SSD Drive Recovery

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SSD Drive Recovery

First, I don't need the lecture on backing up. I usually do that. The reason I hadn't done that was an illness and a move. It is my fault, and I feel horrible and sad enough as it is.

Also my fault, and why I feel even worse: I accidentally got a few drops of water on the trackpad of my 13" 2020 Macbook Pro. That was literally it - four or five drops of tap water. I shut down the computer immediately and wiped them off. I left the computer to sit for 72 hours. When I went to turn it on, it would not boot or turn on. Just a black screen. No sound. Nothing. So I presume some water got inside and fried my computer.

Since it was my fault and I had no warranty anyway even if it wasn't my fault and I need a computer for work (and my poor 2011 MBP can't stay on longer than a couple of hours without overheating), I bought a new computer. But I lost about 2 months of data from the last time I ran TimeMachine.

I would really like to get that data back.

Reading online makes this sound like an expensive and low likelihood of success proposition due to the T2 chip. I should also mention I haven't removed the back myself or had the dead machine looked at. So I don't know exactly what was damaged.

But I figured I can't be the first person this has happened to, and maybe someone who has been through this can offer some help/advice/information.

If I take my computer to the Apple Store, could they help me get the data off (this is assuming the SSD is also not fried)? I have a techy friend who would be willing to work on it (hey the computer is dead anyway...) and if this was a standard hard-drive, I'd ask him to do that and see what he can do, but having read online about the T2 chips, it sounds like you need a special toolkit to access the data so you have to go thru Apple? How much, approximately, does that cost?
If not the Apple store, is there anyone else out there who can help me? (There's a zillion data recovery sites out there ... I have no clue how to pick someone reputatable.)
Is this time-sensitive? Having just had to shell out for a new computer, money is now tight. Can the computer basically sit there now and can I address this again in the future? (i.e. could I bring it in or send it for data recovery say six months from now once I have saved up some money?)

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Posted on Nov 7, 2022 9:02 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,618 points

Nov 7, 2022 7:51 PM in response to thegreenheron

Apple won't recover your data as they expect users to perform backups.

Apple only provides an AASP with a special online utility through their service portal to attempt to access data, but the Mac must be able to get into DFU mode and have working USB-C ports. Even the, you must still be able to authenticate with the T2 security chip to access any data. Many times I have seen bugs with the T2 authentication system even when there is no damage.

There is no way for a standard user to access any data on a 2018+ Mac which is not powering on. Even an AASP is unlikely to be able to access any data either.

I agree with @a brody regarding Drive Savers. We used them several times many many years ago and were satisfied with them (at the time we were not charged any fee when the data could not be recovered). They provide free estimates and are recommended by Apple and other OEMs. In fact if you want to have the Mac repaired, then you would have to use Drive Savers or one of the other few professional data recovery services recommended by Apple for your region. Apple works with Drive Savers and a few other services. Using any other service would likely have Apple deny repair service for the laptop. In the past when we needed a Mac repaired and also have data recovered, the AASP would send the drive to Drive Savers on our behalf while repairing the laptop (one was a warranty repair, another was accidental damage).

You may want to have Apple or an AASP examine the laptop to confirm the part or parts which have failed. Maybe you can get lucky and it is something other than a bad Logic Board. However, you must inform Apple or the AASP up front that you need to have data recovered since some troubleshooting steps may involve erasing the system. I have seen a couple posts on here where users did this and Apple or the AASP ignored their request regarding data recovery. Keep in mind that Apple and some AASPs may not perform repairs themselves, but mail the laptop to an Apple repair depot. In these cases expect to lose your data for sure.

You definitely need to speak with Apple directly regarding data recovery if you think you may want the laptop repaired at some point to make sure you are handling the data recovery procedures correctly to allow for a repair. I'm not entirely certain what Apple's current procedures and recommendations are for repairs & data recovery by Drive Savers since things do change.

FYI, there are a lot of ways to lose access to your data on the newer USB-C Macs. Backups are more important than ever before.

I'm sorry you've had so much bad luck recently.

Good luck.

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

85,296 points

Nov 7, 2022 9:31 AM in response to thegreenheron

They can make a best effort. But they don't have the forensic tools of http://www.drivesavers.com/

Drive Savers is far more expensive. But it really depends if you believe the problem is simply one of wiping, or one of mechanical failure. Mechanical failure, only Drive Savers has been known to recover information.

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Answer 3

Nov 8, 2022 5:00 AM in response to HWTech

Thank you for the reply and the good information. I had a 2010 MBP fail after about 5 years, and it was very easy to just pull out the hard drive and get what I hadn't backed up to TimeMachine. (I usually run TimeMachine weekly.) I did not realize just how difficult it had become to salvage data off the MacBook hard drives. Lesson learned. From now on, I am going to be religious about running daily backups.

My luck finally changed! Because the only thing I lost that I really, really cared about were some photographs, as a last-ditch effort, I ran all my SD cards through EaseUs's Data Recovery Wizard. I was able to recover nearly all my lost photographs that way. I want to throw this out there for any other photographers -- if you suffer a catastrophic failure like this and lose recent photographs you don't have backed up, try running your SD cards through this program. I had formatted the cards and figured the files were overwritten, but since they were recent, this program was able to find them. This was a 64GB card that ended up having 99GB of data stored on it! The program lets you see the files it found, and you only pay for the program if you decide it's worth it to recover the data. It's also affordable ($90/month, but realistically, you'll probably only need to pay for one month to recover your data.)

Having recovered what I really needed, I'll probably take my MacBook over to the Apple store in the next few weeks and see if they can diagnose the exact problem and what it will cost to repair it. I'll go from there. (And if they need to wipe out the hard drive to repair it, that'll be fine now.)

Again, thank you for the reply. Really appreciate the information.

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SSD Drive Recovery

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