If you are having trouble with your MacBook, there’s a chance that it’s dead. Various factors can cause dead laptops, and sometimes it’s difficult to know which is causing the problem. Like most people, you probably don’t think about your hard drive very often. After all, it just stores your photos, music, and movies! But if your hard drive starts to act up, you should know how to fix it.
A failing or dead hard drive can cause all sorts of problems, from being unable to start up your computer to losing all your important data. In this article, we’ll discuss the different ways a hard drive can become dead and how to recover data from a dead MacBook.
Table of Contents:
A dead hard drive is no longer able to read or write data. In most cases, this problem can be attributed to a failure of the hard drive’s spinning platters. When these platters become damaged, they cannot read or write data correctly. As a result, the computer cannot access any data on the dead hard drive.
Dead hard drives can be a costly and frustrating problem. Some of the common reasons behind a failed hard drive.
Now, you must be wondering whether you can recover your data from your dead hard drive. In most cases, it is possible to recover data from a dead hard drive. However, this process can be time-consuming and require specialized tools. Therefore, if you think your Mac hard drive is dead, it is best to take immediate action before it becomes a permanent loss.
Below we have mentioned various methods based on the severity of the issue to help you recover your data from your dead MacBook.
To quickly and safely restore data from the dead hard drive of a MacBook Pro, make use of the Yodot Mac Data Recovery tool. Yodot is built with dual-scan algorithms designed to perform a deep sector-by-sector level scan to retrieve data from a broken hard drive. The User-friendly interface makes data recovery an effortless and intuitive experience.
Follow the below simple steps to recover your data from a dead MacBook Pro hard drive:
Since your Mac hard drive is dead, which means your Mac cannot start because there are no system files to boot your Mac. In this situation, you can remove the failed hard drive from your Mac, put it in an external enclosure, and use another computer to restore files from the dead hard drive.
Note: Follow the official instructions to remove the defective hard drive from your Mac. Visit the manufacturer’s website for instructions on removing the hard drive from your Mac.
If you want to recover data on the same Mac that lost data, you can create a macOS bootable USB drive and use it to boot your dead Mac. Then you can recover the data using data recovery software. Below is how to do this on your computer.
Note: Ensure you’re using the commands that apply to your macOS version.
For example-
Catalina:
sudo/Applications/Install\macOS\Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume
Sierra:
sudo/Applications/Install\macOS\Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
Intel-based Macs have a boot mode called Target Disk Mode. This is especially useful when retrieving content from a Mac that cannot successfully boot from its Operating System. In addition, M1 Mac has a similar feature called Shared Disk.
Target Disk Mode or Shared Disk transfers a crashed Mac to an external hard drive that can be accessed from another Mac or PC.
Important Note: You can physically connect a dead MacBook to a Windows PC, but Windows computers use a different file system, so the PC cannot read the hard drive without third-party tools. Therefore, getting another Mac for this method to work is recommended.
1. Connect the two Macs using the appropriate Firewire or Thunderbolt cable.
2. Shut down the unbootable Mac.
3. Turn on your Mac and immediately hold down the T key.
4. When a non-bootable Mac enters target disk mode, a hard disk icon appears on the working Mac.
4. Double-click on the icon to open the failed Mac’s hard drive and copy the files you want to recover to a working Mac or other devices.
5. Eject the hard drive of the unbootable Mac. And you are done.
With the help of Disk images, you can manage and restore your data. By creating a disk image, you can protect your files and folders from accidental deletion or corruption. You can also use disk images as a backup solution. Additionally, you can use disk images to recover lost data from a dead hard drive. Finally, you can restore your files without reinstalling your operating System by creating a disk image of your Mac hard drive.
Follow the below Steps to create disk images in your macOS:
1. Connect an external storage device to your Mac using a suitable card reader.
2. Now, Boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode.
For Intel Mac:
For M1 Mac: Shut down your Mac computer, press and hold the Power Button until seeing the “Loading Startup options,” then choose Options > Continue.
3. Click on Disk Utility > Continue.
4. Select File > New Image > Image from Folder from the top menu bar.
5. Select the folder containing the data you want to restore and click Open.
6. Enter a name of your choice for the disk image and save it to your external device.
7. Select whether to encrypt the image from the Encryption drop-down menu.
8. Select Read/Write from the Format drop-down menu.
9. Click Save > Finish.
After successfully creating the disk image, you can see all the recovered files by simply connecting the external hard drive to the working Mac and double-clicking the hard drive icon installed on your desktop.
Overall, recovering data from a dead MacBook is relatively easy if you take the right actions. However, if you tried all the methods mentioned above, but your Hard Drive is still not working, your Mac may have a hardware issue, and you will need to take it to the apple store for repair. Moreover, always take a backup of your Mac hard drive to prevent data loss. If you have any further queries regarding the article, please use the comment section below.
Do you see the “audio codec not supported” error message pop-up when playing your videos…
No user appreciates or wants blurry videos, but as an uninvited guest, issues like out-of-focus…
iPads are a go-to choice for viewing videos as they offer an immersive watching experience,…
CCTV cameras are vital for security in workplaces, homes, and public events. However, you may…
MP4 is one of the most popular and preferred multimedia formats due to its wide…
Viewing a video that's distorted, unplayable, or has audio sync issues on your Mac can…