An iMac stuck on the flashing folder. A MacBook that took a mug of coffee through the keyboard. A Mac mini that never wakes. Where the storage comes out of the machine, the data very often comes back with it. Apple storage that unbolts is everyday work here. Boards with the flash soldered down are the one job turned away honestly.
Mac jobs are diagnosed free. One fixed written number before any work starts. One drive or blade SSD comes to £300 + VAT, and logical cases hold their no fix, no fee cover.
Macs fail in the same ways as every other machine. They are simply better at saying nothing until the morning it matters, and these are the cases Apple owners across the North-East send down.
The machine went looking for a system to boot and found none. Behind that symbol there is usually a worn-out disk or blade SSD. Your documents are normally untouched, and they come off the drive at the bench.
iMacs built before about 2020 run ordinary 3.5-inch mechanical disks. They wear out the way mechanical disks always have, with clicking, stalling and a sudden absence from the desktop. Clean bench, donor parts, same as any other drive.
Fusion presents a small SSD and a mechanical disk to macOS as one volume, so losing either half takes the whole arrangement down. Both get imaged and the pair is rejoined logically.
Liquid goes for the logic board first. Storage usually survives, provided nobody lets the corrosion work away for a fortnight. Off, unplugged, into the post.
An abandoned update leaves a machine that will not start, and files that were never involved in the first place. The drive is imaged, APFS or HFS+ repaired on that image, and the data lifted off it.
Files put out with the Trash stay put until something else writes over the space. Shutting the Mac down does most of the recovery for you.
This page covers Apple storage that comes out of the machine. In practice: iMac and Mac mini SATA disks and Fusion pairings to about 2020, the 2.5-inch disks inside older MacBooks, and the plug-in blade SSDs used between roughly 2010 and 2017. If it will leave the case, we will attempt very nearly anything on it.
From the T2 chip onward, and on every Apple Silicon model since, the flash is soldered down and locked behind hardware encryption that never leaves the machine. We stopped taking those Macs a couple of years ago, on the view that board-level work of that kind belongs with a firm that does nothing else. Anything from 2018 or later, ring 0800 689 0668 before it goes near a box. The answer is a straight yes or no.
Send the storage on its own and hang on to the computer. Opening machines is not work this lab does, though any computer shop in Aberdeen, Elgin or Inverness will open an iMac or a MacBook for a few pounds. The drive travels to Edinburgh tracked and insured, is diagnosed free inside 2 working days, and starts back once you have agreed the written figure. Generation-by-generation notes live on iMac recovery and MacBook recovery; the money is on data recovery cost.
Free diagnosis, the number on paper, logical work under no fix no fee. Online or by phone.
Nearly everything on this bench came by tracked, insured post. It is the safest way to shift a failing drive, and a parcel handed in at a North-East post office is usually here the next working day.
Still bolted into a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV / DVR box? Get the hard drive or SSD out first. The bare drive travels on its own. Stripping machines down is not a job this lab takes on. Flash soldered to a motherboard, as on Apple Silicon Macs and a couple of very thin laptops, is our one flat no: if it will not unbolt, it cannot be worked on.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Address it for the attention of Edinburgh Data Recovery. From Aberdeen that is roughly 130 miles and two and a half hours down the A90, or next working day by tracked post if you would rather not make the run. You get a call the moment it is booked onto the bench.
Not sure what belongs in the box? Ring 0800 689 0668 before you tape it shut, or work through the free online diagnostic.