Norwich Data Recovery — No.1 Apple MacBook & iMac Data Recovery Specialists

With 25+ years in professional data recovery, Norwich Data Recovery recovers data from any Apple MacBook, MacBook Air and iMac—from vintage Intel machines to the latest Apple-silicon models. We offer free diagnostics and an optional Critical Service (typically 48 hours) for urgent cases.

Models We Recover (Popular MacBook & MacBook Air Examples)

This is a sample of the most-requested MacBook/MacBook Air models we see—if yours isn’t listed, we still recover it.

1. MacBook Air 13″ (M3, 2024)

2. MacBook Air 15″ (M2, 2023)

3. MacBook Air 13″ (M2, 2022)

4. MacBook Air 13″ (M1, 2020)

5. MacBook Air 13″ Retina (2020, Intel)

6. MacBook Air 13″ Retina (2019)

7. MacBook Air 13″ Retina (2018)

8. MacBook Air 13″ (2017)

9. MacBook Air 13″ (2015)

10. MacBook Air 11″ (2015)

11. MacBook Air 11″ (2013–2014)

12. MacBook Air 13″ (2013–2014)

13. MacBook (12″, 2017)

14. MacBook (12″, 2016)

15. MacBook (12″, 2015)

16. MacBook 13″ Unibody (Late 2009–2010)

17. MacBook 13″ (Early/Mid 2009)

18. MacBook Air 13″ (2012)

19. MacBook Air 11″ (2012)

20. MacBook Air 13″ (2011)

We also recover all iMacs (21.5″/27″ Intel), iMac Pro, and Apple-silicon iMac (M3) models.

Operating Systems & File Systems We Handle

All Mac operating systems (classic & modern)

• System 1–6, System 7, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9

• Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah, 10.1 Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks, 10.10 Yosemite, 10.11 El Capitan

• macOS 10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra, 10.14 Mojave, 10.15 Catalina, 11 Big Sur, 12 Monterey, 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, 15 Sequoia

File systems & volume technologies

• APFS (standard & encrypted, snapshots, volume groups)

• HFS+ / Mac OS Extended (journaled/non-journaled) and HFS

• CoreStorage (incl. FileVault 2)

• exFAT/FAT32/NTFS (Boot Camp or external media)

• Fusion Drive (logical SSD+HDD pair)

Storage Interfaces We Support

SATA, PATA/IDE, NVMe, SCSI, SAS, PCIe, M.2, U.2, eSATA, USB/Thunderbolt bridge enclosures, and Fusion Drives (hybrid SSD+HDD).

Top 50 Apple MacBook & iMac Faults — and How We Recover Your Data

Each case begins with non-invasive imaging where possible. When needed, we escalate to bench-level electronics work, micro-soldering, or controlled-environment mechanical procedures. We prioritise read-only imaging to a forensic clone, then perform logical reconstruction on the clone—never on your original media.

Mechanical & Magnetic (HDD)

1. Head Crash / Media Contact — Identify failed heads via vendor-specific self-tests; swap the head stack with matched donor, calibrate adaptives, and image with head-map and read-time limits to minimise re-contacts.

2. Stiction (Heads Parked on Platters) — Free the HGA safely, service bearings if required, replace heads if contaminated, then low-speed image starting from safest zones.

3. Spindle/Bearing Seizure — Transplant platters into a matched chassis/motor with servo alignment tooling; verify SA (service area) readability before imaging.

4. Motor Failure — Chassis transplant as above; confirm preamp integrity and SA access; adaptive tuning before imaging.

5. Platter Surface Scoring — Map bad tracks via adaptive imaging; isolate unreadable zones and perform inward/outward radial passes with cooling cycles.

6. Grown Defect List (G-List) Bloat — Bypass translator slowness by vendor commands, rebuild translator where safe, or image by physical head/zone with re-reads disabled.

7. Translator Corruption (LBA↔PBA) — Reconstruct translator tables from SA modules; if partial, compute synthetic translator and image by CHS/zone.

8. SA Firmware Module Corruption — Read SA copies from alternate heads; patch corrupted modules (DIR, defect lists, adaptives), recalc checksums, and soft-reset.

9. ROM/Adaptive Data Damage — Extract ROM via ISP/SPI, patch adaptives (head map, preamp gain), re-flash or use loader; regain SA access and image.

10. 0 LBA/0 MB Capacity — Clear SMART/ATA password locks or module flags; rebuild translator; switch to recovery microcode; then image.

11. Preamp Failure — Diagnose via head current signatures; swap HSA; recalibrate; smooth-read fragile surfaces.

12. Off-Track/Servo Damage — Tune read channel, adjust PES (position error) tolerances; image in short bursts with thermal rest periods.

13. Impact Drop Misalignment — Head swap + micro-alignment procedures; controlled-speed imaging with increasing ECC thresholds.

14. Contamination/Ingress — Decontaminate chamber components, replace filter, swap heads, and perform cold-imaging with aggressive CRC retries disabled.

15. Liquid/Corrosion — Neutralise residues on PCB; replace TVS diodes/fuses; if preamp intact, image; otherwise proceed with HSA swap.

16. Fire/Heat Exposure — PCB component-level rebuild; platter transfer if required; image with tightened error thresholds.

17. PCB TVS/Power Rail Damage — Replace TVS/inductors/regulators; if MCU intact, boot to vendor terminal, clear faults, and image.

18. Firmware Bug “Slow Issue” — Apply vendor-specific slow-fix scripts; disable background processes (e.g., media scan), then image heads individually.

19. Password/Locked HDD (ATA Security) — Use vendor unlock where authorised/available (requires proof of ownership); then image.

20. Fusion Drive: HDD Half Failed — Forensic image SSD and HDD halves separately; rebuild CoreStorage/APFS Fusion mapping to reassemble the logical volume.

Solid-State (SATA/NVMe/Blade SSD)

21. Controller Failure — Identify controller variant; chip-off (BGA) or on-board NAND read using pin-out adapters; reconstruct FTL with vendor-specific translators.

22. FTL/Mapping Corruption — Dump NAND dies; rebuild logical↔physical map (block/page) using ECC layout and XOR/LDPC schemes; generate a raw image.

23. Wear-Level Table Loss — Recover from metadata blocks and journal; brute-force page order if metadata destroyed; validate with file-system heuristics.

24. DRAM Cache Failure — Bypass or emulate DRAM; if not possible, dump NAND directly and reconstruct mapping offline.

25. NAND Bad-Block Proliferation — Identify failing dies; read with voltage stepping and read-retry strategies; assemble image from good pages.

26. Power-Loss During Write — Mine journaled metadata (APFS checkpoints/HFS+ journal) to reconcile partial writes; repair file-system on clone.

27. Read Disturb/Retention Loss — Refresh via read-retry and voltage trim; prioritise cold imaging; multiple passes with ECC margining.

28. Firmware Safe-Mode / “Locked in Recovery” — Coax normal mode with vendor loader; if unrecoverable, proceed to NAND-level extraction.

29. NVMe Namespace/Metadata Corruption — Access admin commands via PCIe; export raw namespaces; reconstruct APFS container from raw space.

30. PMIC/Power Rail Burnout — Replace PMIC/regulators; if controller still non-functional, chip-off the NAND for direct reads.

31. BGA Solder Fractures — Reball/reflow under microscope with thermal profiling; stabilise long enough to image fully.

32. Connector/Pad Damage (M.2/U.2/Blade) — Micro-wire to test pads; force-power and access via adapter to image.

33. Thermal Throttling/Link Resets — Enforce stable thermal envelope and PCIe link speed; staged imaging with retry budgeting.

34. Read-Only SMART Trip — Image at controller-imposed limits; avoid writes that could retire remaining blocks.

35. TRIM/Garbage Collection After Deletion — Attempt carve at raw-page level (pre-TRIM remnants); where pages are erased, explain feasibility limits clearly.

36. Vendor Encryption on SSD — If self-encrypting, require correct keys; otherwise proceed with chip-off plus cryptographic validation (recovery depends on key availability).

Apple Security, T2 & Apple-Silicon Considerations

37. T2/SEP Tied Storage (2018–2020 Macs) — Storage keys are bound to the Secure Enclave; recovery requires valid credentials/keys. We create SEP-aware images and, with the customer’s passcode/iCloud unlock, decrypt on a forensic workstation.

38. FileVault 2 / APFS Encrypted — Acquire full-disk image; use provided password/recovery key to unlock APFS keybag and mount read-only for data export.

39. Activation Lock / “Find My” — We cannot bypass ownership locks; however, if credentials are provided and the media is sound, we can decrypt and extract user data.

40. BridgeOS/T2 Boot Loop — Use DFU to stabilise; if storage is intact and keys available, perform logical extraction; otherwise resort to chip-level SSD work (Intel) or explain cryptographic limits (T2/Apple silicon).

Logical, Partitioning & macOS Layer

41. APFS Container Corruption (nx_superblock) — Rebuild from checkpoint superblocks; salvage volume object map; mount clone read-only and copy.

42. APFS Volume Header / Checkpoint Tree Damage — Stitch snapshots from intact checkpoint records; export files via file-level traversal.

43. APFS Preboot/Recovery Volume Loss — Reconstruct volume group; add synthetic Preboot if required for decryption; then mount Data volume.

44. HFS+ Catalog/Extents Corruption — Rebuild B-trees and overflow; where partial, carve files from known allocator patterns.

45. GPT/Partition Table Corruption — Recreate GPT from backups; if both wiped, infer from file-system signatures and rebuild a mountable layout on the clone.

46. CoreStorage Break/Interrupted Conversion — Manually bind LVG/LV/LVF metadata; complete or roll back the conversion on a clone to expose files.

47. Fusion Drive Split (SSD/HDD Desynchronised) — Pair members by UUID, rebuild LVG, then mount logical volume; where one half is lost, carve from the surviving member.

48. Time Machine Sparsebundle Damage — Repair band files and plist; export intact snapshots; if too damaged, carve directly from band payloads.

49. Boot Camp Overwrite/Mis-Partition — Restore GPT/M$R entries; salvage NTFS via MFT mirror; export Windows user files separately.

50. Large Database Corruption (Photos/Mail/Notes) — Validate SQLite stores; salvage blobs/originals; rebuild libraries with preserved metadata where possible.

How Our Process Works

1. Free Diagnostic – We evaluate symptoms, interface, encryption, and feasibility.

2. Forensic Imaging First – Your device is imaged sector-by-sector to a controlled clone; all work is done on the clone.

3. Mechanical/Electronics Work (if needed) – From head-stacks to micro-soldering, only as minimally as required to enable a safe image.

4. Logical Rebuild – APFS/HFS+/CoreStorage/Fusion reconstruction on the clone; file-level integrity checks; sample previews provided.

5. Delivery – Your recovered data is returned on a replacement medium of your choice (or via secure transfer where applicable).

Critical 48-Hour Service (Typical)

For urgent business-critical or time-sensitive cases, we prioritise bench time, donor matching and imaging to target a ~48-hour turnaround where the device condition allows. Availability depends on parts, encryption status, and fault severity.

Ready to Start?

Contact Norwich Data Recovery today for your free diagnostic. With decades of experience, advanced tooling, and strict, read-only workflows, we’re your trusted partner for Apple MacBook and iMac data recovery—no matter the fault, interface, or macOS version.