Recovering data from Mac SSD

[Haole Boy]

It sounds like you are entering the password at an early stage and then the OS is not loading - that's what makes me think that FileVault is likely enabled.

You should be able to boot the macbook from a Parted Magic CD or flash drive and get an image onto an external USB drive with ddrescue (great guide by Silverleaf here: https://www.technibble.com/forums/resources/advanced-guide-to-ddrescue.10/ ). I always create an image and restore an image to a third drive to save myself from the stress of wondering if I set the clone in the right direction.

Are you dealing with a regular SATA drive here? If so, you can just use something basic like this: https://www.startech.com/ca/HDD/Adapters/USB-3-SATA-adapter-cable-with-UASP~USB3S2SAT3CB
or this: https://www.startech.com/HDD/Dockin...rive-Docking-Station-for-25-35-HDD~SATDOCKU3S

I had no idea that you could boot a Mac from Parted Magic. I've purchased the latest version and am now running ddrescue. Unfortunately, this SSD is NOT your usual SATA drive so I can't use the docking station that I have. It's an M.2 form factor I think, but I'm not 100% sure about that as the "notch" is in a different place than what I see when I look at the M.2 article on Wikipedia

I use that ddrescue article as my "bible" when doing data recovery. Wonderful article! Unfortunately, the 'lslbk' command provided in the article to inform you about what drives are there does not work in Parted Magic, but I was able to determine what the drive identifier was by using gSmartControl.

Thanks for responding!

Harry Z

 

[Haole Boy]

So, ddrescue ran to completion with no errors found. Target directory for the .img file was an external storage drive. Rebooted the Mac using my external drive with macOS 10.13 on it and copied the .img file from the external usb storage drive to the drive I booted from. Took about an hour for the copy. Once it finished I tried to mount the .img file by double-clicking on it, but it doesn't mount and I get an error saying "no mountable file system found". Same result using an hdiutil command. Oh, well. Sounded like a good idea and definitely worth the time trying it. Thanks again @geranium for the suggestion!

Harry Z

 

[lcoughey]

Can you confirm you imaged the whole ssd and not just a partition?

 

[Haole Boy]

Can you confirm you imaged the whole ssd and not just a partition?

Yes. The "source" on the ddrescue command was specified as /sda

 

[HFultzjr]

If the .img is good, you should be able to:
Mount the .img file and recover data.
R-Studio or
https://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html

 

[geranium]

Personally, I would restore that image to another drive and then see if you can see anything on it when you connect it to a mac OS machine. Or run some data recovery software on it depending on how important the data is.

 

[Haole Boy]

If the .img is good, you should be able to:
Mount the .img file and recover data.
R-Studio or
https://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html

I mounted the image in R-Studio (first time using this program) and it was able to recover files! I have put the copied files onto an external USB drive.

Now, how do I get these files onto the new hard drive (after installing macOS)? I've looked at the Migration Assistant, and it seems to require that your files are on a (running) Mac or Windows system. I'd love to find something like Fab's for Mac where I can copy files from an offline system, but I don't think this exists. I think I will have to manually copy the files onto the new hard drive (after installing macOS). Any other ideas?

Also, I am familiar with the osfmount tool. But, this is an image of a macOS disk. I'm assuming Windows will have issues with trying to mount this drive with the HFS+ file system. Or, am I wrong here?

Mahalo

Harry Z

 

[Markverhyden]

Great to hear!

To be honest I'd not try to do anything like the Migration Assistant unless the machine was running a properly functioning OS. That bring over much more than just files so there is the risk of corrupted preferences, So just drag and drop. And make sure to grab the Library folder. Both at root as well as in the user folder. That's have things like browser and app support files as well as email if they are using Apple Mail.