2016 MacBook 12inch - need help getting data off drive

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Level 1

18 points

2016 MacBook 12inch - need help getting data off drive

Hi,

I'm helping someone with their 2016 MacBook 12 inch.

Problem - when it boots, it goes into a loop saying your computer was restarted because of a problem. Press a key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up. It then reboots and same thing.

The user would like

Their data off the drive (most important)
It fixed if a software issue. If it's a hardware issue it will be trashed as these don't appear to be worthwhile to repair.

The user said so far they just tried to reinstall Monterey and that didn't work.

My first thought was to put it in Transfer Mode. I booted it up, held T, it shows the transfer mode symbol like I expected. I went to connect to my MacBook Air 2016 and..well..that has Thunderbolt 2 and the MB12 has Thunderbolt 3. I have a Thunderbolt 2 cable I used a few months ago to do a transfer mode successfully from an older MBPro to my Air. What cable would I need to try this? I have a USB-C to USB-A cable I use to charge my iPad Pro but that didn't work. I see online if you have Big Sur or higher (they both do) it HAS to be a thunderbolt cable. I'm guessing I could use my cable with the Thunderbolt 3 adapter?

My second thought was boot into safe mode and run First Aid. I did that and it found no issues although I only see a drive size of 1.14GB so that is odd.

My third thought was to reinstall Monterey. I hit the key combo to boot up in reinstall mode but when it gets to the screen where you pick the disk, the disk area is blank, it doesn't even show any disks and the continue button is grayed out.

If I click Partition, I see this

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks

Posted on Aug 13, 2023 10:20 AM

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Answer 1

texas pete Author

Level 1

18 points

Aug 14, 2023 5:40 AM in response to Servant of Cats

On the MB12 the "hard drive" is part of the logic board and soldered in. I think what ku4hx said is correct, the drive itself is bad. When I booted up in recovery mode, it would not show me anything until I connected to the internet making me think that recovery is running from the internet. Disk Utility doesn't show me any local drives at all. I found some youtube videos that this is an issue on these MacBook 12 models and it shows them removing the logic board and resoldering some connections to fix it. That's way out of my area of repair expertise but i'll reach out to some places they recommended and get their thoughts.

I don't believe the user has any backups.

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Answer 2

ku4hx

Level 7

23,842 points

Aug 13, 2023 11:07 AM in response to texas pete

It sounds to me the main disk is dead. having tried all you have without success tends to support that.

I suggest the user rely on his/her backups to recover the data. You will need a working Mac for that.

I can tell you my 2016 13"MBP broke and the replacement logic board three years ago was $592 US. Th next time it breaks it goes into recycle.

My 2016 has an Apple proprietary SSD for which there is NO external enclosure to use the drive in to be read by another computer. So backups are essential if the data is important.

Apple lists the 2016 MacBook (not Air or Pro) as "Vintage" meaning repairs may not be available.

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Answer 3

Aug 14, 2023 2:44 AM in response to texas pete

The 12" Retina MacBooks do not have Thunderbolt.

They have USB-C ports with support for USB and DisplayPort. But unlike most Mac USB-C ports, these ones do not have the optional Thunderbolt enhancement.

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Answer 4

texas pete Author

Level 1

18 points

Aug 27, 2023 6:30 AM in response to texas pete

Just wanted to add to this for future help for people. I bought an OWC Thunderbolt cable and that let me see the other drive but as I suspected there is no getting the data, the drive shows uninitialized and gives an unreadable error. I connected 2 other MacBooks together successfully using this cable so I proved you definitely need a Thunderbolt cable to do Transfer mode and not just a USB-C cable like the charging cables that come along with the Macs.

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Answer 5

Aug 14, 2023 3:08 AM in response to texas pete

RE: "I see online if you have Big Sur or higher (they both do) it HAS to be a thunderbolt cable. I'm guessing I could use my cable with the Thunderbolt 3 adapter?"

If it has to be Thunderbolt, that won't work, because the 12" Retina Mac doesn't have Thunderbolt. You would be out the $50 you spent on the Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter and the $30 you spent on the Thunderbolt 1/2 cable.

If you have a spare external USB drive, you could try using your Air to install Monterey on the external drive, then moving the drive over to the 12" Retina MacBook and booting the MacBook from that drive.

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Answer 6

Apr 29, 2024 3:49 AM in response to texas pete

exactly same issue happen. the apple support said they are not able to fix it and i have to go to apple store.

seems the disk just disappeared and wasn't able to load/reinstall os.

another information is i add external disc, and i could reinstall and start with external one, which somehow means the machine itself should be functional, but just disk. through, i am not trying to use it with external heart, but i need to get the existing data back.

does anyone could help on this, to get the hard disk back?

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Answer 7

Aug 27, 2023 7:04 AM in response to texas pete

You should not need a Thunderbolt cable to connect to a computer that dies not have Thunderbolt.

However, a high-quality Thunderbolt 3 or 4 cable will also likely serve as a high-quality cable for other USB-C data transmission protocols.

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Answer 8

Apr 29, 2024 6:08 AM in response to edwarddh15

edwarddh15 wrote:

another information is i add external disc, and i could reinstall and start with external one, which somehow means the machine itself should be functional, but just disk. through, i am not trying to use it with external heart, but i need to get the existing data back.

That's why you make backups, before catastrophe strikes, so that you can get your data (or most of it) back. After a catastrophe strikes is generally too late.

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2016 MacBook 12inch - need help getting data off drive

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