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Get a can of compressed air and blow out the vents. Then remove the top housing, set up an fan to blow air on the Mini, and try again.
Oh … and transfer files in batches of 50-100 folders at a time rather than trying to transfer everything all at once and tag each batch after each transfer. Yeah, it's a PITA, but you'll know where to resume if the Mini shuts down.
Or just pull the drive out of the Mini and stick it in a dock/enclosure and install HFS+ Explorer on your Windoze PC.
What format are the drives in? You can just get a program and read them directly. There4 is no need to copy that stuff over if it is over taxing those dinosaur systems.
Why not get your windows PC to read the mac formatted drives directly? There are a number of solutions, read this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/252111/how-to-read-a-mac-formatted-drive-on-a-windows-pc/
Or google for HFSExplorer which is a free tool that allows windows PCs to read MAC drives.
How about moving the data in smaller segments. Grab a few sub-folders or a bunch of files at a time and just methodically grind away at it, stopping when the drive starts to heat up.
...+1
i dusted off my 2009 Macbook in hopes that it would help me transfer the files. I needed to leave it on the charger for a few hours just to see if that worked. So far it shows no signs of life. I'll try to find a second battery and see if that works.
Yes I am looking at software that will allow me to copy files directly off the Mac hard drives. I had formatted the hard drives in AWS(?!) I'm not good at remembering those terms. One of the hard drives contains what is left of my DAZ projects over the past 20 years.... I really would hate to lose that data.
I have never heard of AWS, are you sure that is the format? I thought most Macs used HFS format. If so HFSExplorer for Windows should be able to read it.
I do not remember the exact name of the file format. I do not have any Macs available to get that info. Right now I am copying the stuff that was copied before the Mac Mini died. I am copying from a portable hard drive. I had to disconnect my external keyboard from the HP Notebook so I could copy the files. It is hard to type on the HP notebook keyboard because of where it is positioned on the desk.
OK I did a Google search. I used APFS (Apple File System)
The saddest part of it all is being stuck with anything made by HP.
I have a box of video recordings I can't use because I don't have any cameras designed to load a cassette. But I keep them because I know they will be useful one day. I think I kind of do that with DAZ Studio items too. Perhaps the inacessible files shouldn't be thought of as lost files, but rather files that are not being used yet because nobody has time for that.
I've been a happy owner of Apple products for over a decade. However, Apple doesn't give us a 17" notebook. I wanted a notebook computer that I could take with me if I want to do some research away from home. The notebook works just fine. But mostly now I use it to read Kindle books. I've been working on an idea to make a comic strip inspired by true events in my own life., So far all I've done is create a few characters. I had some computer problems a few years ago and lost some of the characters. But somehow I kept some of the older characters. It's all quite complicated. I've dedicated a lot of time over the past two decades on this project. It would hurt very much to lose it.
Fortunately I found a utility that lets me read the discs that had been formated on the Mac. I am using the trial version now. Let's see just how much work it lets me do. I can buy the paid version in a couple days.
All is not lost, there are data recovery experts around. I have seen some success cases for drives that a normal person would bet their life would be unrecoverable.
Usually there is a charge for the service, but it shouldnt be too bad if the issue is just different formats. It would just be a matter of pulling your Mac apart to get the HD and retreiving the data from it. Not sure where you are located, but i'd bet there are some options around
joseft, all the data was saved on external hard drives. I just wasn't sure how I'd be able to access the stuff since the Macs had died. Now I'm easily moving the stuff over to my PC Notebook. The HP Notebook just doesn't have the power to really handle my DAZ Studio work.
APFS wasn't introduced until 2017 (High Sierra, 10.13, which isn't supported on 2009 Minis, and even then, it was only an option), and APFS drives are not readable by systems running OS X 10.12 and earlier. Also, High Sierra , Mojave, and Catalina only auto-convert internal flash drives (SSDs) to APFS: mechanical drives (HDs) and external flash drives that were originally formatted for HFS+ remain HFS+ unless you convert them in Disk Utility or via the Terminal. So unless you patched High Sierra to run on your Mini and converted your Mini and backup HDs to APFS, they're formatted for HFS+.
The victim may still be in a coma but at least he's out of the fire.
mclaugh, I had the late 2013 27" iMac. After it died, I was able to read my DAZ Studio hard drive on the Mac Mini... However, I didn't realize the cooling fan was dying. At the end, the computer would turn off just as soon as I turned it on. I confess I don't remember details like the official file format. I just knew the hard drive was formatted on the iMac. The Mac Mini could read the hard drive...I can access the files on the HP notebook thanks to HFS+.