DriveSavers can recover lost data from an M1-powered Mac

Have you lost important data on an M1-powered Mac and you're either too busy or lack the proper tools to do the job? DriveSavers can help.


Image: Apple

Recovering lost data typically proved easier before the advent of solid-state drives (SSDs), which operate differently than old mechanical disks. Although an SSD's benefits usually include faster performance and improved reliability, locating or recovering lost or accidentally deleted files on SSDs is more difficult than with traditional drives.

In the past, when a file or directory was deleted on a traditional magnetic hard disk, essentially just the pointer to the file or directory (think of it as the table of contents) was removed. The actual file or directory was often left intact on the drive, so file recovery utilities would perform a comprehensive scan of the disk and retrieve the remaining information. But SSDs—which use flash storage and often feature what's known as TRIM capabilities to improve performance and automatically remove deleted files—complicate data recovery.

SEE: 10 MacOS tune-up tricks for your Mac (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Subsequently, recovery efforts are more challenging. Add the fact Apple's new M1 chips boast performance and security improvements and encrypt data as files are created, and the challenges of recovering lost data from M1-powered SSDs are quickly compounded and more complex than was previously true using Intel-powered Macs.

If you don't have the time, expertise, or utilities, DriveSavers Data Recovery is successfully recovering information from M1-powered Mac SSDs. As long as you possess the original encryption credentials, the company may rescue information you or your firm previously feared lost. The company's director of engineering, Mike Cobb, credits DriverSavers' years of encrypted data recovery expertise with helping the company learn to effectively rescue such information.

"Traditional data recovery, which has been spinning hard drives with no encryption, would allow our technicians to extract raw data without security barriers to complicate the recovery," Cobb said in an email.

SEE: Microsoft redesigns its Office apps especially for Apple M1 Macs (TechRepublic)

"With the iPhone and the ARM processor to the T2 and now the M1 enabled CPUs, the data storage is fully encrypted and protected from simple data extraction. Using our iPhone experience of recovering data from the first iPhones back in 2007 along with performing countless SSD and embedded SSD recoveries since their debut, DriveSavers engineers continually develop techniques to recover data from damaged devices by creating custom solutions to gain access to the failed devices."

So if your firm lacks a dedicated data recovery or forensic expert, not to mention the appropriate corresponding hardware and utilities, enlisting the help of a capable third party will likely prove the most efficient option, while also providing protection against potential criticism that you or the tools you used didn't possess the required expertise and capability. It's one thing, for example, to tell an angry user or director you couldn't recover needed data; it's another to say a third-party expert was recruited and confirmed the data wasn't recoverable.

Cobb provides encouraging news, however: "If the customer has their login credentials, M1-powered SSDs will remain very recoverable."

Although Cobb notes data losses are physical in nature and recovery costs range "from a thousand dollars to several thousand depending on the device and turnaround service the customer chooses," files can be rescued in just a few days to a week. DriveSavers is no stranger to pressure. The firm's received thanks from everyone from Industrial Light and Magic to the Rolling Stones.

SEE: Apple Silicon M1 Mac buying guide: 2020 MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro vs. Mac mini (TechRepublic)

Rest assured recovery efforts are undertaken in pristine lab environments, and with an unusual focus. Having previously supported many data recovery initiatives firsthand, I can confirm from experience rescue efforts typically run 24/7. Such commitment is difficult to match when data recovery isn't your primary occupation or business.

More than a decade providing consulting services also makes it easy to warn against attempting data recovery efforts yourself, especially when the lost data in question is important. Missing a few photos of the company cookout? Fine. Give that recovery effort a go on your own. Missing two years of critical financial performance data? That's not the time to learn. Don't risk complicating the recovery; recruit an expert.

Technology professionals have many tasks to juggle. That fact's especially true during the continuing pandemic, in which multitudes continue working remotely from home, posing a variety of support and technical challenges for IT departments. Outsourcing critical data recovery services to a capable vendor possessing hardware resources and technical forensics expertise that, let's face it, most private organizations will never match, is the smart choice.

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