[Help] Can I boot a headless 2018 MacBook Pro from an external drive if the internal SSD is dead?

[chsn]

Hey everyone — I recently got a 2018 MacBook Pro (Touch Bar model) from a friend who was about to toss it. It’s definitely seen better days: the LCD is completely broken (I’ve removed it, so it’s basically a headless Mac now), and according to my friend, the internal SSD is dead too. Aside from that, it seems to power on and doesn’t show any obvious signs of other issues.

I’m on a pretty tight budget, but I’d love to repurpose this thing into a home server if there’s any way to bring it back to life. After doing some research (and asking ChatGPT), it seems like booting from an external drive is a common workaround — but I’m unsure if that’s even possible in a headless setup, especially with a failed internal SSD and no internal screen to work with.

Has anyone tried something like this? Is it possible to boot this headless 2018 MBP from an external drive (USB-C or otherwise) in its current state?

Any help or tips would be super appreciated!

 

[Bigwaff]

Has anyone tried something like this? Is it possible to boot this headless 2018 MBP from an external drive (USB-C or otherwise) in its current state?

Attach external display and find out.

 

[chabig]

Attach external display and find out.

Seconded. But I am pretty sure you can, using macOS Internet Recovery.

Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac

Learn how to use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[DeltaMac]

Notice that you need to enter an admin password to change security options on the T2 chip that 2018 MBPro has, and the admin password will for the previous owner, meaning that you will need to get that info from the previous owner.
That is to allow changing security settings in either local recovery, or internet recovery. The Security options allow you to boot to an external drive, for example.

 

[Fishrrman]

More. Trouble. Than. It's. Worth...