Question about pulling files from Mac harddrive

[StarsMars]

A coworker asked me if I could recover his data from his 2015 iMac that won't boot.

He just wants the pictures and videos.

 

My question is, if I pull the harddrive and it's functional. Can I retrieve the files by connecting it to my windows 10 pc?

Is it going to be able to read the file format of mac?

Will it locked behind a password and or encryption?

[duncannah]

That iMac doesn't have the T2 chip, so I think it could be doable. You'll need to use some software to read the drive on a Windows machine.

This one might work, read-only is free: https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Though, if FileVault was enabled, it might complicate things.

[StarsMars]

11 minutes ago, duncannah said:

That iMac doesn't have the T2 chip, so I think it could be doable. You'll need to use some software to read the drive on a Windows machine.

This one might work, read-only is free: https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Though, if FileVault was enabled, it might complicate things.

Thank you!

Would I need to get a hard drive reader so it shows as an external drive or just plug it in with sata?

[Eigenvektor]

4 minutes ago, StarsMars said:

Would I need to get a hard drive reader so it shows as an external drive or just plug it in with sata?

Either option should work.

 

From what I could find, it's a regular SATA drive, no proprietary connector. So you could either plug it into your computer, or get an external SATA-to-USB connector for it.

[duncannah]

2 minutes ago, StarsMars said:

Would I need to get a hard drive reader so it shows as an external drive or just plug it in with sata?

They seem to use regular SATA. I don't have any experience with iMacs, though, so I would suggest doing some more research.

[StarsMars]

Thanks for the help you guys.

 

Here's what I tried and what ended up working.

I hooked the hard drive up to my pc through sata.

I tried HFSexplorer which required java runtime and didn't work. Seems a little unsecure anyways.

 

What seems to be working is APFS for windows by Paragon to read the files in file explorer.

As well as Wiztree to try and find the pics and vids more efficiently.

 

Though everything seems okay, I'll be removing the software I've added and running a scan after I'm done.