KEEP YOUR OLD MAC RUNNING

Get that Mac out of the attic and fire it up or you'll never know what it’s capable of!

- Ian Osborne

What can you do to bring an old Mac back to life? Can you make it useful again? The answer is a definite 'possibly'. If the hard drive is failing, or maybe just too small, you can boot your computer from an external drive. Older Macs might have user-serviceable storage or memory, so you can give your ageing machine a boost this way.

What files and data do you have on your old Mac? Have a root around. Could it be hosting photos and videos from a near-forgotten holiday or event, precious pictures that really bring back some memories? There could be documents you put together for a since-abandoned work project. Could your efforts be revisited, rekindled and renewed for something in the future? And what about those MP3s of your old college band? You never got that record deal, but you could relive some good times if you transferred them to your modern Mac.

This feature is all about breathing new life into - or at least recovering old files from - your long-abandoned Mac. Whether you intend to put your ageing machine to new uses, or simply want to explore your digital past, we can help. We show you how to build an external boot drive and boot your Mac from it, find and transfer files, folders and media and how to convert obsolete file formats to newer ones that can be read by more modern Macs. Whatever Mac you have, and whatever you plan to do with it, these tips should help you get some life out of the old machine. They should bring back a few memories too.

Boot from an external drive

How to bring your Mac back to life if the hard drive isn't working.

The hard drive is one of the most vulnerable parts of an old computer. Moving parts are always vulnerable to wear and tear, and unlike modern solid-state drives (SSDS), the hard drive had to be in motion when data was read from or written to the storage medium.