APFS Fusion Drive - Full to Capacity - SSD Failed

[Garrick Clark]

I have a client with a 2014 iMac with Fusion Drive. The SSD portion of the drive is completely defunct - not recognized by Mac OS or any Live bootables. The mechanical hard drive is working fine and I'm trying to recover data from it, if at all possible.

But it just shows up as APFS physical store and doesn't respond to disk utility commands. I'm trying to avoid sending it off to Big Data and since it's fully functional I feel like there ought to be someway to retrieve most of the data. I know that's what there is probably fragmented since it does store data on the SSD

I'm not terribly familiar with APFS and I haven't been able to find any data recovery tools (DiskWarrior not compatible, etc.) that might help in this case. I'm not opposed to purchasing software or tools, it's just that Google has been very stingy with useful information.

Please advise.

 

[Alexey]

UFS Explorer software works with APFS, but I don't know what the results would be with SSD missing. You should probably try their evaluation on the disk. Maybe there is other software which supports APFS, but I don't know any offhand.

 

[Markverhyden]

Unfortunately, but to no surprise, Apple has almost no documentation on what is going on with that setup. From what I understand it's some kind of JBOD with concatenated disks. I have seen comments that it's compatible with ZFS so maybe a BSD based distro to try to do a scan. You can also try scanning it with RStudio as that will work with ZFS as well and will recover by file type.

 

[CLC]

It's like a cyborg, it's just not natural Maybe @lcoughey has had some experience with these?

 

[lcoughey]

Without the SSD, there is absolutely no file structure to be recovered from the HDD. If you are lucky, the file system isn't encrypted and you will be able to recover raw files with a recovery program.

Can you send me a high resolution photo of both sides of the SSD so I can provide feedback about it?

 

[Garrick Clark]

I'm not trying to resurrect an old thread here, I just wanted to report back in case anyone else has a similar issue.

I tried UFS explorer at the recommendation here, but it's automated recovery processes weren't able to cobble together any results and I didn't have the time to study up on the more advanced features. What I ended doing was trying every data recovery program that claimed to work on APFS and had an evaluation. DiskDrill was what I ended up using and it actually worked. I recovered approximately 90% of his data (there were far too many to say accurately, but of the 20 or so I tried all but 1 were complete.

I tend to be skeptical of programs that are marketed to the public, but it worked for me when I'd lost all hope.

P.S. I'm not sure what the forum rules are about specific paid software. I'm not trying to shill, so please let me know if I need to remove some detail.

 

[CLC]

Don't worry about pointing out software that works, I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say solutions are welcome here.

 

[labtech]

What was the result in Disk Drill as far as quality of the recovery goes?

 

[lcoughey]

What was the result in Disk Drill as far as quality of the recovery goes?

UFS Explorer is horrible for RAW recoveries and it would have been the last program I'd recommend for such a case.

Disk Drill actually sucks, big time. I hazard to guess that the result was just a RAW mess. But, in this case, a RAW mess is likely the best one would get with any software.

I have 100 licenses (50 mac and 50 windows) for Disk Drill to give away. I've had them for months and haven't given a single license away because of how bad I think it is. In every case that I've done a side-by-side comparison of results in Windows and Mac OS, R-Studio and R-Explorer will bring up file structures within minutes while Disk Drill can't even find a file structure after scanning for hours...even on simple cases.

 

[timeshifter]

Time Machine takes three clicks to setup backup to an external hard drive. It's too bad that every Mac user hasn't taken this simple step.

 

[Mainstay]

I have 100 licenses (50 mac and 50 windows) for Disk Drill to give away.

If they are burning a hole in your software bin, I'd happily take a Mac license (and a Win License if that was doable).

Wouldn't want to presume Luke.

 

[Markverhyden]

Time Machine takes three clicks to setup backup to an external hard drive. It's too bad that every Mac user hasn't taken this simple step.

The biggest problem I have is EU's don't really notice TM. Been a while since I turned on a new Mac but clean installs don't provide any reminders. I remember back in the day when OEM's stopped shipping recovery disks and users were supposed to make them. That "make discs" popped up on every boot for several months before it went away. Even when it's running they don't notice if there is a problem. All you get is a little bang in the icon and occasionally a popup.