Up to roughly 2017 — removable
SATA drives and blade SSDs that unscrew. Lifted out and imaged on separate equipment, so whatever the machine is doing becomes irrelevant. Dead screen, dead board, spilled coffee — none of it matters.
Routine
The Genius Bar is good at identifying a failing drive and will tell you so. What follows is a repair — and a repair means the failed drive leaves with the old parts. Which is why the sequence matters more than anything else here.
Repair is measured by whether the Mac works afterwards. Recovery is measured by whether your files come back. On a failing drive those objectives pull in opposite directions, and the order matters.
Apple diagnoses and replaces hardware. Neither of those returns your files.
The Genius Bar is generally good at identifying a failing drive and will tell you so plainly. What follows is a repair — and a repair means the failed component leaves with the old parts. You get a working Mac back and none of what was on it.
That is not a criticism. Apple is in the business of returning working machines, and it does that well. It simply is not a data recovery service, and the distinction catches people out because it is never spelled out at the counter.
So the order matters more than anything else on this page: recover first, repair second. Once your data is safe, replacing the drive is exactly the right advice. Done the other way round, the machine comes back working and the contents are gone with the old hardware.
Thirty seconds, and it determines what is possible before any fault is diagnosed.
SATA drives and blade SSDs that unscrew. Lifted out and imaged on separate equipment, so whatever the machine is doing becomes irrelevant. Dead screen, dead board, spilled coffee — none of it matters.
A small SSD paired with a spinning disk, presented as one volume with files spread across both. The mechanical half fails first, and both devices are needed to rebuild the volume.
Flash soldered to the logic board and encrypted by the security chip. While the Mac runs, data can be extracted. Once the board has failed, nobody recovers it — the key died with it.
A failed macOS update, an APFS container that will not mount, deleted files, a volume that vanished. Recoverable wherever the machine still runs.
All free, and all worth doing first.
On an unresponsive Mac a brief press does nothing. A sustained hold forces the power off, and that alone clears a good proportion of freezes — the machine restarts normally with everything intact.
Time Machine keeps versions quietly without being configured, and iCloud Drive retains deleted items in a Recently Deleted area for thirty days. Both are free and both resolve a meaningful share of cases.
If the volume is encrypted — and on any recent Mac it very likely is — nothing opens it without the password or key. Check your iCloud account, or your IT department on a work machine. Do this before paying anyone, because it decides whether recovery is possible at all.
Not tomorrow. A Mac that boots after misbehaving is a window, not a resolution.
Neither is hidden, and neither is volunteered.
They will replace the drive, and the old one goes. If there is anything on it you want, say so explicitly before authorising any repair. Ask whether the old drive can be returned to you — policies vary, and the answer is easier to get before the work than after.
They cannot recover a soldered Mac either. On T2 and Apple Silicon machines with a failed logic board, the data is beyond Apple as much as anyone else. That is the security model working as designed, not a service gap — and it is worth being sceptical of any firm quoting four figures to do it.
Where the drive lifts out, Mac recovery in Manchester is from £300 +VAT after a free 48-hour diagnostic. Fusion Drives are £550 +VAT flat, because that is two devices imaged and recombined into the single volume macOS presented.
No. The Genius Bar diagnoses and replaces hardware, which returns a working Mac without your files — the failed drive leaves with the old parts. Customers are frequently referred on to firms like ours at that point.
Only after your data is safe. Recover first, repair second. Once the files are off, replacing the drive is exactly the right advice; done the other way round the machine comes back working and empty.
Policies vary, so ask explicitly before authorising any repair — it is far easier to arrange beforehand than afterwards. If there is anything on it you need, say so at the counter.
Only while it still runs. On T2 and Apple Silicon machines the flash is soldered to the logic board and encrypted by the security chip, so once the board fails the data is beyond everyone — Apple included. Be wary of anyone quoting to do it.
Apple menu, About This Mac, and note the model year. Up to roughly 2017 the storage comes out and recovery is routine whatever the machine is doing. From 2018 onward it is soldered.
From £300 plus VAT for any Mac whose drive comes out, and £550 plus VAT flat for a Fusion Drive, which is two devices recovered and recombined. Fixed in writing after a free 48-hour diagnostic.