Using macOS with Samsung T7 External Drive, Need Help to Pull File from Internal Hard Drive via Terminal

[MacGekko]

Through the help in another thread on this website, I have been able to run my mid-2015 MacBook Pro through an external SSD drive, the Samsung T7, I am trying to pull some documents from my internal Macintosh HD, originally it froze up and I was dealing with the question mark folder, in internet recovery mode, I could see all of my files but I could not reinstall the OS through recovery mode.

I have a Time Machine backup from August 31st, but there is a document file that was saved on TextEdit but not with time machine, there were two weeks of additions to that file, that I would like to pull off the original hard drive.

Right now I am running High Sierra on the external boot drive with a new account, I have not yet migrated the backup over as I am waiting to see if I can pull the document file first, then I will wipe the original internal drive, try to see if a fresh installation will work, then I will migrate my backup, if that does not work, I will migrate the backup to the external drive and run that for some time, waiting to see what M4 chips bring to the MacBook Pro table.

But here is the problem, whenever I try to engage Finder or Disk Utility to copy the document file, I get a beach ball and that app locks up, I can continue to use everything else on the MacBook Pro but if I want to use Finder or Disk Utility again for something else, I need to restart the computer.

Is there a way in Terminal that I can bring the entire documents folder over, copy it from the internal to the external drive? Thanks for your help.

 

[Alameda]

Through the help in another thread on this website, I have been able to run my mid-2015 MacBook Pro through an external SSD drive, the Samsung T7, I am trying to pull some documents from my internal Macintosh HD, originally it froze up and I was dealing with the question mark folder, in internet recovery mode, I could see all of my files but I could not reinstall the OS through recovery mode.

I have a Time Machine backup from August 31st, but there is a document file that was saved on TextEdit but not with time machine, there were two weeks of additions to that file, that I would like to pull off the original hard drive.

Right now I am running High Sierra on the external boot drive with a new account, I have not yet migrated the backup over as I am waiting to see if I can pull the document file first, then I will wipe the original internal drive, try to see if a fresh installation will work, then I will migrate my backup, if that does not work, I will migrate the backup to the external drive and run that for some time, waiting to see what M4 chips bring to the MacBook Pro table.

But here is the problem, whenever I try to engage Finder or Disk Utility to copy the document file, I get a beach ball and that app locks up, I can continue to use everything else on the MacBook Pro but if I want to use Finder or Disk Utility again for something else, I need to restart the computer.

Is there a way in Terminal that I can bring the entire documents folder over, copy it from the internal to the external drive? Thanks for your help.

You’re probably getting an error because the disk is corrupted, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

You can find all of your drives by typing:
ls /Volumes

And then cp -R
/Volumes/SourceDisk/MyFolder/ /Volumes/TargetDisk/

This will copy MyFolder and its contents as a MyFolder at the root of TargetDisk

You could copy it to your desktop like this:
cp -R
/Volumes/SourceDiskName/MyFolder/ /Volumes/TargetDisk/Users/username/Desktop/

Get the idea?

 

[MacGekko]

You’re probably getting an error because the disk is corrupted, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

You can find all of your drives by typing:
ls /Volumes

And then cp -R
/Volumes/SourceDisk/MyFolder/ /Volumes/TargetDisk/

This will copy MyFolder and its contents as a MyFolder at the root of TargetDisk

You could copy it to your desktop like this:
cp -R
/Volumes/SourceDiskName/MyFolder/ /Volumes/TargetDisk/Users/username/Desktop/

Get the idea?

Thank you, yes, when I list them in the first command, all it shows is my external SSD Samsung T7 drive.

Update: Now I am remembering that every time I restart the computer, it asks for my password on the internal drive but it takes forever to accept the password, so last time I canceled it, I have to shut this down soon, I will try it again tonight, I appreciate your insights.

 

[Alameda]

Thank you, yes, when I list them in the first command, all it shows is my external SSD Samsung T7 drive.

Update: Now I am remembering that every time I restart the computer, it asks for my password on the internal drive but it takes forever to accept the password, so last time I canceled it, I have to shut this down soon, I will try it again tonight, I appreciate your insights.

So your problem is that the disk is corrupted or damaged. Did you ever open that MacBook or upgrade its storage? It has removable storage, so maybe it’s loose... If you’re lucky. Or maybe there are recovery tools that can get your files off.

 

[MacGekko]

So your problem is that the disk is corrupted or damaged. Did you ever open that MacBook or upgrade its storage? It has removable storage, so maybe it’s loose... If you’re lucky. Or maybe there are recovery tools that can get your files off.

No, I had the Apple Store ship it out for a battery replacement three years ago, before this happened, the lower left corner felt strange, when I would close the lid, the bottom left, underneath, you could feel some movement, but now that is gone, and to the left of the trackpad, there was one large snap sound shortly after I got the question mark folder. When you look at a teardown though, that is the area where the battery is located.

The strange thing is that sometimes the Finder app will show my internal Macintosh HD in the sidebar, I can even go through the folders, but when I try to do anything with the top menu of Finder, you get the beach ball and Finder locks up.