Any hope reviving a 2015 Macbook Pro from the dreaded question mark?

[pluto.kitty]

Hi everyone.

Unfortunately my beloved 2015 Macbook Pro 13'' (OS X 10.11.6) is refusing to turn on and keeps showing me a flashing question mark. I've followed the Apple Support instructions here, but was unable to fix the problem. I also did not have any luck with a NVRAM reset. The big issue here is that I would really, really like to avoid losing my data and recognize that it's entirely my fault for not backing up my device (nothing like learning the hard way💀). Frankly, the laptop was working perfectly fine up until now. I hadn't turned it on in a while and apart from running out of charge quickly it was absolutely perfect!

So far, I've succeeded in going through Internet Recovery, but when I attempt to "repair disk," I get an error that says "Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size" (see image below).

My questions are:

1) Is there anyway possible I can still retrieve my data? Official Apple Support told me via chat that it's too late to backup my data (is this accurate)?
2) Should I stop booting my computer to Internet Recovery and instead opt for a service like Disk Drill or perform a Target Disk Mode Transfer with my M2 Macbook Air?
3) Would it be worth physically cleaning out my hard drive? Some said they had had success removing and clipping back the SATA connection.
4) Is there anything I can do in terminal? I included a picture below of what came up when I typed the diskutil command. I'm not tech savy tbh, but can follow instructions if there's anything I can do! Tried to follow this tutorial, which succeeds in resolving the disk utility repair error message by manually using fsck_hfs / sck_hfs -rc -d /dev/diskXsX.
5) Any other data recovery services that folks have had success with?

I welcome any advice or suggestions!! Many thanks.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

IMO the question is, What's the data worth to you? If you would pay for it, I recommend taking it to a professional first.

1. Nobody can say but it's worth trying more. That the drive is still detected as you are showing is a good sign.
2. Yeah
3. Not the worst thing but it's not SATA, it's PCIe and just slots into the logic board
4. Have you tried mounting Macintosh HD?
5. DriveSavers

 

[pluto.kitty]

IMO the question is, What's the data worth to you? If you would pay for it, I recommend taking it to a professional first.

1. Nobody can say but it's worth trying more. That the drive is still detected as you are showing is a good sign.
2. Yeah
3. Not the worst thing but it's not SATA, it's PCIe and just slots into the logic board
4. Have you tried mounting Macintosh HD?
5. DriveSavers

Thanks for the reply! And, good question -- I had a quite bit on there so it's definitely something I'd pay for. Will check out DriveSavers and also see if there's a local technician that can inspect the computer. As for mounting Macintosh HD, I tried but I was unable to select the "Mount" button up top (first pic) -- not sure if there's a way to do this in terminal.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Thanks for the reply! And, good question -- I had a quite bit on there so it's definitely something I'd pay for. Will check out DriveSavers and also see if there's a local technician that can inspect the computer. As for mounting Macintosh HD, I tried but I was unable to select the "Mount" button up top (first pic) -- not sure if there's a way to do this in terminal.

diskutil mount /dev/IDOFMACINTOSHHD

 

[Fishrrman]

First --

It's probably going to cost you $1,000-2,000 to get the data back, IF that's even possible. Are you willing to spend that much (or perhaps even more) for "professional data recovery"?

Next --

Does target disk mode work?
From a powered-off condition, hold down the T key CONTINUOUSLY and press the power on button.

IF target disk mode works, and you see the "icon" for it, connect the MacBook Air via a USB cable.

Does the 2015 drive "show up" on the MacBook Air's desktop?
IF it does, IMMEDIATELY connect an external drive and copy whatever you can onto it. (such as your entire user folder, etc.).

Once you have what you need from the drive,
Boot to internet recovery, then erase the internal drive and start over.

 

[pluto.kitty]

First --

It's probably going to cost you $1,000-2,000 to get the data back, IF that's even possible. Are you willing to spend that much (or perhaps even more) for "professional data recovery"?

Next --

Does target disk mode work?
From a powered-off condition, hold down the T key CONTINUOUSLY and press the power on button.

IF target disk mode works, and you see the "icon" for it, connect the MacBook Air via a USB cable.

Does the 2015 drive "show up" on the MacBook Air's desktop?
IF it does, IMMEDIATELY connect an external drive and copy whatever you can onto it. (such as your entire user folder, etc.).

Once you have what you need from the drive,
Boot to internet recovery, then erase the internal drive and start over.

Thanks for the tip! Fingers crossed it works....

 

[pluto.kitty]

First --

It's probably going to cost you $1,000-2,000 to get the data back, IF that's even possible. Are you willing to spend that much (or perhaps even more) for "professional data recovery"?

Next --

Does target disk mode work?
From a powered-off condition, hold down the T key CONTINUOUSLY and press the power on button.

IF target disk mode works, and you see the "icon" for it, connect the MacBook Air via a USB cable.

Does the 2015 drive "show up" on the MacBook Air's desktop?
IF it does, IMMEDIATELY connect an external drive and copy whatever you can onto it. (such as your entire user folder, etc.).

Once you have what you need from the drive,
Boot to internet recovery, then erase the internal drive and start over.

Hi Fishrrman, so the target disk mode icon appeared but for some reason the 2015 drive is not appearing on my MBA. I can tell from "systems report" that the laptop is connected and it even says "Target Disk Mode." But it's not appearing on the MBA. one thing to note is that the 2015 drive is on HFS+, whereas the MBA is AFPS. Any ideas how can I get the 2015 drive to show up?

 

[HDFan]

Sounds as if the disk has failed.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

As far as any data on the storage, it seems unlikely you’re going to recover that based on your results. My advice is take it as a life lesson about backing up your data and move on.

Next step is try erasing the storage, see if that lets you reinstall and use it as normal. And then start backing up anything important. If the reinstall doesn’t cure it, likely you’d need a service center (or more realistically, a new Mac since it’s 9 years old - probably not worth the cost to repair).

 

[madrich]

Having read this situation I am glad that I have both a TM and SuperDuper backup of everything on my MBA early 2015.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Having read this situation I am glad that I both a TM and SuperDuper backup of everything on my MBA early 2015.

Personally I don't back up my MacBook Pro at all! However, I do have multiple backups of my Mac mini (Time Machine plus an online backup) and all of my documents, photos, messages, etc from the MacBook Pro is automatically synced to the mini via iCloud. So if the MacBook falls into a wood chipper, I'm not likely to lose any data.

 

[PoloHofer]

Use an external disk with an older System (El Capitan for example) to start up. Install Diskwarrior (https://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior5apfs) and try to repair the disk. All disk with HFS+ are ok. Diskwarrior (not free) was earlier the SwissArmyKnife.

 

[PoloHofer]

I forgot: You can even use your MacBook Air. Startup your MacbookPro 2015 in Target DiskMode. Diskwarrior should detect the disk.
Aloft about Diskwarrior 5.3:

6) External drives are not automatically converted to Apple File System (APFS). Your Mac OS Extended external drives can be rebuilt as before.

7) DiskWarrior 5.3 is compatible with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion through macOS 14 Sonoma when rebuilding Mac OS Extended external drives.

8) DiskWarrior 5.3 now runs within macOS 10.14 Mojave through macOS 14 Sonoma Recovery on Intel Macs.

9) The Preview application in DiskWarrior can now copy files to APFS disks when recovering data from a failing Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi everyone.

Unfortunately my beloved 2015 Macbook Pro 13'' (OS X 10.11.6) is refusing to turn on and keeps showing me a flashing question mark. I've followed the Apple Support instructions here, but was unable to fix the problem. I also did not have any luck with a NVRAM reset. The big issue here is that I would really, really like to avoid losing my data and recognize that it's entirely my fault for not backing up my device (nothing like learning the hard way💀). Frankly, the laptop was working perfectly fine up until now. I hadn't turned it on in a while and apart from running out of charge quickly it was absolutely perfect!

So far, I've succeeded in going through Internet Recovery, but when I attempt to "repair disk," I get an error that says "Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size" (see image below).

My questions are:

1) Is there anyway possible I can still retrieve my data? Official Apple Support told me via chat that it's too late to backup my data (is this accurate)?
2) Should I stop booting my computer to Internet Recovery and instead opt for a service like Disk Drill or perform a Target Disk Mode Transfer with my M2 Macbook Air?
3) Would it be worth physically cleaning out my hard drive? Some said they had had success removing and clipping back the SATA connection.
4) Is there anything I can do in terminal? I included a picture below of what came up when I typed the diskutil command. I'm not tech savy tbh, but can follow instructions if there's anything I can do! Tried to follow this tutorial, which succeeds in resolving the disk utility repair error message by manually using fsck_hfs / sck_hfs -rc -d /dev/diskXsX.
5) Any other data recovery services that folks have had success with?

I welcome any advice or suggestions!! Many thanks.

Can you make the computer usable again such that the flashing folder with question mark goes away? Yes! That drive is removable. Get a new one (whether OEM, after-market, or something more standard with an adapter to the Apple proprietary drive connection), reinstall whichever OS you want (10.11.6, if you insist), and you'll be right as rain!

Can you get your data back? Unsure; sounds like the drive is failing or has failed. If it has failed, then it's probably toast and there's nothing anyone can do. A drive recovery specialist will be able ot tell you more than any of us can.

As for whether there is trickery you can do? Probably not at this point, sadly.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Are you still reading this thread?

What you could do to make the 2015 MBP bootable again:

1. Get an external USB SSD.

2. Connect it to the MBP and boot to INTERNET recovery
Command-OPTION-R at boot.
KEEP HOLDING THAT KEY COMBO DOWN until you are asked for your wifi password, then let go and enter it.

3. See if you can get to the internet utilities. If you can, open disk utility and choose "show all devices" from the view menu.

4. Can you see the internal drive now?
If NO, chances are it's dead and is NOT "recoverable".

5. You can still format the external SSD (to APFS), and then open the installer and install a copy of the Mac OS onto it (not sure which version it will install).

6. When the OS has been installed, you should still be able to boot and use the MBP using the external SSD for the moment. I would at least get it "bootable to the finder" and then see if anything could be used to access the internal SSD.

But again, it looks like the internal SSD is "gone forever" and you had better start over -- probably with a new laptop.

I believe the drive in the 2015 is "replaceable". But you have to be careful about which one you pick (and get the right adapter). And it will be more "power hungry" than the factory-installed drives, and perhaps run warmer.

 

[Minghold]

Sounds as if the disk has failed.

In my experience, a dead drive is the cause in maybe 5% of flashing-questionmark situations. (Everyone should have a "smart" detection utility.

I forgot: You can even use your MacBook Air. Startup your MacbookPro 2015 in Target DiskMode. Diskwarrior should detect the disk.

You can also easily boot most intel-era Macs from an external drive (disabling SIP may be required, so the external drive should also have a Recovery partition).

8) DiskWarrior 5.3 now runs within macOS 10.14 Mojave through macOS 14 Sonoma Recovery on Intel Macs. 9) The Preview application in DiskWarrior can now copy files to APFS disks when recovering data from a failing Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk.

(Leaving aside for the moment that we don't know if that drive was actually failing...) --If all the latest version of DW does is offer APFS volumes as a recovery target-destination (while now requiring Mojave minimum), then it's offering little additional functionality beyond what its old versions (easily found after hoisting the sails) did while running on cat-name OSes.

I recommend EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (open that link only in JDownloader2, or in a browser with the uBlock Origin extension installed).