It’s much easier to recover data from a Mac that starts up and runs normally. However, if your Mac won’t boot, you can still recover your data. In this article, we describe the process.
In general, you can only access the built-in macOS tools that can be used to recover data when the device is working. So it is a big challenge to protect your Mac or recover your Mac data if it can’t start. However, this does not mean that data recovery is not possible at all.
We will walk you through several important ways to recover data from macOS that won’t boot.
Method 1 – Third Party Software
Various third-party software will help you recover data from macOS even if it doesn’t start. Also, the process is much easier and involves clicking just a few buttons.
Cleverfiles Disk Drill contributes greatly to data recovery and is one of the best data recovery tools for Mac in 2022. Here are the steps to recover files with the best Mac data recovery software.
Step 1: Download and install Disk Drill for Mac
First, download and install Disk Drill for Mac to your macOS backup. Once the software is installed, insert a blank USB drive into your Mac and run Disk Drill. Select Recover data from crashed system and click the start button to start the scanning process.
Step 2: Select USB
Now select the USB which you have inserted into the Mac and press the Start button.
Step 3: Format the device
Press Format to format the device and prepare it to recover files from the external hard drive. When the drive is ready to use, you should see a pop-up window indicating that the bootable drive has been created successfully.
Step 4: Insert the drive into the Mac that won’t boot
Now insert the drive into the Mac that won’t start, start it up and hold option to select your drive. Your Mac will now boot from there.
Step 5 – Restore the files
Now select the files you want to recover from macOS and click Export. It will restore the files to the folder you choose for recovery.
Disk Drill uses two scanning procedures, “quick scan” and “deep scan”, both of which are effective. You will have a list of all the files found during the scanning process. At this stage you can preview the files.
The file name, type or date and time are important to be more precise in the search area. Click to preview the files to ensure they are complete and error-free.
Method 2: Boot from recovery mode and restore from a Time Machine backup
This is one way to recover data from an external drive. If you had made a Time Machine backup before your Mac misbehaved, you could have restored your data much faster.
Follow the steps below to complete the recovery.
- Step 1: Turn on backup on your Mac. Hold down Command + R while macOS starts up to reboot into recovery mode.
- Step 2 – Select “Restore from Time Machine Backup” option in recovery mode.
- Step 3 – Select the appropriate backup to restore to your Mac.
- Step 4: Select the destination for your recovery files and click Continue. Allow the file restore to complete. At the end of the recovery, your Mac should be able to boot without errors. Also, the data should now be available for you to use.
Method 3: Convert Unbootable Mac Hard Drive to External Hard Drive and Extract Data
This is another method that you can use to recover files from Macintosh. The method reconfirms that it is possible to mount the internal drive as an external drive and extract data from it. You can do the same with your macOS to extract data from it. This is what you should do:
- Step 1: Open your Mac and remove the internal drive.
- Step 2 – Place the drive in the box.
- Step 3 – Connect the drive to the new Mac. Copy the files to the new storage on your Mac when the storage appears.
Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education