Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How do I put the solid state from my mbp into an external case?

C

calebkingston

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 25, 2011
20
0
Hey there,

I have a late 2013 Macbook pro with a solid state drive that I bought from a guy. After a few months, this guy was mad because I bought it for less than he could have got out of it and wanted me to pay him more money. Anyways, I didn't and he still had it hooked up to iCloud so he wiped it and put a password on. I went to apple to have them bypass and they said I couldn't without the original receipt which he has and the police said there's not much they can do. I found some steps online to bypass this but it requires pulling the hard drive out, putting it in an external case, then finding the file which has the password. Now I just need to know what external case will fit a solid state drive or how I can get access to the contents on it using my iMac. Does anyone have suggestions of how to do this?

Thanks,
Caleb
 
Well...

Try:

Borrow another mac with a Thunderbolt port, buy/borrow a T-bolt cable. Boot your MBP in Target Disk mode, format/partition/restore the SSD from the borrowed mac.

I have no personal experience if this would work, the scenario is identical to one in which an MBP has been stolen and the owner has used iCloud to secure it - Apple may be only interested in securing the data and essentially forcing a format of the drive to be able to use the machine, I am not sure if the password renders the drive unable to be formatted as well as accessed.

Obviously you were foolish in the extreme to leave "your" MBP setup on his iCloud account....you should question what other data of yours that was on the machine has been compromised to him...
 
calebkingston said:
Hey there,

I have a late 2013 Macbook pro with a solid state drive that I bought from a guy. After a few months, this guy was mad because I bought it for less than he could have got out of it and wanted me to pay him more money. Anyways, I didn't and he still had it hooked up to iCloud so he wiped it and put a password on. I went to apple to have them bypass and they said I couldn't without the original receipt which he has and the police said there's not much they can do. I found some steps online to bypass this but it requires pulling the hard drive out, putting it in an external case, then finding the file which has the password. Now I just need to know what external case will fit a solid state drive or how I can get access to the contents on it using my iMac. Does anyone have suggestions of how to do this?

Thanks,
Caleb
Click to expand...

You're saying he illegally remotely disabled a laptop after he sold it to you, and is now trying to extort money from you to reenable it?
I'd threaten legal action, give him a chance to change his ways, and then take him to court if he doesn't.
 
Montymitch said:
You're saying he illegally remotely disabled a laptop after he sold it to you, and is now trying to extort money from you to reenable it?
I'd threaten legal action, give him a chance to change his ways, and then take him to court if he doesn't.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that, clearly he has the receipt and the MBP was still on his account which enabled him to password it.

This could look like an attempt to bypass a standard security measure put in place by the legitimate owner (who has the receipt). Unless the OP has proof of purchase the Police may end up giving the MBP back to the original purchaser and charging the OP with theft....
 
calebkingston said:
Hey there,

I have a late 2013 Macbook pro with a solid state drive that I bought from a guy. After a few months, this guy was mad because I bought it for less than he could have got out of it and wanted me to pay him more money. Anyways, I didn't and he still had it hooked up to iCloud so he wiped it and put a password on. I went to apple to have them bypass and they said I couldn't without the original receipt which he has and the police said there's not much they can do. I found some steps online to bypass this but it requires pulling the hard drive out, putting it in an external case, then finding the file which has the password. Now I just need to know what external case will fit a solid state drive or how I can get access to the contents on it using my iMac. Does anyone have suggestions of how to do this?

Thanks,
Caleb
Click to expand...
If it's a MBP retina, you're out of luck.

If it's a regular old MBP, any enclosure with a SATA port in it will work.
 
Looks like you may have to pay him that extortion money or be our the full amount.

Crappy situation.
 
Can't you do a password removal with a USB Mac OS X Mavericks install drive.

Even if he added an EFI password, there is likely a way around that.

---

Of course, after this, and the person trying to extort you makes their move. There is no longer any reason to pay them.
 
priitv8 said:
Either way, the story of this password being held in a file on the hard disk is an internet fairytale.
Click to expand...

Interesting, so the password you can put on via iCloud is stored where and protects against what?

From Apple here

"Resolution

Only Apple Retail Stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers can unlock computers protected by a firmware password."

So this would be easily defeated if removing the HDD removed the pwd, equally it would easily defeat the HDD data protection if stored on the motherboard so quite possible it is in both and must agree for it to unlock....?
 
Last edited:
simonsi said:
Interesting, so the password you can put on via iCloud is stored where and protects against what?

From Apple here

"Resolution

Only Apple Retail Stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers can unlock computers protected by a firmware password."

So this would be easily defeated if removing the HDD removed the pwd, equally it would easily defeat the HDD data protection if stored on the motherboard so quite possible it is in both and must agree for it to unlock....?
Click to expand...

Except that doesn't apply in this case as the OP says in the first post that it's a LATE 2013 MBP, making it a Retina and it has a PCI-E-based SSD. BTW, removing a drive from a system that has been locked by a firmware password will only allow you to access the drive, it won't allow you to remove the lock as the firmware lock is on the system.

This is treading on thin ice legally and help from here for actually removing the password may be scarce.
 
You should have the proof of purchase (e.g. your emails with the seller). You need to go to the police and charge him with blackmail, illegal data access and other nasty things. Yes, it is an unpleasant situation. But there is no way around it.
 
leman said:
You should have the proof of purchase (e.g. your emails with the seller). You need to go to the police and charge him with blackmail, illegal data access and other nasty things. Yes, it is an unpleasant situation. But there is no way around it.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there is a data trail that supports the OP. Craigslist advertisement, emails, phone logs, text messages, bank account deposits/withdrawals.
Another solution might be to simply return the laptop to the seller, but I doubt that would happen at this point.
 
leman said:
You should have the proof of purchase (e.g. your emails with the seller). You need to go to the police and charge him with blackmail, illegal data access and other nasty things. Yes, it is an unpleasant situation. But there is no way around it.
Click to expand...

This would be your best call. If you don't want to put in that much effort, either pay the chap the money or return the laptop and ask for a full refund. He can't refuse a refund because then he can be held for blackmail.

Regards
Raptor
 
I really hope there is no way to do this by himself.

Imagine, someone stole a macbook pro. The owner noticed it and locked it thru iCloud. If there is really a way to DIY, then it would be terrible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back