Chosen Solution
I have a 2011 iMac and it has worked fine for 4 years until it suddenly PIN locked. I have tried everything, but no joy. I got it free and it has a replaced mobo, so there is no calling Apple for help. It has an ifixit SSD conversion kit with a 2TB SSD. I have a refurbished 2017 iMac coming. If I pull the SSD and put it in the 2017 will I have problems? I know I need a different thermal adapter and have that ordered already. My understanding is that the PIN lock in on the motherboard, not the drive. I would hate to cause the replacement to get pin locked from the drive. Should I clone the old drive to a backup, and then format it fresh and start with a clean system, then import my user accounts and data back from the clone? Update (05/12/2022) I pulled the drive and using a USB to SATA adapter, I plugged it into my laptop. The drive is completely empty. When the computer went into pinlock, it must have also erased the drive. I ran Disk Drill on it overnight and so far, it has found only a few pll files.
If you put in a new SSD then your Apple user account is all that’s needed to verify you own the data. But instead of opening up your newer system, how about just using an adapter cable like either of these: USB 3.0 (5Gbps) Adapter Cable for 2.5" SATA Drives to USB-AUSB 3.1 (10Gbps) Adapter Cable for 2.5” SATA Drives to USB-C Or how about using an external drive case like either of these: USB 3.0 (5Gbps) HD Case for 2.5" SATA Drives to USB-AUSB 3.1 (10Gbps) HD Case for 2.5” SATA Drives to USB-C Then after you’ve made sure it works look at first upgrading it to a bootable APFS drive as I bet you your drive is still HFS+ based which won’t work as a bootable disk in your 2017 system.
