Monterey strikes again!!

[Big Jim]

Customer has brought in a 2020 27" imac (onboard flash storage)
the photo library file has been deleted.

Up to now I have tried to boot the following USB sticks and failed.
Mac OS installers:
Catalina
Big Sur
Monterey

MacOS installed on a USB stick
High sierra
Catalina


All of the above reboot to the circle with a line through it.

I also tried
Hirens x86 won't work either, but that has parted magic on it which I was trying to use
Hirens x64 works but the drive doesn't show in disk management.

 

[timeshifter]

How about Target Disk Mode?

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode

You can connect an Intel-based Mac to another Mac using a USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt cable, then transfer files.

support.apple.com

 

[300DDR]

If deleted (and trash emptied), and Apple SSD, very unlikely to be recoverable even if target disk mode works.

 

[timeshifter]

I suppose no iCloud or Time Machine backups?

 

[overburnz]

Customer has brought in a 2020 27" imac (onboard flash storage)
the photo library file has been deleted.

Up to now I have tried to boot the following USB sticks and failed.
Mac OS installers:
Catalina
Big Sur
Monterey

MacOS installed on a USB stick
High sierra
Catalina


All of the above reboot to the circle with a line through it.

I also tried
Hirens x86 won't work either, but that has parted magic on it which I was trying to use
Hirens x64 works but the drive doesn't show in disk management.

iMac 2020 will only boot to the macOS that came with it (or later), not to earlier versions, regarding the issue, have you tried data rescue for macOS? but the recovery will be almost impossible....

 

[Big Jim]

You have all pretty much confirmed my thoughts, but thought it worth asking.

As far as any data recovery software is concerned I haven't tried anything as i cant get it to boot to any OS except hirens which cant see the drive or the OS that is installed on the machine, and obviously I don't want to go installing anything on the drive I am trying to recover data from.

I did leave it installing to a USB stick last night from the built in recovery menu, but it won't boot from that USB either, I didn't think it would work but was worth a try before I call it a day.

 

[overburnz]

You have all pretty much confirmed my thoughts, but thought it worth asking.

As far as any data recovery software is concerned I haven't tried anything as i cant get it to boot to any OS except hirens which cant see the drive or the OS that is installed on the machine, and obviously I don't want to go installing anything on the drive I am trying to recover data from.

I did leave it installing to a USB stick last night from the built in recovery menu, but it won't boot from that USB either, I didn't think it would work but was worth a try before I call it a day.

Also that machine has a T2 chip, you have to boot it pressing cmd + R, go to security settings and allow boot from external usb, follow this page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198