.

What is the best way of getting answer to the question of what is on the
drive or if DU says NOTHING, is that the only answer? I'd like to look
to see if there were any photos or videos on this computer which I
haven't got on any backup drive before I format and re-install

[Alan Browne]

Post by Amanda Ripanykhazov
I have this old computer as a living room backup. It wasn't started for
a while and then started booting to a shut down when just past the
halfway mark on the blue ribbon progress bar. First aid wouldn't
complete its verification and nor would fsck in single user mode.
Eventually I managed to get FSCK -Rc to repair a huge number of clusters
(?)  and now the whole drive appears to be completely empty in DU

The "repairing" of clusters may have also removed the information
connecting all the files rendering the disk useless for MacOS.

There may be data recovery programs that can go in and suss out some files.

Post by Amanda Ripanykhazov
But First Aid runs fine.
I dont remember what OS was on it (it may have been Mojave) but trying
to reinstall seems to want to run El Capitain.

Usually Macs want to re-install from the OS they were born with (I
think) if the disk is completely borked.

Post by Amanda Ripanykhazov
Whatever it was, I can't re-install anything. At first it says drive
locked and then it wants to do a fresh install of El Capitain.
What is the best way of getting answer to the question of what is on the
drive or if DU says NOTHING, is that the only answer? I'd like to look
to see if there were any photos or videos on this computer which I
haven't got on any backup drive before I format and re-install

I do hope your backups have all (or at least most) of what you want.

Assuming you did have backups, I'd not invest much more time into it -
fresh install recover from backup (or sell it) and move on.

[Percival John Hackworth]

On Jun 9, 2024 at 2:21:56 PM PDT, "Amanda Ripanykhazov"

Post by Amanda Ripanykhazov
I have this old computer as a living room backup. It wasn't started for
a while and then started booting to a shut down when just past the
halfway mark on the blue ribbon progress bar. First aid wouldn't
complete its verification and nor would fsck in single user mode.
Eventually I managed to get FSCK -Rc to repair a huge number of clusters
(?) and now the whole drive appears to be completely empty in DU
But First Aid runs fine.
I dont remember what OS was on it (it may have been Mojave) but trying
to reinstall seems to want to run El Capitain.
Whatever it was, I can't re-install anything. At first it says drive
locked and then it wants to do a fresh install of El Capitain.
What is the best way of getting answer to the question of what is on the
drive or if DU says NOTHING, is that the only answer? I'd like to look
to see if there were any photos or videos on this computer which I
haven't got on any backup drive before I format and re-install

Sounds like a dead or dying hard drive.

Install a new disk into the machine and reinstall MacOS from the network
(command-R from boot).
Attach the old drive to the system with a USB cable. Amazon sells ones from
Sabrent but there are others.
When the new install asks if you want to migrate from another machine, select
the old drive as the source OR use your latest Time Machine Backup.

[Amanda Ripanykhazov]

Post by Percival John Hackworth
Sounds like a dead or dying hard drive.
Install a new disk into the machine and reinstall MacOS from the network
(command-R from boot).
Attach the old drive to the system with a USB cable. Amazon sells ones from
Sabrent but there are others.
When the new install asks if you want to migrate from another machine, select
the old drive as the source OR use your latest Time Machine Backup.

Thanks guys! I kinda knew that was the position, - I was just hoping
that I might have overlooked some option for reading what was on the
drive. But short of re-building whatever the Master Boot Record is
called on a Mac, I do accept that this is unlikely.

I'm pretty sure this is just a backup computer and whatever is on it is
somewhere else as well so it just isnt worthwhile spending too much time
getting it working.

I also agree that this whole situation only arises because the drive is
on it's way out and the computer urgently needs throwing away, rather
than wasting time pulling it apart to put a new HD in it

[Alan Browne]

Post by Amanda Ripanykhazov

Post by Percival John Hackworth
Sounds like a dead or dying hard drive.
Install a new disk into the machine and reinstall MacOS from the network
(command-R from boot).
Attach the old drive to the system with a USB cable. Amazon sells ones from
Sabrent but there are others.
When the new install asks if you want to migrate from another machine, select
the old drive as the source OR use your latest Time Machine Backup.

Thanks guys! I kinda knew that was the position, - I was just hoping
that I might have overlooked some option for reading what was on the
drive.  But short of re-building whatever the Master Boot Record is
called on a Mac, I do accept that this is unlikely.
I'm pretty sure this is just a backup computer and whatever is on it is
somewhere else as well so it just isnt worthwhile spending too much time
getting it working.
I also agree that this whole situation only arises because the drive is
on it's way out and the computer urgently needs throwing away,  rather
than wasting time pulling it apart to put a new HD in it

What year is the computer? That it wants to "El Capitan" suggests 2015
which (to me) is not an old computer. Core 2 Duo suggest closer to 2010
if not older...

It could be (with a new drive and install) a great starter Mac for
someone out there with modest computing needs.

[super70s]

Post by Alan Browne

Post by Amanda Ripanykhazov

Post by Percival John Hackworth
Sounds like a dead or dying hard drive.
Install a new disk into the machine and reinstall MacOS from the network
(command-R from boot).
Attach the old drive to the system with a USB cable. Amazon sells ones from
Sabrent but there are others.
When the new install asks if you want to migrate from another machine, select
the old drive as the source OR use your latest Time Machine Backup.

Thanks guys! I kinda knew that was the position, - I was just hoping
that I might have overlooked some option for reading what was on the
drive.  But short of re-building whatever the Master Boot Record is
called on a Mac, I do accept that this is unlikely.
I'm pretty sure this is just a backup computer and whatever is on it is
somewhere else as well so it just isnt worthwhile spending too much
time getting it working.
I also agree that this whole situation only arises because the drive is
on it's way out and the computer urgently needs throwing away,  rather
than wasting time pulling it apart to put a new HD in it

What year is the computer? That it wants to "El Capitan" suggests 2015
which (to me) is not an old computer. Core 2 Duo suggest closer to
2010 if not older...
It could be (with a new drive and install) a great starter Mac for
someone out there with modest computing needs.

A few years ago I bought a used iMac Intel Core i5 (Mid-2014) that had
Mavericks installed on it. I transferred El Capitan from an Intel Core
2 Duo over to it (using CC Cloner) and tried to upgrade the new machine
to Big Sur (the maximum OS it will run) from the network. Instead it
installed Mojave. Actually I'm glad it turned out like that, GUI-wise.
Strangely it keeps an "upgrade to Big Sur" reminder in the Software
Update control panel.

[Amanda Ripanykhazov]

Post by Alan Browne
What year is the computer? That it wants to "El Capitan" suggests 2015
which (to me) is not an old computer.  Core 2 Duo suggest closer to 2010
if not older...
It could be (with a new drive and install) a great starter Mac for
someone out there with modest computing needs.

No, a I remember it, this dates from 2008! So it is only useful as
backup storage, and then only if it works. Not if significant time has
to be wasted on it. which is the position now.

I did manage to restore a TM backup onto it but it boots to an apple
with no progress bar starting. So it seems to be thinking it is a
DosDude1 Mojave installation that hasn't been patched. I made a fresh
USB stick and tried to run the patches but when I booted off the USB
stick, it still gets only to the black apple on that white background.

Time to throw away?

[Alan Browne]

Post by Alan Browne
What year is the computer? That it wants to "El Capitan" suggests 2015
which (to me) is not an old computer.  Core 2 Duo suggest closer to
2010 if not older...
It could be (with a new drive and install) a great starter Mac for
someone out there with modest computing needs.

No, a I remember it, this dates from 2008!  So it is only useful as
backup storage, and then only if it works. Not if significant time has
to be wasted on it. which is the position now.
I did manage to restore a TM backup onto it but it boots to an apple
with no progress bar starting. So it seems to be thinking it is a
DosDude1 Mojave installation that hasn't been patched. I made a fresh
USB stick and tried to run the patches but when I booted off the USB
stick, it still gets only to the black apple on that white background.
Time to throw away?

Or donate to a repair shop that might be able to use parts from it to
keep someone else's Mac alive. Just get the hard drive out first and
write over it or destroy it separately.