Funky M1 MacBook Air

[ojfd]

Acquaintance of mine got his hands on MBA M1 with some interesting stuff on a main drive. I suggested he backs it up (clones it) to some other drive before experimenting with with his MBA further, but, so far, all attempts have been unsuccessful. The machine refuses to go into target mode. Startup screen is somewhat strange too
Any suggestions how to clone this sucker either from another M1 or Intel?

I'm an experienced Mac user, but do not have any M1/M2 around, Intel only.

 

[daneoni]

Have they tried SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner?

 

[ojfd]

He said that machine in question does not allow to install anything.

 

[daneoni]

Then i would just wipe the drive and reinstall the OS

 

[chown33]

He said that machine in question does not allow to install anything.

It might have a managed device profile (just a guess). Did he say where and how he got it?

 

[ojfd]

My understanding is that it was bought from some sort of a bulk reseller together with other Macs, but he didn't disclose the details.

P.S. If it's a managed device, then it is, most probably, something for collectors rather than for average user.

 

[daneoni]

It might be encrypted

 

[JPack]

There's a whole bunch of Apple internal apps there.

That's device is definitely not for consumers.

 

[VaruLV]

And it's not M1 Air, it's M2 13.6" model.

 

[ojfd]

M2? Maybe. The owner says, it reports back as M1. Go figure.
Maybe that's a prototype or pre-production unit? That would explain problems with cloning, installing and so on.

 

[VaruLV]

M2? Maybe. The owner says, it reports back as M1. Go figure.
Maybe that's a prototype or pre-production unit? That would explain problems with cloning, installing and so on.

Display notch, keyboard fn row and looks like keyboard deck sides without speaker cutouts point to it being 13.6" MBA. Cant say if its really M1 sample or its M2 with M1 name on it.