HD erase during repairment

Read paragraphs 1.2 and 1.11.2 which you agreed to.

Legal - Repair Terms and Conditions - Apple

It is basic for anyone using a computer to understand that they thenselves are responsible for their data and that all computer users need to create and maintain their own data backups.

When you find out what a few Hours of Attorney time costs, you will find it already exceeds anything you could hope to recover from suing Apple.

Perhaps then you will be in the mood to obtain an external drive at least 2x the size of what you need to store and follow through with the recommendations in this article:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

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zihuiwang wrote:

Hello, I went to Apple store (Columbia, MD) to repair my MacBook Pro on April 1st. I posted a special request that I don't want to erase my HD during the repair on the repair application sheet. But the tech still erase my HD, and didn't provide any solution until now. I want to know what I should do in the current situation. Thanks.

See step 1.

Get your Mac ready for service - Apple Support Get your Mac ready for service - Apple Support

If you value your user data it is advised to have a robust backup strategy— do not wait for a catastrophic failure of some sort to get the backup religion...

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

An Apple Store will never guarantee not to erase the drive as Apple assumes the user has backups. The tech at the Apple Store should have made this clear to you. Check the paperwork you signed and you will likely see a note about Apple not being responsible for the data.

An AASP may be more likely to honor your request about not erasing the drive if the AASP performs the repair at their own shop, but sometimes it just is not possible depending on the issue. Sometimes techs are so busy, that they may not see the note or they may even forget about it. People can become distracted so it is never wise to rely on others to keep your data safe.

If an Apple Store or an AASP mails the laptop to an Apple mail-in repair depot, then you have no guarantee that the data will be safe. An Apple mail-in repair depot assumes that they are allowed to erase the drive or replace the drive if necessary without attempting to backup the data.

Apple no longer takes responsibility for any user data and puts the responsibility on the user to maintain proper backups. The reason Apple does this is because Apple no longer asks for user's macOS user account passwords for security reasons. This means Apple cannot access your data to back it up even if they wanted to back up your data. This is to protect both you and Apple. Because Apple does not have your user account password, it means that no one working for Apple or contracted by Apple can access any of your personal files which could be used to compromise your other online accounts or to post incriminating or embarrassing documents or photos online. In fact, Apple trains their employees and AASPs not to ask for your password, but to have you unlock the account while they attempt to troubleshoot software issues with you present & watching over their shoulders so that you know that they are not accessing or copying your personal files. This is to avoid any possibility of a user accusing Apple or an AASP of accessing personal documents.

If your paperwork indeed shows a note explicitly saying "Do not erase -- preserve data", then check with a lawyer for your legal options. However, your data is long gone unless you have a backup, or you stored some files on some external media or the cloud. You have just learned a very painful lesson about backups.

You should always have frequent backups of your computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. Keep in mind that it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied, plus there are ways to delete data so it never makes it to the Trash in the first place. Plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs (even a brand new SSD). In addition, the SSD is integrated into the Logic Board of USB-C Macs which mean if the Logic Board is not functional, then there is usually no hope of data recovery. Even a macOS update can corrupt the T2 security chip or M1 firmware which can destroy access to your hardware encrypted data as there is no way to access the encrypted data. So you see, there are a lot of ways to lose data.

I'm sorry for your loss.

zihuiwang wrote:

Thank you for your reply. Actually, the reason I went to Apple genius bar is that I am not confident in transferring all my data safe. So I looked for help from the genius bar. They told me to purchase a new MacBook to receive the data. Then, I purchased a new mac and leave my passwords for both old and new MacBook to them. Also, I told the guy in the genius bar and wrote on the special notes that I didn't authorize to erase my HD on the repair application form. But when I went to pick up my laptop, they totally erase my HD without any explanation. They even didn't provide any solution to me, and didn't call me back for a week now. This makes me so angry. They just wanted to let me leave and forget this things. They don't think it's their problem. I will find a lawer to deal with this things. Thanks for your suggestion.

Your data is your responsibility.

Here is a link to the software licensing agreement which also mentions that the customer is responsible for all software on their computer:

https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macOSMonterey.pdf

Restore your data from your backup. Apple is not responsible for your data.