Archive
We Get Questions – Vol. 1
One of the ways that MacRecycleClinic is able to interact with Mac and Chromebook users is by answering questions on a website called Quora. It’s a place where folks can ask a wide range of questions on every conceivable topic and get answers from many knowledgeable members.
Below, you’ll find some of the questions and answers by this author – we’ll add more as time permits. Note questions and answers may be edited for content and accuracy.

Should I wait for the MacBook Pro 2022 or buy 2021?
Hey there. I’ve written about this in the past but will say once again – if you need a computer now, buy one. The MB Pro 2021 is an excellent laptop that will serve you well for many years. As always, please know what you want to do with it – as that informs what configuration you have to buy. If you’re just surfing and doing email. You won’t need as much memory or SSD space as you would if you were planning to do heavy duty video, photo or audio editing. That said, being proactive now and buying MORE than you need will ensure future usefulness. Finally, always, always, always buy AppleCare when you buy a laptop. It is money well spent. Good luck!
Can a Mac be too old to update?
The basic answer is yes. There are hacks (see DosDude) that can let you run a later version of an OS on an older machine. But you can lose some capabilities (like WiFi) by doing so.
(Update here from original):
Apple has a lot of great support pages – this one will tell you how to check which version of the Mac OS will work with your Mac.
When purchasing a used MacBook Pro 15″ RADEON R9 3.7GHz Quad i7 Turbo Retina 16GB RAM 1TB SSD, should the computer be restored to factory settings?
(Update here from original):
Hey there – if you’re purchasing a used Mac, it is always a good idea to reinstall the latest OS to start “clean.” At MacRecycleClinic we ALWAYS wipe the hard drive/SSD and reinstall the highest OS that particular machine will take before it goes to an individual or family.
What we do is install a clean version of the OS one version down from the OS we intend to install, then install the newer OS. By doing it this way, you will install any firmware updates that might be needed. That said, you can install a new OS by booting into the Mac’s recovery drive by restarting while pressing the Command + R keys. You can then reinstall the Mac OS.
This Apple website provides you will all the options you need to reinstall a Mac OS.
We have a “standard install” of software we use for all Macs we work with. We may install the software individually (to make sure you get the latest version). We’ve also used Migration Assistant to transfer files from an external drive.
How good are Apple notes?
I didn’t think much if Notes until I started using it to hold articles of interest, a running timeline when we recently bought a house and even a special note for my wife listing everything she needs to know should I pass. Notes has become indispensable and can be shared, etc. It will even hold videos, photos and audio media too. A simple, yet amazing little App.
How do I connect a Dell monitor to a MacBook Pro?
(Updated here a bit from original.)
You’ll need either an Apple Display Port to VGA or ADP to DVI “dongle.” Easy to connect and works well. PC monitors come with different ports so hard to know exactly. But one of those two dongles should work. If the Mac has an HDMI port (MacMini, Mac Pro, some MacBook Pro models and the new Mac Studio) and the monitor does, all you need is an HDMI cable.
Is it possible to upgrade an iPad’s main storage?
(Updated a bit from original answer.)
Unfortunately no… as with a growing number (actually the majority) of Apple products (exception is the Mac Pro tower and 27” iMac)), you must buy the most memory and largest HD/SSD drive you think you will need. Everything is soldered onto the motherboard. Always think about what you will need in five years and buy for that possibility. It will save you money in the long run.
Why won’t my Mac go into recovery mode?
(Expanded answer here)
You don’t say what OS you are running. If you’re doing all the right things to get it into recovery mode, then the odds are you don’t have a recovery drive or it’s corrupted. Reboot while pressing the option key and you’ll see if the recovery drive is there. If it is, arrow over to highlight it and hit return to see if it will boot from there.
One other option is to create a bootable external drive (HD or thumb drive). Creating a fresh bootable drive should include a recovery drive. Follow the instructions below, and run recovery from the external drive.
(Added here – thanks to another Quora member for these instructions.)
If you need to reinstall your Mac OS and you’re not sure you have a recovery drive, here are the steps to follow:
1) Shut down the Mac by holding down the power key a few seconds.
2) Hold down COMMAND-R and press the power button. Continue holding down COMMAND-R until you see the Apple menu.
3) After a few minutes the recovery screen should appear. This will allow you to reinstall macOS. IF THIS WORKS, STOP HERE. NO NEED TO GO FURTHER. (Recommendation: Run Disk Utility on your internal drive first – you can do this from the recovery menu.)
4) If this doesn’t work, shut down the Mac again.
5) Hold down COMMAND-OPTION-R while pressing the power button. This will summon up Internet Recovery. You can let go when you see a globe on the screen. (Note: an Internet connection is required for this to work. You may also be asked to choose a network.)
6) Internet Recovery will take a lot longer, depending on the speed of your connection. BE PATIENT. I have seen this take as long as 30 minutes. Eventually a screen will appear that will allow you to reinstall macOS.
Fix Your Fusion Drive

Recently we have been seeing newer Macs – iMacs and Minis – that come with Apple’s Fusion Drive. What exactly is a Fusion Drive? Apple says, “Fusion Drive, a storage option on some iMac and Mac mini computers, combines a hard drive and flash storage in a single volume for improved performance and storage capacity.”
The issue we’ve found – twice now – is that this drive has been split so that it looks like a regular hard drive and a smaller SSD drive. The two Macs we came across (one an iMac, one a Mac Mini) were split into a One TB hard drive and a 200 GB SSD Drive.
Why they were split is a good question – the design of the drive is, as Apple says, to improve performance. Code that is used often is stored in the SSD so that it can be accessed rapidly. It certainly speeds up the boot process!
TUTORIALS
It turns out there are a number of good tutorials out there – including YouTube videos – to help you easily recombine your Fusion Drive.

The quickest way to find all the tutorials is to use your favorite search engine for “Repair Fusion Drive.” But if you just want to see what Apple says – you can go here. A software company called Stellar also has an easy-to-use tutorial here.
THE PROCESS
Essentially, the instructions will tell you to boot into the recovery drive of the the machine you are using with the split Fusion Drive and use Terminal to input a series of commands that will, ultimately, reintegrate the two split drives.

I took a slightly different route – I have an external drive (see above) with an OS that my Mac can boot into. I used El Capitan (10.11.6) but anything up to Catalina should work. Once booted into the external drive, you can just run Terminal from the Utilities folder and go from there (no need to use Recovery Drive). The benefit in my mind is that you are essentially working on your main Mac (and its split Fusion Drive) as if it were an external drive.
Again, anytime you are doing something like this, be sure to do a backup of your data – I was working from a Mac Mini (early 2012) that just had an OS on it so I wasn’t concerned about it losing data. If there were issues, I could always reinstall an OS (up to Catalina in this case). But you’ll see why this is so important in just a minute.
Once you’re in Terminal, follow the tutorial to identify the the two drives (diskutil list) and then process them to reintegrate as one drive. I captured the process from start to finish below so you can see what it actually looks like. The drives I wanted to work with were identified as disk0 and disk1.

Note those final commands at the end – Terminal does format the drive after it is recombined – and it won’t mount until that happens. So again -be sure to have a clone/Time Machine backup or you will lose all your data.
So there you have it! Let us know if you were able to follow the tutorials to successfully restore your Fusion Drive or if you have some other suggestions. Best way is to use the Contact Us page at MacRecycleClinic.org.
All the Latest Mac OS Downloads In One Place
Those of us who use Macs may have need to reinstall an older version of the OS from time to time. At the MacRecycleClinic, we keep thumb drives and external hard drives partitioned with individual installers from Catalina on back – or even Time Machine backups (which are quicker than OS installs).

While it might seem easy to just Google your request, it’s not always that easy. Thus, we offer a list of OS downloads (from the Apple website and beyond) so that you don’t have to go looking for them. Even tho Catalina is available via the App Store, we’ll include it here (as a link).
Note that some of the earlier Mac OS varieties like OS 7 Lion is, for some reason, sold by Apple rather than provided for free (but keep reading – there’s a solution for that!). If you have a need for a really old OS and don’t want to download and install, contact MacRecycleClinic, as we have DVDs with most of the older OS software – including some PowerPC software, and can help you with the install.
If you want to make a bootable installer (to put on an external drive or thumb drive), this is what Apple suggests. Better is this great free (donationware) App – DiskMakerX.
(All photos except where noted and links are courtesy Apple via the company website.)
Update – Dec. 2021 – The Internet Archive also offers Mac OS software downloads from its site for free, along with other software. It is an amazing site and offers a tremendous amount of information from software to music, old TV shows and much, much more (check out the WayBackMachine for old websites!) Please give them a donation if you decide to use their site or download software.
** NOTE: IF THE LINKS BELOW DON’T WORK YOU CAN USE THE DOSDUDE SOFTWARE PATCHER FOR EACH OF THE OS INSTALLS. DOWNLOAD AND RUN THE SPECIFIC PATCHER (YOU’LL HAVE TO ALLOW ITS DOWNLOAD FROM THE SECURITY&PRIVACY PREFERENCE PANE) AND THEN DOWNLOAD THE OS FROM THE TOOLS MENU ON THE TOOLBAR.. THAT WILL BE YOUR INSTALLER. YOU’LL FIND THE LINK HERE.




If this does not work, goto this MacOSXDaily page that explains how to get a full Mojave download using the DOSDude Patcher.





Following is a rundown of all the OS X versions for the Mac through 2020 – (thanks, Macworld UK)! Even better – this UK site has actual download links for older Apple software going way, way back starting with OS 10.9 Mavericks (from the Apple Discussion Community.)
Snow Leopard and earlier Apple OS versions can only be installed from DVD (or 3.5 disk).
That said – we just found (March, 2021) a website that lets you download at least some of these earlier Mac operating systems:
https://webforpc.com/sitemap/
OS X 10.0: Cheetah – 24 March 2001
OS X 10.1: Puma – 25 September 2001
OS X 10.2: Jaguar – 24 August 2002
OS X 10.3 Panther (Pinot) – 24 October 2003
OS X 10.4 Tiger (Merlot) – 29 April 2005
[OS X 10.4.4 Tiger (Chardonnay)]
OS X 10.5 Leopard (Chablis) – 26 October 2007
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard – 28 August 2009
OS X 10.7 Lion (Barolo) – 20 July 2011
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (Zinfandel) – 25 July 2012
OS X 10.9 Mavericks (Cabernet) – 22 October 2013
OS X 10.10: Yosemite (Syrah) – 16 October 2014
OS X 10.11: El Capitan (Gala) – 30 September 2015
macOS 10.12: Sierra (Fuji) – 20 September 2016
macOS 10.13: High Sierra (Lobo) – 25 September 2017
macOS 10.14: Mojave (Liberty) – 24 September 2018
macOS 10.15: Catalina (Jazz) – 7 October 2019
macOS 10.16: Big Sur – 20 November 2020
By the way – this is an interesting compilation of all the older Apple/Mac software. It’s a list only as the “links” don’t work.