4 ms·

Same way you do if your drive fails in your computer. You don’t. You should make regular backups before anything happens to your device.

• wepple 8y ago
  Somewhat tangentially, it’s actually a fairly smooth process to pull data off a MacBook when the keyboard/graphics/touchpad are dead. A friend dropped a drink through his and it looked very dead. Turns out with a thunderbolt cable, another Mac, and his disk crypto password & he had easy access so his old disk. Don’t ask me how, but kudos Apple.
  • sigfubar 8y ago
    Disk encryption usually employs some form of PBKDF to turn the user’s passphrase into a key that’s usable for crypto. If you know the specific derivation function and the passphrase, unlocking the storage device on another machine is a matter of setting up the software. When both ends of this are Apple machines (one end: the damages machine running in target disk mode; other end: a working machine) the key derivation is taken care of by definition, requiring the user to merely enter the passphrase.
    • ams6110 8y ago
      The question I have is how did he get the "dead" machine into target disk mode? That normally requires a reboot and a specific key chord on the keyboard.
      • sigfubar 8y ago
        I'd try sticking a USB keyboard into it. Hopefully USB ports aren't dead.
  • 72deluxe 8y ago
    The older MacBooks with Firewire had target disk mode where you pressed T on boot, and the MacBook then acted as an external disk to the other host Mac. Very useful for backing stuff up! No clue how you'd do that with the newer ones (dongles?) or with a dysfunctional keyboard though...