Chosen Solution
I have a 2017 iMac Pro that has a dead motherboard. It has 2 512 SSD that were visible as 1TB when the computer was working. Are there any ways to rescue this data? I was thinking about removing the drives but I am not sure if the T2 chip makes this impossible. Even so, I cant seem to find any adapters for them. Thanks! Any help appreciated!
Sadly you are in a bit of a pickle! Apple uses RAW flash modules not true SSD’s which can confuse people. A true SSD has a controller and RAM besides the Flash storage modules. For reference here’s what a iMac Pro or the current MacPro uses
The Red marked chips are the Flash and that little tiny Orange chip is the ID and buffer chip no Controller or RAM! Now lets look at a Samsung (Apple custom) blade SSD
Here the Red Marked chips are the Flash and the Blue marked chip is the Controller and also has the RAM within it. Unlike the Samsung SSD the iMac Pro uses the T2 chip as its controller! And as you also guessed the T2 if left on default will encrypt the data held within the Flash chips. So sadly you can’t remove the Flash units and install them into a different system (another iMac Pro or anything else). You’ll need to visit an Apple Store who has in-store staff who know how to service your iMac Pro if you really need to retrieve your data. There is a small (and I do mean very small) possibility they can gain access to the data if you had altered the setting so the drive is not encrypted. Otherwise unless you don’t backup religiously and/or work off of an external dual sync drive your toast!
Realistically, your only option on these for data recovery is to get the board working again or replace the board through Apple. Which is quite pricey. The problem, as Dan mentioned, is that these are not really true SSDs. They do not contain a controller for the storage, so putting them into another iMac pro, or a USB adapter (which as far as I know was never made) would not work, because all of the data as to what information is stored where, is within the T2 chip on the logic board for the iMac. It would be like looking at a map with no street names or designations for anything. All the data is still there, but there’s no way for the machine to know what is what. And with the iMac Pro, there are 2 drives paired together, so there is the additional complication of that. Depending on what is wrong with the logic board it may be an easy fix for someone who is competent at board level repairs, but I know there is not a lot of information available for those.
The SSDs can be plugged in to an adapter and connected to another computer, therefore allowing data access. The T2 chip just doesn’t allow the computer to run on another SSD
