Data recovery from fried 2015 MacBook Pro

A drive designated as Time Machine backup drive can not be used (with a modern Mac) to store ANY other files, unless you deliberately ERASE it, which can ONLY be done inside Disk Utility.

(You can't CASUALLY overwrite those backups -- a great feature [in my opinion])

connect the backup drive and LOOK at it.

if it seems to have mostly one folder named backups.backupdb, that is a time machine backup drive.

If you would like help with further analysis, I or other Readers are willing to do help you with that.

the above screenshot from articles on time machine by the late James Pond, a prolific author about Time machine issues.

No, as long as you don't erase it there is nothing to worry about.

The only three things that can be trick:

1) If Filevault was enabled on that SSD, will macOS present a pop-up asking you for your password to unlock the SSD, or whether you will need to manually unlock/mount it using Disk Utility. The password to unlock Filevault on that SSD will be an admin password from that broken laptop.

2) Will the "Users" folder on that SSD be easily accessible by showing on the Desktop or Finder's Sidebar if you have it configured to automatically show mounted external volumes, or whether you will need to navigate to "/Volumes" to access the "Data" volume which will have a "Users" folder with your accounts from the broken laptop.

/Volumes/Data/Users

If you see an empty "Users" folder, then you will need to go to Disk Utility and manually mount the "Data" volume for the external SSD.

3) If you see the "Users" folder for the SSD of the broken Mac, do your macOS user accounts align with those on the old Mac so that you have the correct macOS permissions to access the contents of the home user folder of th external SSD. Personally I don't like to modify the file/folder permissions of any boot drive until you know that you no longer will use it for booting. If you don't have access to the contents of the home user folder, then perhaps a second macOS user account on your good Mac will align & allow you to access those items. If not, then using the third party app Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is an option (there is a free trial period) which will allow you to access the contents of the home folders by prompting for an admin password to elevate to admin privileges to bypass the permissions issues. CCC also allows you to select & deselect items you wish to copy & retrieve from the SSD. CCC has been around for decades and its developer is well regarded in the Apple community.

Here is probably the easiest method, but requires access to another external drive:

Since you have a working 2015 MBPro you could boot from that external SSD and transfer the contents to another external volume. To boot from the external SSD from the broken laptop, hold the Option key immediately after hearing the startup chime so that you can access the Apple boot picker menu. If the SSD from the broken laptop is already connected you should see it as a boot option with an orange icon....you can connect the SSD from the broken laptop after you reach the Option boot screen and it should show an orange icon after a few minutes.

Or while booted from the external SSD you can transfer the data to the "Users/Shared" folder for the internal drive (when booting from an external drive, the internal "Users/Shared" folder will be available at "/Volumes/Data/Users/Shared" (may have same issues as noted above regarding Filevault and mounting of the Data volume), but you won't have the permissions related issues at this point in the transfer:

/Volumes/Data/Users/Shared

It is up to you whether you boot the working 2015 laptop with the external SSD from the broken laptop or whether you just boot the good laptop normally and access the external SSD as a regular data drive. Unfortunately with macOS behaving differently for different versions of macOS when trying to access another macOS boot drive it is hard to be more specific until you make the attempt & provide details on where you get stuck. At least you go into it having a bit of knowledge of the things you may encounter while trying to access the data on the SSD. As long as the SSD is good and its file system is good, then we can help you access the data on it.

Good luck.

integracare2000 wrote:

Thank you Grant Bennet-Alder. If my spouse had backed things up recently (I think the book has been written since the last back-up), we would definitely do that. But I still need to get to the newer stuff. I don't even know yet whether the SSD sustained any damage.

You should have no problems accessing the data on the SSD from the broken laptop when connecting it to a newer Mac since it is using either the HFS+ or APFS file systems which recent versions of macOS can still read.

Here is the OWC Envoy Pro Enclosure that is compatible with Late-2013 to 2015 MacBook Pros:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENP1AW/

If Filevault was enabled on the broken laptop, then you may need to manually unlock & mount it using Disk Utility. Sometimes macOS will automatically prompt you to unlock an encrypted drive, but not always.

If you are trying to manually access files on the old SSD instead of using Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to migrate the home user folder, then you may encounter a couple of issues with accessing the data.

• If more than one macOS user account is or was on either Mac, then you may have some permissions issues to deal with to gain access to the data.
• Some versions of macOS may mount & link the Data volume properly, but others may require you to manually mount the Data volume of the old SSD using Disk Utility.

If you have issues, then just ask here and we can assist you with those issues.

Your 2015 MBP is vintage and near obsolete. Don't spend money repairing it. Replace the computer with something newer. Then remove the drive from this old MBP, put it into an external drive case and connect it to the new Mac to access the data that it holds.

Removing the drive from the old laptop is not difficult.

Ref: https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/enc_owc_envoy_pro_pcie_ssd/MacBookPro11-1/

<<. We usually do a back up thru Time Machine->WD drive but don't know how to read last one without computer. >>

You can connect that WD drive through ANY computer, and if you see that it has files on it, you are likely doing just file. if you would LIKE, you can MIGRATE those files (using Migration Assistant) to a different computer or using [very similar] Setup Assistant at first run on a replacement computer. You don't need a separate computer to do a Migration.

Migration takes All day to overnight, and ties up BOTH computers for that time, so it is not something you do "just to look around".

Time Machine files are NOT intended to be accessed or changed with FINDER.

Users who ignore warnings and go in and grab files off a backup drive find the files have wrong permissions this way and are very awkward to deal with. Users who try to delete time machine files regret it forever, as they will NOT delete, ever.

Instead, when you decide where the files are going, time machine APP or migration assistant can restore them properly for you.

I am aware of some limitation of earlier Mac OS versions inability to read data from external NVMe drives, but I don't know specifics of that. Perhaps post that as a new question in the Community.

However, I do know the early-2015 MBP can be upgraded to macOS 12 Monterey, and I'm certain that OS is capable. I would look for enclosures at macsales.com. They know their Macs and if you call with questions they are usually more than happy to assist and help you make sure you're on the right track - including OS compatibility with their drives and enclosures.

No, I would not take the path of buying another like-model MBP. It's expensive, potentially complicated and there's no guarantee that the unit you buy will be in any better condition than your own. I believe that would not be the wisest decision.

<<. I'm not tech savvy >

to do this data RECOVERY, you will need to dis-assemble your computer, remove the SSD board, install in it a special enclosure, and then look for your files.

Did you look at your backup drive with Finder?

does it have backups on it? if it has backups, you have your files, and can just wave bye-bye to that dead computer and move on

Readers here get their rewards from helping folks out, of what are sometimes tough situations. No one wants to berate you.

If you set up a time machine backup drive on a modern Mac, and do not preclude its running, it will be there to save you from situations like the abuse you are facing now.

You don't change permissions for Users, you change permissions for Folders and Files.

for any Folder or file, if you set Everyone to Read & Write, that gets you access to most anything.

You can READ things off a damaged drive. But DO NOT WRITE or MOVE or EDIT anything on it, or you may overwrite other data. COPY off (Drag and Drop) to another drive.

You can open one or several Additional Finder window(s) and Drag and Drop between them. Just choose new Finder Window off Finder's File menu.

I would not make any changes to the drive where you are trying to recover data, including changing any file/folder permissions. First rule of data recovery, never, ever modify the source drive.

You can drag & drop those items onto another drive and you will be prompted for your admin password for the current Mac you are booted. The file/folder permissions will be changed so that your current boot drive has ownership of those items. Or better yet, use Carbon Copy Cloner as I suggested previously as it will prompt you once for your admin password of the system currently booted and allow you to easily select & deselect items and to see into any folders that do not match your current permissions.