How to transfer files on Macbook internal hard disk to a Windows/Linux OS

[delubi]

I have a Macbook pro 2014. Recently the keyboard and touchpad stopped working. I had to use an external keyboard/mouse instead.

When I boot into the Macos, the kernal task shows 300%+ cpu, fan runs crazy and system is extremely slow to operate.

Took the macbook to a nearby apple store. Technician found corrosion on the logical board and said it has to be replaced.

I'm not too concerned about saving the macbook itself but do need to export data (mostly photos) from the internal hard drive to somewhere I can access.

I have a Windows10 laptop and a Ubuntu17.04 laptop with usb3.0 port. Brought a hard drive enclosure with usb3.0 interface. Then took the internal hard drive out of macbook and put it in the enclosure.

The problem is I can't get either Windows to recognize the file system on the enclosed hard drive.

If it's an external hard drive formatted with hfs/hfs+ file system then that's not an issue. Apps such as hfsexplorer can recognize the file system. However, it can recognize the disk and partition on the enclosed hard drive but not the file system so I can't can't access any files.

My MacOS version is Yosemite.

I have tried Paragon's HFS+ for Windows. It reported "Unfortunately, no supported volumes have been found" even though my enclosed hard drive is connected through the usb port.

I also tried Paragon's hard disk manager 16 (basic). It recognized the enclosed hard drive as "Basic GPT Hard Disk 1 (To external USB3.0 SCSI Disk Device)" with the following info:

volume letter: (*)
volume label: [No label]
File system: Not formatted
Volume size: 464.96GB
Type: GPT volume

I also tried plugging the enclosed hard drive to my Ubuntu17.04 laptop usb port. The parted -l output shows:

Disk: /dev/sdb: 500GB
Partition table: gpt
Disk flags:
Number Size File System Name
1 210MB fat32 EFI System Partition
2 499GB Macintosh HD
3 650MB hfs+ Recovery HD

Tried mounting /dev/sdb2 as hfsplus type. It returned with error:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bd superblock on /dev/sdb2, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

Then dmesg -l showed: hfsplus: unable to find HFS+ superblock.

Is there anything special with the file system on macbook internal hard drive?

Any suggestion?

 

[posguy99]

Was the Macbook configured with FileVault? If so, the hard disk is encrypted.

 

[delubi]

Thanks for the advice. You're correct. It was configured with filevault. After disabling it, I was able to see the file system and access all the files.

Much appreciated!

 

[delubi]

I now have a new problem.

After exporting the files on enclosed hard drive to Windows10 laptop (via hfsexplorer), all photo files are not viewable.

For example, when I tried to open a file Image003.jpg, it says "Photo gallery can't open this photo or video. The file may be unsupported, damaged or corrupted.".

I used a text editor to open the file and enabled hex mode, the first three lines in the hex dump are:

61 4f b1 e4 9f c6 35 56 5e 6b 31 83 fe 7f c1 19 d1 79 1f 43 5d f3 61 f4 b7 bd 11 9e 53 dd a1 b9 33 5f 69 19 d9 58 46 73 7c fe 31 da 0e 68 5e 9e

Comparing with a known good jpg file on my Windows10 where the first three lines in hex dump are:

ff d8 ff e1 44 ef 45 78 69 66 20 20 4d 4d 20 2a 20 20 20 08 20 09 01 32 20 02 20 20 20 14 20 20 20 7a 88 25 20 04 20 20 20 01 20 20 02 1f 01 10

It seems that the jpg file exported from macos lacks jpg header thus resulting it not viewable by photo editing app on Windows10.

Is the jpg file format different on Macos vs. Windows?

Or is it a residual effect of using filevault on macos (where files are encrypted)? I did disable the filevault though.

Any thoughts?

 

[delubi]

It turned out that I didn't allow enough time to decrypt files after disabling filevault.

Now everything is working after completing the decryption.