A folder with a question mark, a blank white screen, or an iMac that will not wake up: typically all of your files (photos and documents) remain intact. We recover iMacs with removable drives (standard SATA hard drives and Fusion Drives), imaging the drive directly once it has been removed.
Free diagnostic on every Apple iMac job. One fixed quote, in writing, before we start any work.
On most jobs, you only pay if we recover your data. For electronic, mechanical and chip-level work, we'll take half up front and the rest only if we're able to recover your data. Jobs involving BitLocker, ransomware, forensic or CCTV/DVR work are paid upfront once you accept the fixed quote. Complete pricing can be found on the data recovery cost page.
All jobs for an Apple iMac start by matching the symptoms to the fault. The ten symptoms outlined below cover almost all the problems we see on our bench.
The iMac cannot find a bootable volume because its internal drive has failed or become corrupted.
macOS starts loading but hangs. Most often this is due to a dying drive that slows to a crawl.
The SSD and hard drive pair loses sync and the logical volume collapses. Both halves must be imaged and rejoined to extract your files.
The 3.5" hard drive inside older iMacs fails just like any other hard drive (it's just glued behind the glass).
Boot-time failure due to firmware or storage issues. Data extraction comes first, diagnosis second.
A software update fails half way through installing and the Mac loops. This leaves the user's data intact under the broken operating system.
When either HFS+ or APFS fails, it does so in Apple-specific ways. Therefore, both file systems require native-level parsing to allow us to recover your files.
The user accidentally clicks the wrong item in Recovery Mode and wipes out the entire volume. If writes stop at this point, we can recover your files.
Your hard drive (HDD) and solid state drive (SSD) have fallen out of sync and unravelled your logical volume. We create images of each half and then rejoin them logically, allowing you to once again gain access to your files.
The logic board or power supply has died while the removable hard drive inside is still good. Extraction is straightforward once that drive is out.
The storage area in an iMac consists of a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD) or both, working together as one unit known as a Fusion Drive. The drive is formatted with either HFS+ or APFS. Accessing the area of the computer where the drive is located requires releasing the bonded screen, which isn't a job for a kitchen table. Please obtain a quote over the telephone on 0800 689 0668 or use our free online diagnostic first. Then remove the hard drive or SSD (if you can't remove it yourself, contact us first on 0800 689 0668 to discuss it) and post the drive alone to us, as we do not provide a drive removal service. We will recover your files from the drive once it has arrived. We have all of the equipment needed to perform full Mac data recovery from both a corrupted APFS volume and a clicking Mac hard drive situated behind the glass screen. In particular, we specialise in recovering from Fusion Drives: each half of the drive needs to be imaged separately and logically rejoined before your files are available as files again.
We are able to recover data from iMacs whose storage is removable and can therefore be imaged: standard SATA hard drives fitted in 2009 to 2011 models and the SSD and HDD halves of a Fusion Drive. However, we do not recover T2-secured Intel iMacs or M-series Apple Silicon iMacs, where the storage is soldered onto the logic board and hardware encryption is applied. In these cases, your data is tied to the specific logic board it resides on and cannot be lifted off if either the logic board or the storage fails. We stopped attempting board-level data recovery of soldered Mac storage two years ago because success rates were too low to promise anyone. Uncertain what model year your machine is? Contact us before sending anything.
iMac work is Apple-specific from the very first tool:
Once you've sent the drive, we image and logically rejoin both halves of a Fusion pair and rebuild your APFS / HFS+ volumes to extract your files.
Proprietary SSD blades, Fusion pairs and standard SATA drives are all natively attached to our imaging rigs.
Failed iMac hard drives receive the same head-swap and firmware treatment as any other drive.
We have native parsers for Apple's file systems, including Fusion Drive logical-volume reassembly.
FileVault-encrypted APFS volumes on removable drives are unlocked with your password and rebuilt to files.
Volumes wiped in Disk Utility or lost after a failed macOS update are carved back where the freed space survives.
We recover iMacs with removable storage such as SATA hard drives and Fusion Drives. However, we can't recover iMacs with a T2 chip or any iMacs made using Apple Silicon: all these models have their SSD soldered to the logic board and hardware-encrypted, so it cannot simply be removed for recovery.
Please get a quote before sending your media to us, either by telephone on 0800 689 0668 or by completing our free online diagnostic. Once a customer has their quote, they post their media to us, tracked and insured.
Sending a drive from a computer, laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV / DVR or server? Please remove the drive (e.g. hard drive or SSD) from the original piece of equipment and send us just that drive. Unfortunately, we do not provide a removal service for drives inside computers, laptops etc. For servers and RAID systems, please ensure you send all disks, clearly labelling each one with its bay. We can't recover storage soldered to a motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs and some thin laptops), so we can only recover data from drives that can be removed and sent to us. If you are unsure whether your drive is removable or soldered to the motherboard, please call us before sending anything.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
On the outside of your package, clearly mark it for the attention of Leeds Data Recovery. We will call you as soon as we have diagnosed your media.
Unsure what to send? Contact us first, either by telephone on 0800 689 0668 or using our free online diagnostic.
Free diagnostic, fixed quote and, in most cases, you only pay if we recover your data. Start now or call the freephone.