Backup Hard Drive on a Dead Laptop

Hi Deedaya,

If the Mac successfully starts up in Target Disk Mode (hold down the T key at startup), or if you can remove the hard drive from the Mac, the data may be recoverable.

I would recommend cloning the entire drive to a backup drive or image before doing any data recovery work on it.

OtherWorldComputing has this article on the subject:

https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/41010-mac-os-101-how-to-boot-and-use-a-mac-in-target-disk-mode/

But if your Mac truly does Nothing, it's already too late.

Deedaya wrote:

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro that suddenly stopped turning on a few weeks ago, and I wanted to see if there is a way to backup the hard drive. I didn't make a backup anywhere but is it still possible to access the hard drive?

The time and reason for making and keeping backups is so that you don't lose your data if the computer dies. It is too late after the computer dies.

New MBPs have SSDs (not hard drives) soldered to the logic board. Older systems allowed removal of the drives after death to *maybe* recover data.

Backups on these newer MBPs is vital to recover from disaster.