This is not negative; this is just another type of business. The difference here is important, as several standard Apple processes that are used will completely wipe the drive you’re attempting to recover. An actual case-in-point: a MacBook Apple diagnosed and referred on.
A repair path maximises the likelihood of having a working Mac; while a recovery path maximises the likelihood of recovering your data. When a drive begins to fail, these two objectives conflict.
If your Mac needs just repair work then Apple Stores and Authorised Service Providers are often great options as they are good at diagnosing problems and repairing them. However, if there’s an issue with your data (and especially if it’s been lost) these places can’t help you. Apple has explicitly stated that they will not be responsible for recovering lost data and strongly recommend backing up your data prior to bringing in your device for servicing. When a failed hard drive is identified by the service provider, a new hard drive is installed in its place and the original is sent back to you or discarded, not read.
It is absolutely fair to divide the labour this way. The issue occurs when somebody brings in a machine thinking the files will be returned with it.
Reinstalling macOS (i.e., writing a brand new operating system) onto the volume is risky if there is filesystem damage on that volume, as writing over the damaged filesystem may potentially put the new filesystem right on top of where those necessary filesystem recovery mechanisms were located. The Disk Utility First Aid option is an attempt at repairing the filesystem. Repairing the filesystem (in place), however, has the potential to take something that could have been recovered, and make it irreparable by converting the original damage to further unrecoverable damage. “Erase and restore” does exactly what it states. In addition, should you need to replace the logic board on any T2 chip based Mac or Apple Silicon based Mac, this would also necessitate replacement of the encryption keys for the storage unit. Therefore, the old data is now forever unrecoverable, even though all physical components of the flash are still intact.
Copy all of your data off the bad drive (if it boots); that’s the least expensive recovery and no lab is needed. If it doesn’t boot, then we need to figure out what kind of storage it has. If you have a removable drive, we’ll take images of this drive in “read only” mode, then rebuild your APFS or HFS+ volume from those copies. If you’re using a Fusion Drive, both drives will need to be imaged and the two volumes will need to be combined back into the one single volume that was created when it was first built.
If the storage device has been soldered onto the logic board and that board fails, the recovery is essentially impossible, because the encryption key died with the board. Therefore, we tell customers this at the diagnostic, before they receive a quote. This does not happen after a bill is submitted (this would be misleading).
The cost of recovering a Mac with a removable hard drive is from £300 +VAT. A Fusion Drive costs £550 +VAT (we charge flat rate because we are recovering two drives into one volume). Recovering a board that contains soldered storage is something that we do not offer. The diagnostic will be complimentary within 48 hours, followed by a written quote. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
There is a cost effective order in which to save customers money: First, extract the data off of your system. Then send the system to Apple for repairs. It is much easier to lose recoverable data by sending the system to be repaired first (the opposite order).
No, because if there is an issue with your hard drive (for example) Apple will replace the drive but they will not recover the files from the drive. They also state that they are not liable for your information while your computer or device is being serviced. Typically, once they find out that your drive has failed they replace the drive rather than trying to read from the failing one. So when your Mac returns to you it works again but none of your old files return.
Several of the standard ways used to fix problems on Mac computers will. When you reinstall macOS onto a hard drive, you are writing information to the hard drive. When you run Disk Utility’s “First Aid”, you are modifying the file system while in place. The “Erase & Restore” process simply does what its name implies. On a T2 or Apple Silicon Mac, when you replace the logic board you have also replaced the encryption keys for the SSD therefore the original SSD is now completely unreadable.
Always before. Generally once a device is replaced or a volume re-installed, your data is gone forever. So, always recover first, and then try to fix. And if your Mac still boots up at all, copy your files off today rather than booking a service.
Sometimes, because the two assessments ask different questions. In this case, Apple is determining if the machine can be repaired at a cost to the consumer; we determine if the data on the machine can be accessed (we do this regardless of whether or not the machine is worth repairing). A Mac that may be considered not worthy of repair by Apple’s standards, frequently still contains usable data unless the data was stored in the soldered memory and the motherboard had also failed (in which case, we would probably agree with Apple).
The price for recovering data from a Mac with a removable hard drive starts at £300 +VAT. Recovering data from a Fusion Drive costs £550 + VAT. Both devices are treated as one single volume when the recovery is completed. If your computer uses soldered storage, we cannot recover your data. Free 48-hour diagnostic and fixed quotes prior to any work being done.