I have 4 old imac computers. What external storage device can I use to save photos videos and music from these earlier iMac’s - G4 , G5 , 2009 iMac and a late 2015 iMac? Is there an external storage device that works on and is compatible with all these imacs?
iMac 27″, macOS 12.7
A USB hard drive or SSD formatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Non-Case-Sensitive) (a.k.a. HFS+)?
Note that the oldest machine might only have USB 1.0 – which is glacially slow. A USB + FireWire drive might be nice since you could use whichever interface was available & fastest for a particular machine – but nobody sells USB + FireWire drives or enclosures any more. Even OWC (the last holdout) finally got out of that business. So, USB it is.
Note that the iTunes/Music library and iPhoto/Photos library formats changed multiple times over the years, and bringing old libraries all the way forward may be "interesting."
But at least getting the old libraries onto a modern USB drive, and then backed up, is a start.
Saving and storing videos music photos from earlier operating systems
