Bring in a Mac that cannot start up, and take it to the Genius Bar. They will perform great hardware work on your machine, but your files are not part of the job. In this article, we define those lines as well as the parts of macOS Recovery that may remove your files and when a data lab can assist you with your case.
As Apple itself advises users: back up your files before bringing in a computer to be serviced; repairing your device can replace the very parts where your files are stored. The Apple Store is essentially a hardware store, not a recovery centre, and that’s intentional.
From store to store, the steps are usually the same: diagnose the problem, tell you how much the repair costs, and then determine if you have made a backup. If a new hard drive or logic board is required to complete the repair, the old hard drive or logic board leaves the store with all of its contents. When Apple says ‘data transfer’, they mean moving all of your stuff (files, etc.) from one working Mac to another, not recovering anything from a non-working Mac, and Apple Store personnel don’t and won’t physically access your failing hard drive nor try to recover any components, because that isn’t part of their job description, and there would be no equipment available to them to accomplish such tasks. Go into an Apple store without a Time Machine backup on a dead hard drive and after completing an assessment of your Mac, they’ll give you a referral to someone who specialises in data recovery.
The recovery environment scares people in the wrong ways, and puts people at ease in the exact opposite way than it should.
We should distinguish the Recovery functions we should be afraid of from those where we have nothing to fear. The fear we’ve been hearing about is misplaced. Entering Recovery (on an Intel-based Mac you can get into it by pressing Cmd-R; on an Apple silicon device hold the power button) does nothing to anything on the hard drive; this is fact, not myth. ‘Reinstall macOS’ will install a new operating system onto the disk currently installed, but under normal circumstances all user account information and documents will remain in place. Internet Recovery is simply the recovery environment provided by Apple when your local version has failed, no cause for alarm. However, there are two functions that advertise what they do and actually do exactly what they say: Disk Utility’s Erase and ‘Erase All Content and Settings’. These will erase everything as stated.
The exception is a Mac that is ailing, experiencing problems with its disk, not just in lockout mode. Using Disk Utility’s First Aid function means you’re going to make long, punishing reads of the entire disk (a process that can be very time consuming), and if you’ve got a problem that keeps reinstalling itself each time you try to start-up, then you’ll burn off the remainder of your failing disk each time you restart. Tools that are perfectly fine and cost-free on a functioning disk turn into expensive bad habits on a malfunctioning disk. The exact same tool, totally different expense.
With newer Macs (especially the ones based on T2 and Apple silicon) we have a higher risk than ever before. This is because the storage in these systems will be encrypted and tied to that specific chip set. As long as that chip set still turns on (i.e. the computer powers on), the data can be captured using your FileVault key, then restored from the copied file system. Honestly stated: When the storage is permanently attached to a dead chip, there’s no way to capture it. Older iMac models utilising a Fusion Drive are somewhat unique in this respect; they have a single volume spanning across two drives: a hard disk drive and solid state drive. Each half is needed before either becomes functional. Therefore, when your Mac provides you with a greyed out disk, a flashing question mark folder or absolutely no power whatsoever, the correct course of action would be to cease attempting to restart your Mac and allow us to inform you for free which of the three categories you fall into. That is the time and effort involved behind our Mac and MacBook recovery service.
No, they do not. Apple does not provide this type of service as part of their Genius Bar offering. The Genius Bar will diagnose the hardware issue and give you a quote for repairs. If the repair requires replacing your existing hard drive or logic board (etc.), whatever existed on the failed component is gone for good. While Apple advises customers to maintain backups of their important files, their policy regarding a dead hard drive without a backup is a referral to another company.
If you simply enter this option, then absolutely nothing will be changed. This is a self-contained maintenance environment. If you select “Reinstall macOS” from within it, you can keep all of your account information and files as they normally would have been. The two methods that truly delete data from a Mac are those containing ‘erase’: Disk Utility’s Erase and ‘Erase All Content and Settings’.
Normally it isn’t. A greyed out or unreadable disk usually means there is damage to either the APFS or HFS+ structure but the underlying data remains intact. So it matters how you respond: just decline the erase or repair Disk Utility offers; shut the computer down and create an image of the drive so the file system may be rebuilt from the new image (copy) instead of the original.
A free 48 hour bench test will be performed to diagnose the problem; we will handle FileVault using your provided encryption key; prior to performing any service, a written quote will be supplied.