Can I recover files from a Macbook that won't boot?

Question

Can I recover files from a Macbook that won't boot?

This morning my Macbook stopped working - I think it might be some kind of problem with the GPU (though I'm not entirely sure), when I try to start it up all I get is a heavily corrupted Apple logo on the screen covered in horizontal lines of multicoloured "static", and after that it just goes to a blank screen and won't boot up in any way whatsoever. Anyway, I've now lost access to all my files, a lot of which weren't backed up externally. So far I've heard that apparently it's possible to recover the contents of the hard drive by connecting it to another Mac with a thunderbolt cable and starting the broken Macbook in "target disk mode", but I'm not entirely clear on how to do this and whether it would work if the Macbook won't boot up.

Anyway, can anyone give me any advice on how to deal with this? There's quite a lot of stuff on that Macbook that I really need to recover.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), null

Posted on Apr 14, 2015 5:57 AM

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Answer 1

Overmod

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Apr 14, 2015 7:22 PM in response to Thomas Venner

Target Disk Mode is selected by holding down Cmd-T when you start the MacBook. This will make the computer's drive (and its contents) visible on a connected computer as if the volume were in a typical external drive. Note that you will need a second computer and appropriate port to make the connection.

An alternative would be to purchase an appropriate external drive enclosure, temporarily remove the drive from the MacBook, and then either use it as an external volume to access the files or use a program like SuperDuper to make a copy of the disk contents on separate media, for example a USB stick, which you could then use in other machines without worrying about special drive connections.

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Answer 2

Apr 15, 2015 5:02 AM in response to Overmod

I've just tried target disk mode, and nothing's showing up on the computer I've connected the Macbook to. The Macbook screen just shows what looks like a very corrupted, barely-visible Thunderbolt icon that moves around the screen and nothing else happens (apart from the Macbook heating up very quickly).

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Answer 3

Apr 15, 2015 9:45 AM in response to Thomas Venner

OK, I've managed to get it to work now - the problem with target disk mode turned out to be that the host computer wasn't recognising the connection at first for some reason, and when I started up the Macbook in target disk mode first without plugging the thunderbolt cable in and then plugged it in about a minute or so afterwards then it decided to work after all. Thanks for the help, anyway, looks like I've managed to recover most of what I needed to.

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