How to Recover Data From a Mac That Won’t Boot

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• Check How to Recover Data From a Mac That Won’t Boot
• Remove the hard drive from a Mac that won’t turn on
• Use Share Disk or Target Disk mode to copy files
• Using Share Disk for a Mac M1
• Using Target Disk Mode for an Intel Mac
• Use terminal to copy files
• install macOS on an external drive to copy files
• Final words: How to Recover Data From a Mac That Won’t Boot

Check How to Recover Data From a Mac That Won’t Boot

Your Mac still won’t turn on and shows a dark, blank, or dark screen. Then, at that time, you are unable to access the documents saved on your Mac hard drive. Experiencing the same thing, what you are most worried about is that in the event that you can recover data from Mac that won’t turn on.

Remove the hard drive from a Mac that won’t turn on

When a Mac won’t turn on at all, the data recovery methods below won’t work. If you need to recover data from a device without power, consider removing the internal drive and placing it in an external enclosure. External hard drive enclosures allow you to connect internal drives to another computer, usually via USB or a similar type of connection.

Removing the hard drive from your Mac requires some tools and technical expertise, so this solution is only suitable for those who know what they’re doing. Alternatively, a good computer repair technician can provide data recovery services, at a price. However, if your Mac turns on but doesn’t fully boot, you should be able to use one of the methods below to recover your data for free, as long as you have a spare Mac or external drive on hand.

Use Share Disk or Target Disk mode to copy files

Using Apple’s Share Disk or Target Disk Mode for Intel Macs is the simplest method of recovering data from an unbootable device. The feature allows you to connect two Macs with one cable and treat one as an external hard drive that you can access and copy files to.

To use Share Disk, you’ll need two Macs and an appropriate cable. If the Mac that won’t boot is an Apple Silicon device, you’ll need to use Share Disk in conjunction with a USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt cable. And if the Mac is an Intel device, you’ll need to use target disk mode and any of the cables mentioned above. However, if either device is running macOS Big Sur or later, only a Thunderbolt connection will work with Target Disk Mode.

Using Share Disk for a Mac M1

Here’s how to enable Share Disk on a Mac that won’t boot:

• Connect both devices using the appropriate cable.
• Shut down the Mac that won’t boot.
• Hold down the Power button until the boot manager appears.
• Click Options and Continue.
• Enter your administrator password, if necessary.
• Click Utilities > Disk Sharing.
• Select the drive you want to share and click Start Sharing.

You should start the other Mac normally and access the shared drive as a network volume from Finder. The network should appear in the Finder sidebar. Once you locate the other Mac, double-click it, select Connect As, choose Guest when prompted, and click Connect. If all goes well, you should be able to copy any file from the shared drive.

Using Target Disk Mode for an Intel Mac

Here’s how to enable Target Disk Mode on a Mac that won’t boot:

Connect both devices using the appropriate cable.
Shut down the Mac that won’t boot.
Turn on your Mac and hold down the T key until a disk icon appears on the screen.
You can access the shared drive on the other Mac from the desktop or from the Finder sidebar, depending on how you’ve set your Finder preferences. Drag and drop or copy and paste will work to transfer any important items to the working Mac.

Use the terminal to copy files

If you’re comfortable with Terminal, you can use commands in macOS recovery mode to copy files to an external hard drive. All you’ll need is a properly formatted external drive connected to your Mac. Here’s how to use Terminal to copy files from a Mac that won’t boot:

• Plug in the external drive.
• Start macOS Recovery using the appropriate method for your Mac model.
• Enter your administrator password if prompted.
• Start Disk Utility, mount your boot volume if necessary, and close the application.
• Click Utilities > Terminal.

Type the command cp -R Terminal below and press Enter to copy a specific file or folder. You’ll notice that any space also requires a backslash on the command line. For example, a complete command includes the source and destination and looks like this:
To view the contents of a folder at any time, you can use the ls command below. For example, a complete command line will look like this. Using Terminal isn’t the prettiest way to retrieve data, but it’s certainly effective once you get familiar with the proper commands.