How can I recover data from a crashed drive on my MacBook Pro?

Macs capable of running MacOS 15 are 2018 and later. Those and all later model MacBook Pro have the Boot internal SSD drive components soldered to the logic board, and there is no standard 'device' that can be removed and placed in an enclosure.

There is no point in taking it apart.

• When data are deleted from an SSD drive, the data blocks are gone within seconds.

• If you had an old-fashioned Rotating Magnetic drive, only the directory entires are erased, so the data blocks might be salvageable. Most utilities promising to do this job are OLD, do NOT work on SSD drives. Buyer beware!

there is no device. when you look at the board, you will see several small black chips surface-mount soldered in place. If you could remove them (which you CAN'T) you would end up with a storage array and no controller, and that data would be gibberish, because it is all encrypted.

what you can do if the progress bar appears, is use its built-in Recovery mode.

Use Startup Security Utility to change -- allow booting from external drives.

connect an external drive and use other tools in recovery to install macOS on the external drive.

Boot from your external MacOS drive and try to repair your internal drive. Mounting that drive has a lower threshold than BOOTing from that drive.

JanneDJ wrote:

Hi. It´s not completely dead, it loads as it should but it stops around 50%

I need to take it out and mount it in another device, but i´m not sure wich ssd nvme reader device fits older drives that´s in late 2013. Newer devices that´s online everywhere doesn´t work.

Is there an external case that fits my needs or a dockingstation?

Nope.

You might get Target Disk Mode working, or maybe Recovery, but the rest of all of this is Not Happening.

If TDM doesn’t work, and if Recovery doesn’t work, that data is gone.

The internals of computers have shifted substantially and have become far more integrated since the end of the HDD era a decade or so ago.

TDM: Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support

To recover data from your crashed drive, you can try two methods. First, if your MacBook Pro can still detect the drive, use data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery for Mac. It’s easy to use and can recover files from corrupted or inaccessible drives.

If the drive is completely dead, you’ll need to remove it and place it in an external enclosure compatible with your drive type (such as NVMe or SATA for M.2 drives). Once connected to another Mac, use recovery software to scan the drive. If it’s not recognized at all, you may need professional data recovery services.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

… If you had an old-fashioned Rotating Magnetic drive, only the directory entires are erased, so the data blocks might be salvageable. Most utilities promising to do this job are OLD, do NOT work on SSD drives.

And won’t work when the storage is encrypted as is now common with FileVault, and as is universal with Macs using T2 and later.

you said in your equipment line that you were running MacOS 15.3.

You did not object when I suggested the only Macs that could run MacOS 15 were 2018 and later models.

That is what all my answers were based on. I expect others made similar assumptions.

If the MBP is that old, check to see if Other World Computing sells external enclosures compatible with factory SSDs for that exact model,

Apple liked to vary the SSD types from year to year, and without checking, I would not assume that the SSD in question is a M.2 one.

<< I have never said that!

Maybe you have been mistaken the thread with some other thread?>>

from just above:

JanneDJ

Author

How can I recover data from a crashed drive on my MacBook Pro?

[...]

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Mar 19, 2025 4:49 AM

JanneDJ wrote:

Hi.

Yes the SSD is a M.2.

The big question is wich type of M.2?

What´s the name of the M.2? There is a jungle of them.

//Janne

How should I know?

I suggested that you look for a compatible enclosure on OWC's site. They are familiar with many old Macs and I trust that if one identifies a Mac correctly and OWC says they have something that will work with that particular model, that they know what they are talking about.

In this case, if you scroll down on this page:

Other World Computing – OWC Solid State Drives For MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Late 2013 - Mid 2015)

there is a link to the product page for an enclosure to "Repurpose your Apple factory-installed PCIe SSD".

Other World Computing – OWC Envoy Pro 1A USB 3.2 (10Gb/s) Bus-Powered Portable External Storage Enclosure for Apple SSDs from most 2013 to 2019 Mac Models and select OWC SSDs

Now I don't know if your SSD is in a state where you can save anything on it, but it seems to me that if it was, you would need an enclosure to put it in, so that you could hook it up as an external drive on another Mac.

https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-guide-to-specs-and-upgrades#hdr-19

Apple seems to use a proprietary 12+16 pin key and not the usual M, B or B+M SSD key formats. As noted, you will need to look on OWC or another Apple specialist store for an enclosure.