Checking for Hard Drive Cable Failures
If a cable fails to transmit the electronic signals between the logic board and the hard disk drive, you will get a “mac flashing folder with a question mark”.
Examine the cable connector and make sure there are no foreign objects or debris in the connector. All the pins of the connector should be clean and corrosion-free. Apple uses a flex cable to connect the SATA hard drive to the logic board. The flex HDD cables can break due to stress. Failure of hard drive cables are very common in the 13” MacBook Pro 2012 models. The copper wire inside the flexible plastic breaks at the bent section over time.
Checking The Lifeboat Cap
In 13” and 15 MacBook Pro Touchbar A1706 and A1707 models Manufactured in 2016 or 2017, there is a connector called lifeboat that connects the SSD circuit to the CPU. When the logic board breaks, we can remove the lifeboat cap and connect a a data migration tool to retrieve the data from the dead logic board.
Removing Corrosion From The Lifeboat Cap
Data Recovery From Damaged MacBook Pro A1707 and A1706 Motherboards
Seattle Data Recovery rescues files from damaged logic boards.
Fixing Corrosion On The SSD Port
Bad SSD Ports Cause Question Mark Errors
Apple removable SSD drives are connected to the Mac logic board via the SSD sockets. If the socket is corroded, you may get a flashing folder with a question mark error. Corrosion can be caused by exposure to liquids. Seattle Data Recovery checks the pins on the SSD drive and the SSD socket. Our clean room performs micro-soldering tasks and professional component-level logic board services.
Checking For Apple SSD Corruption
Apple Hard Drive or SSD Failures
If your hard drive has failed and the logic board cannot communicate with it, you will get a “mac flashing folder with a question mark”.
All pre-2013 MacBook and MacBook Pros use mechanical hard drives. The majority of Apple iMacs also use mechanical hard drives. These mechanical hard drives are prone to mechanical failure. If you can hear a clicking or grinding noise coming from the hard drive, you have a faulty hard drive.
Another common problem for spinning drives is the motor can get stuck. Put your hand on the drive and switch on your Mac. If you cannot feel the vibration of the hard drive spin motor, the hard drive is faulty. Seattle Data Recovery guarantees 100% file recovery from hard drives in iMac and MacBook computers.
If your Apple Computer has an SSD like in the image above, Seattle Data Recovery is able to perform a Chip-Off data recovery in a clean room. The process of chip-off recovery involves removing the flash chips from the SSD and recovering data from each chip.
