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SDR / Manufacturers / Apple

Blade modules · T2 · Apple silicon · the 2013 MacBook Air recall

Apple SSD data recovery. Two very different answers, depending on the year of the Mac.

Macs from about 2010 to 2017 have a removable blade SSD made for Apple by Samsung, SanDisk or Toshiba on a proprietary connector. Those are ordinary SSD work at £300 + VAT: the module comes out and is read on its own. Every T2 Mac, the Intel machines of 2018 to 2020, and every Apple silicon Mac has soldered, always-encrypted storage with the keys in the Secure Enclave, and there the logic board has to be brought back to life for the data to unlock at all. Apple's one documented flash storage programme covered 64GB and 128GB drives in MacBook Airs sold between June 2012 and June 2013. We tell you at the free look which your Mac is and whether recovery is possible, and we do not take jobs we cannot finish.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

Models we see, family by family.

Which kind of drive is it →
Family Models Controller commonly reported
Removable bladesMacBook Air 2010–2017, MacBook Pro Retina 2012–2015, iMac 2012–2019, Mac mini 2014, Mac Pro 2013; some 2016–2017 MacBook Pro 13-inch non-Touch BarSamsung (SM0128, SM0256, SM0512), SanDisk (SD…), Toshiba (TS…), Apple's own on later blades
Soldered, T2MacBook Pro 2018–2020, MacBook Air 2018–2020, Mac mini 2018, iMac Pro, iMac 2020Apple T2
Soldered, Apple siliconMacBook Air and Pro M1 to M4, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio, Mac Pro 2023Apple M-series
Fusion DriveiMac and Mac mini 2012–2019 pairing a blade or SATA SSD with a hard diskBoth halves needed

What tends to go wrong on a Apple.

MacBook Air flash storage programme, 2013Apple determined that certain 64GB and 128GB flash drives in MacBook Airs sold June 2012 to June 2013 could fail, released Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.1, and replaced drives that could not be updated. Long closed; the machines still turn up.
T2 and Apple silicon: no chip-off routeStorage is encrypted in hardware with keys in the Secure Enclave, so the flash lifted off the board is ciphertext. Recovery means reviving the original board. A board swap, however well meant, ends it.
Fusion DriveThe SSD and the hard disk are one volume. Lose either and the volume is gone until both are imaged and the pair reassembled.
General pattern: spills and powerThe Mac jobs we see most are liquid spills and dead power rails on machines with soldered storage, where the fault is on the board and the flash is fine once the board runs.

Apple symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
It is not in the BIOS at allThe controller did not finish starting. The flash is almost always sound.Do not delay
It shows the wrong size, or a strange nameFallback firmware; the map is not loaded.Do not delay
It has gone read-onlySpare blocks exhausted, or a documented firmware fault. Readable.Everyday job
Slow, with files that will not copyWeak pages being retried. Image it now.Everyday job
Deleted, or formattedTRIM is at work. Shut down and leave it off.Do not delay
Packing it and posting it: a bare SSD travels in an anti-static bag inside a small padded box, with nothing able to move. Insure it for what the files are worth rather than the price of the drive, and use a tracked service. The posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the parcel is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the sealed parcel in at the nearest of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside; say where you are on the form and it comes by email. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

What the message means on a Apple.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
Apple says the data is unrecoverableTrue once the board has been replaced or the Mac erased; not necessarily beforeAsk us before anyone swaps the board
A flashing folder with a question markThe Mac cannot find a bootable volumeDo not reinstall; the volume may be intact
A padlock and a password fieldFileVault or the activation lockYour password is needed
A Fusion Drive iMac that stoppedOne half of the pair failedBoth halves imaged and reassembled
Not in the BIOS, or at the wrong sizeFirmware or controller fault with the flash intactRecovered through the original controller
Read-onlyFirmware protecting worn flash, or a documented firmware faultUsually fully readable
Health falling fast in the maker's toolReal wear, or a reporting faultBack up now; a warning, not yet a recovery
Dead after a firmware updateThe write stopped half-wayLoader in RAM; map from the service area

From the box arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. The drive is read on our own equipment, never in a computer that might send it a TRIM command. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo TRIM, no writes
02

Powered on our terms

A Mac with soldered storage is not powered up to see what happens. It goes on the bench for a board-level inspection first — power rails, the chips that manage them, any corrosion — because the aim is to bring the original board to the point where it can unlock its own storage, and each uncontrolled power-on works against that.

Vendor diagnostic modeNo hopeful reboots
03

Past the fault, to the map

With the board repaired to the point of running, the storage unlocks with your password and is imaged in full from the running machine. A removable blade is read on its own, on an adapter for its proprietary connector, and the APFS or HFS+ volume put back together on the image.

Loader in RAM, never on the flashMapping tables put back together
04

A full image, then the volume

Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, weak pages retried in their own passes, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the key you supply, and never on the original.

One careful imageThe volume verified end to end
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–5 days at the bench

From the bench

  • A board swap takes the data with it. On T2 and Apple silicon Macs the storage key is bound to the processor. Ask for the old board back if a repair has already been done.
  • Your password is part of the recovery. FileVault and the login password are needed at the point of unlocking. We do not break encryption and do not accept a Mac that is not yours to open.
  • Blades to 2017 are ordinary work. The module comes out and is read on its own; the machine can be repaired or replaced however you like afterwards.
  • In-house controllers encrypt in hardware, whether or not you ever set a password. The flash read on its own is ciphertext, so recovery runs through the original controller, which usually can be revived.
  • There is no third-party routine to borrow. The maker's own diagnostic state is the way in, and the bench knows it family by family.
  • Do not run the maker's tool on a drive already misbehaving. Its firmware update and its optimisation both write to the drive.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0371JOB LOGGED ✓

A 2019 MacBook Pro after a glass of water, with a thesis on it

The machine had been dried on a radiator, which did not help, and powered on twice, which helped less. On the bench the board showed corrosion around a power-management chip and a dead rail. The chip was replaced, the rail came up, and the machine reached the point where FileVault asked for a password. With the owner's password entered, the volume unlocked and was imaged whole. The thesis was two chapters further on than the last backup.

100% of the volume imaged5 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Stop powering it on and leave it off
  • Find your FileVault or login password before posting
  • Send the whole Mac if the storage is soldered; the blade alone if it comes out
  • Tell us if a shop has already opened it

What sets us back

  • Letting anyone replace the logic board
  • Reinstalling macOS from Recovery
  • Drying a spill with heat
  • Erasing the Mac to hand it in for repair

Questions answered before you commit.

Apple replaced my logic board. Can you get the data?

No, not from the new board, and the old board is where the data lived. If the old board still exists, ask for it back and send it before anything else is done to it.

Can you take the SSD out of my MacBook Pro 2019?

No. It is soldered and paired to the T2 chip. Recovery means reviving the original board to the point where it unlocks its own storage, which is possible more often than not.

Is FileVault a problem?

Only if the password is lost. With it, the volume unlocks once the board runs. Without it, nobody can help, and we say so.

My 2015 MacBook Air will not boot. Is that easier?

Yes. The blade comes out and is read on its own at £300 + VAT. The machine itself can be repaired afterwards, or not.

What does it cost?

A blade is £300 + VAT after the free look. Soldered Macs are quoted after the free look, with any board work explained first.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

Soldered SSDs →Encrypted and locked →Water or heat damage →The laptop is dead →OWC and Transcend blade replacements →

Before anyone replaces the board, ask us.

A board swap is the one repair that ends the recovery. Send the form, tell us the model and the year, and we will say honestly whether the data can come off it first, and what that would cost.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting