Chosen Solution
My MacBook Pro 2013 internal OS drive failed but I managed to take the drive out from the MacBook. Now, should I give this drive to a data recovery expert or can I recover data on my own? Is there some guide for this? My concern is to recover pictures and videos and then move them to another drive (SSD). I will be using a friend’s iMac for operating on this storage drive.
I would try to gain access to your data from your system. The easiest way is leveraging Target Disk Mode were you place your system into it and then use a cable to inter-connect to the other Mac. Basically treating the system as a external drive. macOS Sierra: Transfer files between two computers using target disk mode Your other option is to take the SSD out of the system and place it into a special case which then you can attach to the other Mac via USB. We will need to know what your exact system is so we aim you to the correct one Here’s a good reference on the different custom Apple SSD’s The Ultimate Guide to Apple’s Proprietary SSDs on getting a replacement SSD or you can go with a OWC or Transcend SSD designed for your system so you can replace it.
I’d recommend getting an external caddy for your drive so that you can plug your SSD into another windows machine via usb and then run the program Photorec. Photorec: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec You can choose to recovery all data or specific files, in your case probably just JPG, PNG, MOV, etc. and then run it, it may take days but will find and recover all the data it physically can. You will have to spend some time sorting through all the files, as it will also recover all stock photos, but it should get what you need off if it.
