Target Recovery Mode for Water Damaged Macbook Pro (no power)

Question

Level 1

4 points

Target Recovery Mode for Water Damaged Macbook Pro (no power)

This might be a shot in the dark, but my Macbook Pro 2017 was water damaged from a slow leak in my water bottle that was also in the same backpack as my laptop in a 6 hour flight 🙃 when I finally realized it was too late and the laptop has not turned on ever since. I tried going to apple and reaching out to data recovery sites but I just cant afford a $1,000 recovery for my data. Someone recommended Target Recovery to retrieve lost files from the drive. Is that possible if the laptop doesnt turn on? If so, what are the steps? I only see instructions for laptops that have power. If this is not possible, I would love any sort of direction on how to recover my photos and documents please please please.

For reference in possibly using target recovery mode, my new laptop I would be using to retrieve it is a 2022 Macbook M2 with Monterey

thanks to anyone with any sort of insight or direction for me!

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jan 11, 2024 9:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 8

40,873 points

Jan 11, 2024 10:37 AM in response to lilgosh

Unfortunately, if the laptop doesn't turn on, then there is no way to launch target disk mode.

I suggest you consider removing the drive, placing it into an external enclosure and attempting to retrieve the data using another Mac.

I believe the good folks at OWC/macsales have a solution for that particular MacBook Pro.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 13, 2024 10:10 AM in response to lilgosh

D.I. Johnson wrote:

If you are fortunate to have the non-Touch Bar model, then the drive is a module that is simply attached to the logic board and can be removed.

However, you will need to install that SSD into another MBPro 13" (2016 or 2017) non-touchbar model in order to attempt to access the data on that SSD since there are no adapters for that proprietary SSD connector.

I hope you will start having frequent and regular backups with your next computer since there are a lot of other new ways for you to permanently lose access to your data which don't involve any hardware failures.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 11, 2024 10:57 AM in response to lilgosh

If your MBP is the 13" mid-2017 WITH a Touch Bar, then no. There is no way to remove the drive from the logic board.

If you are fortunate to have the non-Touch Bar model, then the drive is a module that is simply attached to the logic board and can be removed.

Reply

Answer 4

lilgosh Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 11, 2024 10:43 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

I figured 😭 my next question is though, I had someone tale a look inside and apparently the hardrive is soldered in to this model. Is there still a way to remove it to recover with the method you suggest? Thanks!

Reply

Target Recovery Mode for Water Damaged Macbook Pro (no power)

Similar questions