PC-3000 Portable III. Apple Macbook SSDs: the Supported Interface Types and Issues

Hello friends!

Over the past years the PCIe interface has become very common in Solid State drives. However, until 2020 it was not possible to recover data from such damaged SSD devices. The PCIe lines inside the PC-3000 Portable III tool give you the ability to recover data and evidence from the PCIe SSDs along with the ATA-based devices. But it doesn’t stop here!

Our developers constantly add more drives to the SSD Support List. During the ACE Lab Online Technology Conference 2020 we have announced the Apple NVMe drives support. Now you can recover data from modern Apple-based SSDs with our new PCIe NVMe/AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD.

However, a number of Apple Macs, released between 2013 and 2016, were left unreached because they are based on the proprietary NON-NVMe architecture – the Apple AHCI PCIe protocol. So, this September we have released the beta version 6.8x of the PC-3000 Portable III. The update allows you to deal with all types of PCIe SSD drives, including the Apple AHCI ones that were hugely popular in the Macbooks, Mac Pro, and iMacs from 2013 and onwards.

The main window of the port selection

Drive initialization in the Universal utility

Complete access to the PCIe AHCI drive with APFS in Data Extractor

The list of Apple Macbook SSDs and the supported issues:

Mac Computer (year) The PC-3000 Support Storage Device Interface type Adapter Logical Issues Physical Issues
Laptops
MacBook 12″
MacBook 12 Early 2015 – Mid 2017 A1534 Not supported
(onboard SSD)
Proprietary onboard AHCI (2015), NVMe (2016-2017) SSD doesn’t exist
(in theory)
MacBook Air 11″ and 13″
MacBook Air 13 2008-2009 A1237 PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
SATA HDD 1.8″ LIF Adapter LIF to SATA
MacBook Air 11 2010-2012 A1370/A1465

MacBook Air 13 2010-2012 A1369/A1466

PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
Proprietary SATA-based SSD
(Apple SATA Blade 128-256GB)
Special adapter to SATA only for:
S3C29MAX01-Y340
S4LJ204X01-Y040
MacBook Air 11 Mid 2013 – Mid 2015 A1465

MacBook Air 13 Mid 2013 – Mid 2015 A1466

PC-3000 Portable III Proprietary PCIe AHCI SSD
(Apple PCIe Blade 128-256GB)
PCIe NVMe/AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD
MacBook Air 13 Mid 2017 A1466 PC-3000 Portable III Proprietary PCIe NVMe SSD
(Apple NVMe Blade 128-256GB)
PCIe NVMe/AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD
MacBook Air 13 Late 2018 – 2020 A1932/A2179
with Retina Display
Not supported
(onboard SSD + T2 chip)
Proprietary onboard NVMe SSD doesn’t exist
MacBook Pro 13″
Macbook Pro 13 2008-2012 A1278 PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
2.5″ SATA HDD, 2.5″ SATA SSD (by default – HGST HDD 160-500GB) SATA connection
MacBook Pro 13 Late 2012 A1347
with Retina Display
PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
Proprietary SATA-based SSD
(Apple SATA Blade 128-768GB)
Special adapter to SATA only for:
S3C29MAX01-Y340
S4LJ204X01-Y040
MacBook Pro 13 Late 2013 – Late 2015 A1502
with Retina Display
PC-3000 Portable III Proprietary PCIe AHCI SSD
(Apple PCIe Blade 256-2048GB)
PCIe NVMe/AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD
MacBook Pro 13 Late 2016 – Mid 2017 A1708
with functional keys
PC-3000 Portable III Proprietary NVMe SSD (Wide interface Apple PCIe Blade 128-512GB) doesn’t exist

(in theory)

MacBook Pro 13 Late 2016 – Early 2020
with Touch Bar – all models!
Not supported
(onboard SSD + T2 chip)
Proprietary onboard NVMe SSD doesn’t exist
MacBook Pro 15″ and Pro 16″
MacBook Pro 15 2008-2012 A1286 PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
2.5″ SATA HDD, 2.5″ SATA SSD (by default – HGST HDD 160-500GB) SATA connection
MacBook Pro 15 Mid 2012 – Early 2013 A1398
with Retina Display
PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
ProprietarySATA-based SSD
(Apple SATA Blade 256-768GB)
Special adapter to SATA only for:
S3C29MAX01-Y340
S4LJ204X01-Y040
MacBook Pro 15 Late 2013 – Mid 2015 A1398
with Retina Display
PC-3000 Portable III Proprietary PCIe AHCI SSD
(Apple PCIe Blade 256-2048GB)
PCIe NVMe/ AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD
MacBook Pro 15 Late 2016 – Mid 2019
with Touch Bar – all models!
Not supported
(onboard SSD + T2 chip)
Proprietary onboard NVMe SSD doesn’t exist
MacBook Pro 16 Late 2019 A2141
with Touch Bar
Not supported
(onboard SSD + T2 chip)
Proprietary onboard NVMe SSD doesn’t exist
Desktop computers
Mac Pro
Mac Pro 2013 A1481 PC-3000 Portable III Propriate PCIe AHCI SSD (Apple PCIe Blade 256-2048GB) PCIe NVMe/AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD
Mac Pro 2019 A1989 Not supported
(T2 chip)
SSD contains only NAND memory, controller integrated in T2 chip doesn’t exist
iMac
iMac 21.5″ 2010-2017 and 2015-2019 4K PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
2.5″ SATA HDD, 2.5″ SATA SSD
(by default – HGST HDD 160-1000GB)
SATA connection
iMac 27″ 2010 – 2013 PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
3.5″ SATA HDD
(by default – WD/Seagate 500-3000GB)
SATA connection
iMac 27″ 2014-2019 5K PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
3.5″ SATA HDD + ACHI/PCIe SSD
(by default – WD/ Seagate 500-3000GB Fusion drive with 32-128GB SSD)
SATA connection for HDD

PCIe NVMe/AHCI Adapter for Apple Macbook SSD

 for HDD

for SSD

iMac 27″ 2020 5K Not supported
(T2 chip)
SSD contains only NAND memory, controller integrated in T2 chip doesn’t exist
iMac Pro 27″ 2017-2020 Not supported
(T2 chip)
SSD contains only NAND memory, controller integrated in T2 chip doesn’t exist
Mac Mini
Mac Mini 2010-2014 PC-3000 Portable I/II/III
PC-3000 Express
PC-3000 UDMA
2.5″ SATA HDD
(by default – HGST HDD 250-500GB)
SATA connection
Mac Mini 2018-2020 Not supported
(onboard SSD)
Proprietary onboard NVMe SSD doesn’t exist

By the way, some of the SSD vendors also use AHCI in the native PCIe x16-based drives. The beta version 6.8x of the PC-3000 Portable III allows you to deal with these devices as well. You can read more about native PCIe x16 SSD recovery in this article.

If you have any questions regarding your data recovery cases, you’re welcome to address them to the Technical Support department.

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2 Responses to PC-3000 Portable III. Apple Macbook SSDs: the Supported Interface Types and Issues

  1. net2 says:

    Can we do this mac ssd recovery on PC3000 Express?

    • ACELab team says:

      Hello. Drives based on ATA (all before the end of 2012) protocol might be recovered via Express and UDMA systems. For PCIe-based drives recovery please use Portable III System.

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