MacBook – charge the MacBook Pro from an older iMac

chargingmacbook pro

After dropping my 2012 MacBook Pro, the build-in magnetic MagSafe charging system doesn’t seem to be working any more. Is there a way to charge it from an old (2002) iMac, to recover my files? Or any other way?

Best Answer

There's no other way of charging a 2012 MacBook Pro than through the MagSafe power port. If that has stopped functioning, you cannot charge the laptop as usual.

Your options are primarily:

  • getting the MagSafe power port repaired
  • taking out the battery and charging it externally and put it back
  • take out the hard drive or SSD (depending on model) and transfer data externally

To recover the files I would prefer the last option, taking out the drive. It is an ordinary SATA interface, so you should be able to buy a cheap USB-to-SATA interface at most computer stores, that would enable you to transfer the data to another computer.

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