It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of a hard drive in your Mac. If it gets damaged or actually dies, you may become at risk of losing all of the data from your computer: pictures, videos, documents, etc. Knowing what can cause such issues can be incredibly helpful in preventing it from happening and recovering the lost data if it has already happened.<\/p>\r\n
So, here are a few reasons why your Mac’s HDD might fail or get damaged:<\/p>\r\n
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- 💽 Aging<\/b>: Yes, it can even be as simple as that. In general, the lifespan of a Mac’s hard drive varies somewhere between 3-5 years. It depends on many factors, but eventually, all HDDs fail.<\/li>\r\n\t
- 🦠 Malware<\/b>: Viruses and other malware rarely attack Macs, but it’s still a possibility. And if it happens, it may cause data loss or, in worst-case scenarios, hard drive failure.<\/li>\r\n\t
- ⚙️ Hardware problems<\/b>: Since Mac hard drives consist of a lot of moving parts, they might get damaged either overtime or because of basic human error.<\/li>\r\n\t
- ⚒️ Physical damage<\/b>: Excessive heat, water, or humidity can destroy the hard drive of any Mac.<\/li>\r\n\t
- 🩹 Mishaps<\/b>: If you drop your Mac on a hard surface, it can cause mechanical problems in its hard drive.<\/li>\r\n\t
- 🔌 Power issues<\/b>: Whether it’s a sudden power outage or an increase of the electrical charge in the power lines, any of the power issues may cause severe Mac hard drive damage.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
<\/span>How to Recover Deleted Files from Dead Hard Drive<\/span><\/h2>\r\n
The data recovery results might vary depending on the severity of the issue and on how quickly you act in your situation.<\/p>\r\n
<\/span>Method #1: Recover Deleted Files from Dead Hard Drive with Data Recovery Software<\/span><\/h3>\r\n
So, how to get files off a dead MacBook?<\/p>\r\n
Let’s start with the quickest and most effective method, which is using a specialized data recovery tool. The process requires you to create a disk image backup of your Mac (you’ll have to do it via Recovery Mode if your Mac isn’t booting) and then scan and recover the data from that file with the application.<\/p>\r\n
Our software choice for this method is Disk Drill<\/a> since it’s easy to use and provides incredible results even with high volumes of data. Also, with this tool, you’ll be able to choose whether you wish to recover all of the files from your Mac’s drive or only a few specific files.<\/p>\r\n
💡Before moving forward, you should prepare an empty external storage device (it needs to be big enough to hold all of the data from your HDD), the MacBook, which you want to recover data from, and another working Mac.<\/div>\r\nFollow these steps to recover data from a dead Mac hard drive:<\/p>\r\n
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- Connect the external drive to the Mac with the dead HDD.<\/li>\r\n\t
- Boot into Recovery Mode<\/b> (for Intel-based Macs<\/i>, turn on your Mac by pressing the power button and holding the Command + R<\/b> keys; for M1 Macs<\/i>, press and hold the power button until the Startup Options<\/b> window appears).
![\"apple](\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/apple-logo-scaled.jpg\")
<\/li>\r\n\t- Open Disk Utility<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
- Choose the connected external drive and click Erase<\/b>. Type in a name for the drive, select the Mac OS Extended (Journaled)<\/b> format and choose the GUID Partition Map<\/b> scheme.<\/li>\r\n\t
- Click Erase<\/b> to confirm.
![\"erase](\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/erase-drive-recovery-mode-1.jpg\")
<\/li>\r\n\t- Select your Mac’s internal drive. Then from the menu bar at the top, click File > New Image > Image from Macintosh HD<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
- Type in a name for your backup, choose the external drive as the destination, and select read\/write<\/b> as the format. Click Save<\/b> to confirm.
![\"create](\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/mac-disk-image-3.jpg\")
<\/li>\r\n\t- Once the process is finished, quit Disk Utility<\/b> and eject the drive.
![\"disk](\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/quit-disk-utility-recovery-mode-mac-scaled.jpg\")
<\/li>\r\n\t- Plug in the external drive into your working Mac. Find the disk image file and double-click it.<\/li>\r\n\t
- Download Disk Drill<\/b><\/a> onto your Mac and follow the onscreen instructions to install it. When finished, launch the app.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Disk](\"\/howto\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/sidebar-ban-96.png\")
\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n download-block-title<\/b>
\r\n download-block-text\r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n \r\n - Open Disk Utility<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
- 🦠 Malware<\/b>: Viruses and other malware rarely attack Macs, but it’s still a possibility. And if it happens, it may cause data loss or, in worst-case scenarios, hard drive failure.<\/li>\r\n\t