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Model A1419 / EMC 2806 / Late 2014 or Mid 2015. 3.3 or 3.5 GHz Core i5 or 4.0 GHz Core i7 (ID iMac15,1); EMC 2834 late 2015 / 3.3 or 3.5 GHz Core i5 or 4.0 GHz Core i7 (iMac17,1) All with Retina 5K displays

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Any good links how to extract data from a Fusion Drive?

I'm struggling to find reading material online about how to extract data from a Fusion Drive. I know it's made up of a HDD and smaller SDD, but is the SDD found somewhere separate in the motherboard or is it in the HDD case somewhere? Looking to transfer the data directly off and put it on a PC. I think I can run HFSE Explorer to convert OS data to Windows and then use Disk Drill to pull it off. My issue as I mentioned is my confusion around the physical aspect of what constitutes the Fusion Drive and what device I'd need to plug into it. Hugely appreciate any help.

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The Fusion Drive system in these iMacs consists of a standard SATA HDD and a smaller cache SSD located separately on the board (generally anywhere from a 32GB to 128GB drive depending on the total Fusion Drive size). Since the SSD acts only as a cache for frequently accessed data, the standard SATA HDD will have the entire file system on it at all times, and the SSD will only contain duplicated data that the system deems necessary for faster access. Assuming that SATA HDD is not dead or defective, data extraction just requires removing that one drive and connecting it to another computer with a standard SATA data/power cable. With these iMacs, that process is the easiest one, as removing the SSD requires removal of the entire logic board, while the standard HDD can be accessed immediately after removing the LCD panel.

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