Need Advice/Help With Data Extraction

[yNtoRSuE]

First, my unit:

Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch "Core i7" 2.5 Mid-2014 (DG) Model A1398 EMC 2881

The story:

Had finished using my MacBook Pro one evening, just shut the lid, as usual, and went to bed. Upon waking, my MacBook Pro would not accept my correct login credentials. Called, and spoke with someone at Apple support. Walked me through Terminal to change my credentials. Still would not take the new credentials. Technician then started discussing installing the OS again, but I have very important documents on there, and did not want to risk that approach. Technician explained there was a way to reinstall the OS, without hurting my documents. We attempted that. Still will not allow any legitimate credentials to login.

Did an enormous amount of research, on my own, apparently a large number of people have experienced this, "not accepting the correct login credentials" issue, and a large number have never gotten this fixed.

So, next, in my trouble shooting attempt, I attempted to do a, "Target Disk Mode" to retrieve my files, using a Thunderbolt 2 cable, between my MacBook Pro, and an older MacBook Pro I have, and starting the unit in question, by holding down the, "T" key while starting. The, "Target Disk Mode" action did in fact work, however, on my older MacBook Pro, the icon that appeared on the Desktop, was named, "Update". And when I opened, "Update", the only files showing were System based files, no usable document files or folders to retrieve and save. So, in essence, that was a waste of time, as I was always led to believe that, "Target Disk Mode" would in fact allow me to retrieve my documents.

Ok, so now I move on to my next troubleshooting attempt.

I figure I will just open up my MacBook Pro, remove the SATA Hard Drive, and retrieve my files that way. Thing is, once I got my MacBook Pro opened, I am looking at an M.2 instead of a removable SATA SSD Hard Drive. Which, in and of itself, still does not pose a problem, I will just remove the M.2, buy an adapter, and plug the M.2 into my older MacBook Pro, and retrieve my files that way. But again, after further research, I learn that Apple does not adhere to the normal/standard M.2 specifications, and, just any old adapter that I would buy, most likely will not work with my Apple M.2.

Which leads me to the initial reasoning for my post.

Can someone please, lead me in the politically correct method of getting the important files off of either my MacBook Pro, or its M.2?

Now remember, I can not use any methods such as networking the two units together, or a bluetooth connection between the two, because I can not get past the login screen on the initial unit, ...remember?

I am attaching a picture of my M.2 in the event that someone may know the exact, "M.2 to USB3" adapter/device to use. Yes, USB3, as neither of my units have USB-C.

 

[Fishrrman]

As you have found, there is a blade drive inside.
However, it IS NOT a standard m2 or nvme blade.
Rather, it's an Apple-proprietary design.
There are only a few 3rd-party enclosures into which it can fit.
I believe Other World Computing sells one, but it will cost you 75-100.

Having said that.
Have you tried booting to INTERNET recovery?
This is NOT THE SAME as the "recovery partition".
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

You'll need your wifi password, and the utilities take a while to load.
From here you can use Apple's utilities such as disk utility, terminal, the OS installer.

You wrote:
"Upon waking, my MacBook Pro would not accept my correct login credentials"

I'm going to GUESS you mean "your password".

I can speak only for myself, but in all my years of using the Mac (since 1987), I have NEVER seen an instance of my own Mac "not accepting" my correctly-entered password.

Something else is going on here.

Do you have a brick n mortar Apple Store anywhere near?

 

[NoBoMac]

Can you boot into Recovery? Guessing you can as assuming that's how Apple talked you through the re-install of OS.

If so, will want to bring up Disk Utility there to 1) see if drive is OK 2) primarily, see if the drive is encrypted. If the drive is encrypted, think you'll be pretty much out-of-luck being able to extract files via cable/enclosure/etc.

Also, if can boot into Recovery, should be able to copy files off the main drive onto an external drive. Via Disk Utility, make sure the user volume is mounted (if APFS: Machintosh HD - Data). Bring up Terminal via tools/utilities menu option.

# if APFS
cd '/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/yourusername'
# if HFS+
cd '/Users/yourusername'
# then as example, "Documents"
cp -r Documents /Volumes/MyExternalDriveName

 

[yNtoRSuE]

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions, and help. Ultimately, I ended up using Disk Drill on the functioning MacBook Pro, and connecting the two units via a Thunderbolt 2 cable in Target Disk Mode. That approach worked perfectly for me, and also helped alleviate the need for Scripting knowledge, which, by the way, would have been the far superior approach to my issue, for those with macOS Scripting knowledge.