I've never been successful in mounting a Filevaulted drive with Linux although it should be possible and I've seen instructions for it. I've done it a couple of times, but I would have to locate the instructions for you. You will need access to another Mac to access the contents of the clone drive although it may be possible to mount an unencrypted drive with Linux using the command line. This is your best chance of accessing the data yourself since GNU ddrescue doesn't require a mounted drive, but you must be extremely careful in selecting the drive IDs for the source & destination drives or you could overwrite the data you are trying to recover.

Personally I would try to use Knoppix and the command line utility GNU ddrescue to perform a bit for bit clone of the SSD to another drive of equal or larger size making sure to use the log option so you can resume an interrupted clone. The data on this drive is crucial and I have no backup that is recent. I made a Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher as you described. Recovery via OS Recover gets to 'Examining Volumes.' and will sit there for hours. This can be very difficult since so many SSDs only have Windows only firmware updaters and the firmware revisions are not always easy to locate on the vendor's website.ĭo you mind taking a look at this? It's the HD from a 2015 Macbook Pro retina display borked during a software update yesterday morning.

This requires a Linux utility to perform.Īlso see if there are any firmware updates available for your SSD. I can provide instructions once we see the health report of the SSD. I've fixed a few weird SSDs using this method. Perform the long/extended test.Īnother option would be to reset the SSD to factory defaults if the SSD has a built-in hardware secure erase feature (not all SSDs have this). GSmartControl also lets you run the SSD's internal self diagnostics if the SSD supports it. Within the GSmartControl app double-click on the Mini's SSD to access the health report of the SSD. While Knoppix is booting the computer may appear to be frozen on the Apple boot picker menu so give it lots of time to boot.Īt the Knoppix desktop click on the 'Start' menu in the lower left corner of the Taskbar and navigate to 'System Tools -> GSmartControl'. Option Boot the USB drive and select the orange icon labeled 'EFI'. You can check the health of the SSD by creating a Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux).

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