How can I access file on a non-booting SSD with terminal?

If you're able to use Target Disk mode, hook the two computers up with a Thunderbolt cable, restart the MacBook Air with the T key held down, and copy the files off; if you need to do this in the Terminal, use the cp or ditto command.

(123560)

First, you need to be able to boot from the Recovery HD:

Boot Using Command+R keys:

1. Restart the computer.

2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the

"COMMAND" and the "R" keys together.

3. Release the keys when the Utilities Menu appears.

Once at the Utilities Menu select Terminal from the Utilities menu in the screen's menubar. Now, you need to know where these new files are located. You move to any location using the 'cd' command such as cd /Users/user_name/Documents, then press RETURN. Replace user_name with your actual username. Next you need to do a directory listing to see if your files are in that location, Documents. Use ls -al to do a directory listing of the files and folders in Documents. If you find your new files there, then connect an external drive or flash drive. You will need to know the name you have assigned to this drive. It needs to be already formatted. Copy your files using cp /Documents/filename /Volumes/volname/filename. Replace volname and filename with those that apply. Press RETURN.

Or take it to your local Apple Store and see if they can do the chore for you.

If the volume, file, or folder names contain spaces or other special characters, either they need to be preceded with backslashes(\) or the names need to be placed inside single quote marks(').

(123562)

Niel wrote:

If you're able to use Target Disk mode, hook the two computers up with a Thunderbolt cable, restart the MacBook Air with the T key held down, and copy the files off; if you need to do this in the Terminal, use the cp or ditto command.

(123560)

Firewire also works for Target disk mode. Thunderbolt to Firewire also works if you have the right leads & holes in the Macs 🙂

You should have the disk mounted as an external, so ditto or cp may be unnecessary, you should be able to drag & drop if the disk is mounting as readable.

@Kappy, can you 'cd /Users/…' in recovery mode?

surely the recovery OS is mounted at / not the boot disk?

Drop into Disk Utility & mount it in the toolbar then go back to Terminal.

Otherwise in Terminal…

diskutil list

… find the disk name in the output

diskutil mountdisk "NAME OF DISK"

Replace the shouty name 🙂

ls /Volumes

…to look for it

If it fails you may want to verify & repair in Disk Utility. Photograph any failures to post the errors here.

The diskutil command & Disk Utility are basically the same tool. Both should be able to mount a filevault encrypted volume via recovery mode.

See if you can read the manual on your phone

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/diskutil.8.html

http://apple.co/1zWk8Sg the manual shortened for Safari in Recovery mode

http://apple.co/1wMrKvI <- this thread shortened

I think it is the unlockVolume argument in diskutil, but try in the GUI first.

I don't know about screen caps via recovery mode - I doubt you can find them even if the tool took images 😟.

There is another option to if you think the issue is only in your account…

http://www.trickyways.com/2010/06/forgot-mac-password-see-how-to-reset-without-d isk/

Removing /var/db/.applesetupdone will cause the setup assistant to run on next boot, you can create a new admin account. If that new account runs & works OK you can try fixing the other account or consider migrating it's data to a new user (maybe exclude the users Library to reset that & then re-add data slowly).

There is also an option similar to safe mode for user accounts. Hold shift after clicking the login button - that disables all login items for the user account. That could be a reason for a hanging login.