How to recover data from a crashed Fusion Drive?

Question

How to recover data from a crashed Fusion Drive?

Hi there, I've been attempting to retrieve data from a crashed Fusion drive for a few days now. I am unable to mount or repair the drive when I boot from an external drive or in "recovery mode". In this case, I recovered the data, but all of the metadata is gone. All of my files are present when I boot in "Single user mode". I can't export the data, though. Additionally, I must write to disk to use an external USB stick. In this case, do you have any recommendations? How can I export data from the Single User mode on my HDD without having write permission? How can the broken Fusion drive be mounted or fixed?

Best Answered by

Amanda Wong

Answered on Wednesday, April 24, 2024

When the Fusion Drive is crashed and the metadata is damaged, you can't boot your Mac from it and access your files. According to your description, you failed to mount the Fusion Drive in Sigle User Mode.

The only way to recover data from a corrupted Fusion Drive is to try third-party data recovery software if there are no backups for the Fusion Drive. Professional data recovery software such as iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can scan the unbootable Fusion Drive in macOS Recovery mode even if it is split into SSD and HDD for deleted and lost data.

Related read: How to Recover Data From Fusion Drive on iMac/Mac Mini?

After recovering data from the Fusion Drive, you can First Aid Fusion Drive in recovery mode and reformat the drive to make it usable again. In case the drive is split, follow Apple's guide to fix a split Fusion Drive.