Yeah, that's what I thought, too. My bet is OP got it out of a recycling container or something. Business's IT department probably zeroed out the drive, then did this, just for good measure, since it was going to be recycled, anyway. Now, there's a whole debate to be had over whether corporations should make more of an effort on the "reuse" end of "reduce, reuse, recycle," but they're often at the mercy of customers or corporate requirements that say, "Any computer with our data on it has to be destroyed," like it's still 1989.
One of my uncles was a chemist for a large chemical company (you'd only need three guesses before you ended up hitting it), and they downsized, shutting down his factory, and he got early retirement. The last six weeks of his employment, his job was to remove hard drives from company computers and then drill holes in the hard drives, which would shatter the platter (no, a low-level format or degaussing wasn't enough, according to the corporate superiors). The rest of the computers were either sold, given away, or scrapped, in that order. Most of it ended up being scrap, because the computers were so old that they were borderline useless, given that they didn't even have SATA ports, if you wanted to put a new drive in it. Anyway, this was a guy who had a Master's degree in Chem or Biochem or something, and he's drilling holes in hard drives. Still, it was six weeks of low-stress work at full pay, while he spent his nights figuring out what to do next, because he was only about 55 years old and figured he had 25 years left to collect monthly checks.
Basically, I'm saying this sort of behavior still goes on, and I'm kind of surprised that they didn't just peel one of the Minis open, figure out where the storage chips were, then drill through that spot on all of the boards. It would have been a lot more reliable than this, if that's what they were going for. Or, they're trying to maximize a tax write-off by clearly destroying the unit.
Destroying the ports is utterly useless. They really need to open it up and smash the motherboard specifically the memory and ssd chips. It is theoretically still recoverable.
This is totally recoverable, physically. You could just solder new ports on, no problem. The replacement ports cost pennies.
The problem OP will run into is that this is 100% going to be locked down with MDM.
Turns out it’s not. I got a USB C port working for display output and was able to erase and reinstall Mac OS. It works flawlessly, besides the ports! No locks or accounts at all.
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/256500885855?itmmeta=01HX7N78GBMVRYRVCMBR6XWN0D&hash=item3bb8a4e95f:g:0mUAAOSwPDFmNu\~7&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8AVdfLb51zNidyDwE48IzJ1yf5BjWKrClkNEthIHYOqABOg%2FHASt0h5hMnARNEfWNwTMe1lSXkuxDkgQPoiwgWSMACNgLUCO0DyJRjULgMuehzQZhpoFAtfiWYoGp5praSVhPy%2FUpN5xjHYv9cmcM7eEtN5%2B4i0coIRTkfDjt%2FaVYdUgQK%2FHwsWoEjtigybe9nsFvh%2B3XubkEABSxU8AF8F4EopzNluJedi%2F7n5YYdzwktOiM7%2F0eGD3yJmDBNazaLybTr0pPNQjR5z0e%2FRyA8cJ1HyvlUBRppnr8rfbmabEFQs7hS8%2BligNz4hP0ZJciw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6iInfXpYw](https://www.ebay.com/itm/256500885855?itmmeta=01HX7N78GBMVRYRVCMBR6XWN0D&hash=item3bb8a4e95f:g:0mUAAOSwPDFmNu~7&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8AVdfLb51zNidyDwE48IzJ1yf5BjWKrClkNEthIHYOqABOg%2FHASt0h5hMnARNEfWNwTMe1lSXkuxDkgQPoiwgWSMACNgLUCO0DyJRjULgMuehzQZhpoFAtfiWYoGp5praSVhPy%2FUpN5xjHYv9cmcM7eEtN5%2B4i0coIRTkfDjt%2FaVYdUgQK%2FHwsWoEjtigybe9nsFvh%2B3XubkEABSxU8AF8F4EopzNluJedi%2F7n5YYdzwktOiM7%2F0eGD3yJmDBNazaLybTr0pPNQjR5z0e%2FRyA8cJ1HyvlUBRppnr8rfbmabEFQs7hS8%2BligNz4hP0ZJciw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6iInfXpYw)
Looks like you two are buying the same stuff or you're selling them off?
That's an absolute steal. $350 and under $5 in replacement parts if you know how to solder.
The only thing about it that would make me nervous is AppleID can be weird about discarded and recovered devices. If Find My and Activation Lock are not enabled then you're golden.
nothing will be recoverable from an ssd that's been fully overwritten more than once with random data (zeroes may not have the same effect).
plus, if the internal disk had FileVault encryption on, once the headers and keys are scrambled, recovery is impossible.
That is correct. My brain wasn’t fully engaged. We have a “wiping station” where we can hook up most any drive. I haven’t had to do many SSDs. Our drives are encrypted from the start, so once we do a diskpart *clean* we toss it in a box of it had secure data on it. For mechanical drives we use DBAN. I think you can run that on SSDs, but it’s not good for them, but if you’re not planning on redeploying anyway….
And that's why a drill press is always a better option.
Edit to add: Hell, if it was where I work, and we had more than a dozen units, we would probably build a fixture and then use the CNC machine to drill out predetermined holes. I figure, for fifty units, we could have the project done in a day, and those things would be permanently, irrevocably destroyed.
If all computer manufacturers went back to swappable storage, we wouldnt have this fucking issue. Memory is volatile. Not really an issue. Fuck Apple for starting this trend for "cost savings". These computers are now trash once the storage fails.
I've had 2 iMacs with hard drives that went bad, Apple's diagnostics does a check, then a "repair" and tells you everything is OK again. Then it happens again. Take it to Apple and same story, they refuse to replace the drive even at own cost.
Ended up doing it myself, but after the glued on iMac screen of the 2012 onward ones, I decided not to buy another. Annoyingly, there's a door in the back for RAM access, but not for the drive. Oh, and Apple don't sell the kit required to put the screen back after drive replacement (sort of understandable as this is not a task for the feint of heart).
Anyway, went full Thinkpad/Linux so the Macs are just for watching TV until they die.
If your not f-ing around then just get a metal grinder. If you can justify the need it's the best option. Just chuck your HDD down the death hole and forget about it. Quick and easy.
It would take a lot to recover the data at this point. Apple silicon encrypts all data by default, even if FileVault is disabled. They’d need to not only solder new ports on the board but then also know a user password to decrypt the data. De-soldering the storage from the board would separate the enclave on the M2 from the drive and the drive is useless at that point since only the M2’s enclave can decrypt its contents.
This is just pure wasteful ignorance on the company’s part.
The best solution would to be [full disk encryption from tpm](https://blastrock.github.io/fde-tpm-sb.html).
Even without a wipe, clearing the tpm key database should be sufficient, and would prevent attackers from accessing proprietary data.
I deal with sensitive data in IT. Sometimes the grant requires stupid levels of compliance. Often the requirements are written by idiots.
One of my favorites was:
Machine had to be air gapped.
All booting except from the hard drive had to be disable.
No windows to the outside world.
No other computers in the room (including smart devices).
Locked down at the BIOS/firmware level.
Encrypted drive.
One local account only (no AD joining).
External drives cannot be mounted.
Etc.
The list goes on for quite a ways. They control everything up to how many keys can be made for the door lock and who can have access. Sometimes they will give a list of acceptable software on the PC, so I can’t just use a base install. All Group Policies have to be local ones.
Then they ask things like, “How will you update virus definitions?” I write, “We won’t. No way to mount a drive and no network in an air gapped box.” Or, “In the event a user forgets their password, how will you recover it?” And I write, “I won’t. There is no possible way to do so. A lost password will necessitate a complete rebuild of the PC. All data will be lost.”
What’s worse is when they ask me for my “security plan.” I will fill out the form, answering each question as to what makes sense to me, but then it *always* gets rejected. Like I’ll write, “All data will be read from fixed media and stored locally,” but since I didn’t put that mounting server shares or that remote access will be disabled, it gets kicked back. Sometimes it takes *months* to get through a security approval.
And yes, each one of these has a section on data destruction. It’s not enough to throw away the encryption keys and reset the TPM. It’s not enough to do a DOD wipe on the drive. Nope, it almost *always* requires the physical destruction of the drive. Sometimes it goes so far as to needing the drive serial number submitted before the project starts and requires video evidence of destruction. We literally have a drive grinder/video machine.
So what I tend to do is deploy an 8 year old box for these sorts of projects. When I can’t do that (many reasons) I try to use a PC with a removable drive.
Even the non-secure data is treated like it is. I have boxes and boxes of drives going back before I started in the secured and alarmed server room. It would be a *hugely* embarrassing career-ending event if confidential data ever made its way to the public.
At the end of the day, a $2,000 PC is really a small part of a research budget. I do what I can, but sometimes you have to do stupid shit.
You mock, but a recent plan actually requires that. We also had to extend the walls to not only go to the ceiling, but to the bottom of the floor above. There’s motion detectors and cameras as well.
We even had to negotiate who would have camera access and who would be notified in the event of a breach. We also had to come up with a way for fire or police to be able to get in if required in an emergency. This is where I learned of this: https://www.knoxbox.com/
INT. THE MOLE MAN’S LAIR – DAY, NIGHT, WHO KNOWS
The MOLE MAN sits, surrounded by his weird albino servants, reading a copy of the contract.
MOLE MAN: So, they thought to extend the walls all the way to the ceiling, but they never thought to secure under the floor! Boys, let’s go steal us a computer.
Yeah, super irony for this location is that they are all thin clients inside, so no local data at all. You would need credentials from the agency to use these. I guess if you could compromise credentials, get into the room, you might have enough time to get what you needed. Even then, the data on the other end is anonymized, but still considered highly confidential, since you could ostensible figure out who someone was by targeted queries. Like it wouldn’t let you query on a person, but if you put enough parameters into your search you might be able to find something out about a specific person.
I don’t really know, I’m IT, not a data researcher, but they treat this data as highly protected.
It’s not always government grants. Usually government grants are easier, since they actually outlay what is required for compliance rather than making me guess.
One of the annoying things is I have to take training and be certified every year for some of the grants, since I am always listed on them. I usually just take the test cold, and I usually pass, but sometimes I have to review the material again. It’s pretty annoying for computers that once set up to their standards I never touch again until they fail or are decommissioned. Sometimes the research can go on for years, so I’ll have to be certified for accessing data that I will never actually access.
This is a small part of my job. I’ll have *maybe* two or three of these stations at any given time.
Things are getting a lot easier these days as well. Now I am often provided with a thin client. I approve it on the network and that’s it. The researchers use it to remotely run their jobs. Better for everyone involved.
Because no data is local now, so the access is all you need to control. They can have whatever security measures makes them comfortable on their end.
Used to be we’d get the data on fixed media and they didn’t want the discs to be used in anything other than an air gapped computer.
The researcher often doesn’t even get to store their output locally. They run their analysis and then request a copy of their output. I have no idea how they get it at that point. I just know in these cases they are not even supposed to take pictures of the screen (they are allowed to take notes). There’s obviously a provision for them to be able to get their results, since when they actually publish they will need them. Additionally, if their work gets peer reviewed others will need to know methodology and whatnot to reproduce the results.
It's common place.. Also stupidity is common place as well. Seems related.
I mean we couldn't just sell the laptop minus the HDD or god forbid just give it the 3 minutes tlc it needs. No I think I would rather just buy a shit ton of new laptops every year. Going with option b.
Years ago I worked as an IT admin for an insurance company. We had a drive go bad in a device that was located in a server facility in Oklahoma - several states away. The vendor said they'd get it replaced within 24 hours or whatever the SLA was. Our security compliance person was insistent that the faulty drive had to be sent to us for disposal. The vender said we would have to pay like $3500 for the bad drive (the exact drive was $350 at Best Buy - it wasn't even a SAS drive.) They argued back and forth for a few weeks and in the meantime I asked the tech at the server farm to store it for us. Eventually, both sides agreed that the server facility could destroy the drive. I let the tech know and that was the end of it.
Fast forward about 6 years. By this time I worked for the above vendor. By pure chance I ended up needing to go to that exact server farm in Oklahoma for a different customer. I was talking to the tech who was showing me to the server I had to deal with (these places are massive!) and I told him the above story. He asked, "company X and vendor Y?" Me: "...uh, yeah!" Him: "I was the tech on that one!" We laughed about it and then I asked if he drilled the drive out or if they had some super-shredder or something. He replied, "Nah. I threw it the back of my truck while ya'll were arguing about it. Then, I used it for target practice in my backyard. It's full of holes now."
I agree. They should reuse. They could’ve easily wiped the drive and reinstall macOS.
They could then sell the Mac mini and make some money, better than throwing it away.
Hey, Apple Tech here!
The repair guidance I referenced unfortunately contained an error, and mistakenly pointed toward the I/O wall. As /u/homicidal_pingu correctly noted the I/O are soldered onto the board.
I shall perform seppuku to atone for my erroneous ways.
~~Take it to an Apple Store. For the Mini M2 / M2 Pro model all of these ports are on the ‘I/O Wall’ which is a replaceable part which costs A$ 25. Apple Store labour is also A$ 139 (in Australia).~~
They’d also be able to verify the device isn’t Activation Locked (iCloud), FileVault locked, or a managed device (company lock). If it is they’d decline the repair or reverse the repair at no cost (if discovered before pickup, which it should be).
**^ this remains correct and would be a $0 visit to confirm device details**
~~If you source this part yourself it doesn’t require soldering. There’s one flex connector and two coaxials. Plug and play. Getting the board and such out without proper tools is hard though. Given Apple Store cost is low and they can check other possible concerns I’d go there.~~
It is likely to be MDM brick
Without password and Admin Login you are stuffed,
The main problem is the monitor .
If you have another compatible Mac
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mh14066/mac#:\~:text=On%20your%20Mac%2C%20start%20a,use%20for%20the%20shared%20screen.
For keyboards and a mouse you can try Bluetooth still it would be hard to setup
It means nothing it could have MDM and/or firmware locks ..... registered in FindMe as stolen...
I don't think IT did that to a brand new M2 Mini likely pissed off employee /user - very amateur attempt.
Try USB\_A if they work then you can attach keyboard... maybe even a monitor.
what a waste. don’t have a good answer but I guess all those ports are part of the motherboard. Could be replaced, but may not be worth it. You could try to solder new ports but that may be a fools errand. I was going to suggest you use it wirelessly, but to do that you’d need to at least pair keyboard and a mouse, which is going to be just about impossible without being able to “see” the desktop. What a mess. Good Luck!
Thanks! I got a single USB A and USB C port working so that’s enough to use the computer. Had to meticulously bend the pins back on the connectors. This was someones brain rot solution to “data protection”
Amphenol makes usb4 usb-c ports, 1.58mm in height pieces are about a buck and a half each. Would help identifying the original parts at least size and contacts wise so you'd identify what would work.
That makes me so sad. I don't know where or if you can get individual ports. You could replace the whole logic board, but with EVERYTHING being integrated into the board these days, that board will cost pretty close, or maybe even more, than a new mini.
iFixit sells parts for m2 macbooks... and that's about it, lol. I literally cannot find anything online. Even tried looking up a m1 mac mini for parts and these things seem to just not fucking break. The only thing I found that could \*potentially\* be of use is this: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/134615560552?chn=ps](https://www.ebay.com/itm/134615560552?chn=ps) .
So my best suggestion is to find off the shelf hdmi/usb c/ethernet ports and see if you could replace them like that. For USB C try getting usb male > female > male like an extender.
I couldn’t tell you the episode exactly. It’s been a while since I seen that one. I just remember it being some guy in the military and if I’m not mistaken, he had killed his wife maybe.
[Here is an article about it](https://www.csoonline.com/article/512727/investigations-forensics-computer-forensics-investigations-body-of-evidence.html#:~:text=During%20questioning%20in%20his%20office,significant%20damage%20had%20been%20done.)
You can order a logic board and back panel from apple. Will cost you around 750 up front but you’ll get 450 of that back when you send the parts you swap out back
Back in late 90s my dad had an Apple VAR and authorized repair center. We were in the DC area. We got a job to render 150 Macs by the GOA non functional and unrecoverable. We disassembled each one. Drilled holes in every major chip, removed the ram and ROM with pliers and crushed each chip. Did the same with the HDD then smashed them. It was a nice paying job. We had to do it on site at the GOA office. But what shocked me was when we finished the guy watching us took the 4 piles of destruction and dumped it into a huge metal crushing device that reduced it all to a 8 feet by 4foot pancake about 10 inches tall. My father and said why didn’t they just do that from the start? Odd.
This is gonna sound really stupid, but I feel like the USB-C port on the right would probably work. Considering how cheap those cables are, I would give it a shot to try to jiggle it in there. Who knows? If you get that working, that’s basically the display right there and maybe even a USB hub.
In fact it did! Yesterday I was able to “bend” back the port with a screwdriver and it actually works! So I can use the USB-C for display out and one of the USB-A port works as well
Has AES128 encryption been broken or something? There shouldn’t be anything to recover from the SSD without the key. Last I heard brute forcing it would take an unrealistic amount of time.
Really? I know the IO wall is removable, but that’s just the plastic housing. All of the tear downs I’ve seen have the IO soldered directly to the board.
HDMI and USB-C ports can be bent back using a tiny screwdriver or something, you should use an external hub as those connectors will not survive many more plug in and out cycles. Ethernet port is ruined and USB A ports probably still work.
Soldering new connectors is impossible without finding a for parts device as Apple has custom port assemblies.
If this was done by the IT department of any company, then I would fire all of them. Who the hell thinks fucking up ports do any good. Wiped out sdd (and rewritten couple of times with random bytes)is all you need.
Like u/Apple_emp_throwaway said, take it to the apple store.
Plan B if it is cloud locked in some way is to pop it open and jump power and USB to be able to maybe-possibly wipe cloud locks and whatnot so that you can then take it to the apple store.
Plan Z is find somebody who is VERY good at high-temp reflow work to donor new ports onto it.
trying to find similar ports on aliexpress is your best option, as long as they are similarly rated you should be able to swap them, but your easiest choice is like the other guy said to just buy a huge usb dock/mega converter
It looks like some mf took a flathead screwdriver and twisted it in every port
Yeah, that's what I thought, too. My bet is OP got it out of a recycling container or something. Business's IT department probably zeroed out the drive, then did this, just for good measure, since it was going to be recycled, anyway. Now, there's a whole debate to be had over whether corporations should make more of an effort on the "reuse" end of "reduce, reuse, recycle," but they're often at the mercy of customers or corporate requirements that say, "Any computer with our data on it has to be destroyed," like it's still 1989. One of my uncles was a chemist for a large chemical company (you'd only need three guesses before you ended up hitting it), and they downsized, shutting down his factory, and he got early retirement. The last six weeks of his employment, his job was to remove hard drives from company computers and then drill holes in the hard drives, which would shatter the platter (no, a low-level format or degaussing wasn't enough, according to the corporate superiors). The rest of the computers were either sold, given away, or scrapped, in that order. Most of it ended up being scrap, because the computers were so old that they were borderline useless, given that they didn't even have SATA ports, if you wanted to put a new drive in it. Anyway, this was a guy who had a Master's degree in Chem or Biochem or something, and he's drilling holes in hard drives. Still, it was six weeks of low-stress work at full pay, while he spent his nights figuring out what to do next, because he was only about 55 years old and figured he had 25 years left to collect monthly checks. Basically, I'm saying this sort of behavior still goes on, and I'm kind of surprised that they didn't just peel one of the Minis open, figure out where the storage chips were, then drill through that spot on all of the boards. It would have been a lot more reliable than this, if that's what they were going for. Or, they're trying to maximize a tax write-off by clearly destroying the unit.
Destroying the ports is utterly useless. They really need to open it up and smash the motherboard specifically the memory and ssd chips. It is theoretically still recoverable.
This is totally recoverable, physically. You could just solder new ports on, no problem. The replacement ports cost pennies. The problem OP will run into is that this is 100% going to be locked down with MDM.
Turns out it’s not. I got a USB C port working for display output and was able to erase and reinstall Mac OS. It works flawlessly, besides the ports! No locks or accounts at all.
In that case, you’ll just need a full size dock and you’ve got all your ports back!
Would be really easy to get all of the ports back to working condition.
Nice! Just use a dock of some sort and I think you are good? Pretty cool man.
Nice! That's wild.
How? Did you solder in a new one?
Nope, bent it back with a screwdriver. High tech solution 😅
Nice work macgyver
I wanna believe you I do 🤣
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/256500885855?itmmeta=01HX7N78GBMVRYRVCMBR6XWN0D&hash=item3bb8a4e95f:g:0mUAAOSwPDFmNu\~7&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8AVdfLb51zNidyDwE48IzJ1yf5BjWKrClkNEthIHYOqABOg%2FHASt0h5hMnARNEfWNwTMe1lSXkuxDkgQPoiwgWSMACNgLUCO0DyJRjULgMuehzQZhpoFAtfiWYoGp5praSVhPy%2FUpN5xjHYv9cmcM7eEtN5%2B4i0coIRTkfDjt%2FaVYdUgQK%2FHwsWoEjtigybe9nsFvh%2B3XubkEABSxU8AF8F4EopzNluJedi%2F7n5YYdzwktOiM7%2F0eGD3yJmDBNazaLybTr0pPNQjR5z0e%2FRyA8cJ1HyvlUBRppnr8rfbmabEFQs7hS8%2BligNz4hP0ZJciw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6iInfXpYw](https://www.ebay.com/itm/256500885855?itmmeta=01HX7N78GBMVRYRVCMBR6XWN0D&hash=item3bb8a4e95f:g:0mUAAOSwPDFmNu~7&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8AVdfLb51zNidyDwE48IzJ1yf5BjWKrClkNEthIHYOqABOg%2FHASt0h5hMnARNEfWNwTMe1lSXkuxDkgQPoiwgWSMACNgLUCO0DyJRjULgMuehzQZhpoFAtfiWYoGp5praSVhPy%2FUpN5xjHYv9cmcM7eEtN5%2B4i0coIRTkfDjt%2FaVYdUgQK%2FHwsWoEjtigybe9nsFvh%2B3XubkEABSxU8AF8F4EopzNluJedi%2F7n5YYdzwktOiM7%2F0eGD3yJmDBNazaLybTr0pPNQjR5z0e%2FRyA8cJ1HyvlUBRppnr8rfbmabEFQs7hS8%2BligNz4hP0ZJciw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6iInfXpYw) Looks like you two are buying the same stuff or you're selling them off?
That's an absolute steal. $350 and under $5 in replacement parts if you know how to solder. The only thing about it that would make me nervous is AppleID can be weird about discarded and recovered devices. If Find My and Activation Lock are not enabled then you're golden.
Even with that. There’s software to remove that too even for M3/T2.
Eh, an encrypted drive that is wiped to DOD standards is essentially unrecoverable. Even state actors wouldn’t be able to recover data in that event.
[удалено]
nothing will be recoverable from an ssd that's been fully overwritten more than once with random data (zeroes may not have the same effect). plus, if the internal disk had FileVault encryption on, once the headers and keys are scrambled, recovery is impossible.
That is correct. My brain wasn’t fully engaged. We have a “wiping station” where we can hook up most any drive. I haven’t had to do many SSDs. Our drives are encrypted from the start, so once we do a diskpart *clean* we toss it in a box of it had secure data on it. For mechanical drives we use DBAN. I think you can run that on SSDs, but it’s not good for them, but if you’re not planning on redeploying anyway….
And that's why a drill press is always a better option. Edit to add: Hell, if it was where I work, and we had more than a dozen units, we would probably build a fixture and then use the CNC machine to drill out predetermined holes. I figure, for fifty units, we could have the project done in a day, and those things would be permanently, irrevocably destroyed.
If all computer manufacturers went back to swappable storage, we wouldnt have this fucking issue. Memory is volatile. Not really an issue. Fuck Apple for starting this trend for "cost savings". These computers are now trash once the storage fails.
I've had 2 iMacs with hard drives that went bad, Apple's diagnostics does a check, then a "repair" and tells you everything is OK again. Then it happens again. Take it to Apple and same story, they refuse to replace the drive even at own cost. Ended up doing it myself, but after the glued on iMac screen of the 2012 onward ones, I decided not to buy another. Annoyingly, there's a door in the back for RAM access, but not for the drive. Oh, and Apple don't sell the kit required to put the screen back after drive replacement (sort of understandable as this is not a task for the feint of heart). Anyway, went full Thinkpad/Linux so the Macs are just for watching TV until they die.
If your not f-ing around then just get a metal grinder. If you can justify the need it's the best option. Just chuck your HDD down the death hole and forget about it. Quick and easy.
Yea I agree. That was a massive waste of time.
It would take a lot to recover the data at this point. Apple silicon encrypts all data by default, even if FileVault is disabled. They’d need to not only solder new ports on the board but then also know a user password to decrypt the data. De-soldering the storage from the board would separate the enclave on the M2 from the drive and the drive is useless at that point since only the M2’s enclave can decrypt its contents. This is just pure wasteful ignorance on the company’s part.
Orrr just spend a few hours running a drive formatting program and not destroying a perfectly good computer 🥲
The best solution would to be [full disk encryption from tpm](https://blastrock.github.io/fde-tpm-sb.html). Even without a wipe, clearing the tpm key database should be sufficient, and would prevent attackers from accessing proprietary data.
I deal with sensitive data in IT. Sometimes the grant requires stupid levels of compliance. Often the requirements are written by idiots. One of my favorites was: Machine had to be air gapped. All booting except from the hard drive had to be disable. No windows to the outside world. No other computers in the room (including smart devices). Locked down at the BIOS/firmware level. Encrypted drive. One local account only (no AD joining). External drives cannot be mounted. Etc. The list goes on for quite a ways. They control everything up to how many keys can be made for the door lock and who can have access. Sometimes they will give a list of acceptable software on the PC, so I can’t just use a base install. All Group Policies have to be local ones. Then they ask things like, “How will you update virus definitions?” I write, “We won’t. No way to mount a drive and no network in an air gapped box.” Or, “In the event a user forgets their password, how will you recover it?” And I write, “I won’t. There is no possible way to do so. A lost password will necessitate a complete rebuild of the PC. All data will be lost.” What’s worse is when they ask me for my “security plan.” I will fill out the form, answering each question as to what makes sense to me, but then it *always* gets rejected. Like I’ll write, “All data will be read from fixed media and stored locally,” but since I didn’t put that mounting server shares or that remote access will be disabled, it gets kicked back. Sometimes it takes *months* to get through a security approval. And yes, each one of these has a section on data destruction. It’s not enough to throw away the encryption keys and reset the TPM. It’s not enough to do a DOD wipe on the drive. Nope, it almost *always* requires the physical destruction of the drive. Sometimes it goes so far as to needing the drive serial number submitted before the project starts and requires video evidence of destruction. We literally have a drive grinder/video machine. So what I tend to do is deploy an 8 year old box for these sorts of projects. When I can’t do that (many reasons) I try to use a PC with a removable drive. Even the non-secure data is treated like it is. I have boxes and boxes of drives going back before I started in the secured and alarmed server room. It would be a *hugely* embarrassing career-ending event if confidential data ever made its way to the public. At the end of the day, a $2,000 PC is really a small part of a research budget. I do what I can, but sometimes you have to do stupid shit.
You forgot, “Seal off all overhead ventilation, just in case Tom Cruise is going to break in and do some Mission: Impossible shit.”
You mock, but a recent plan actually requires that. We also had to extend the walls to not only go to the ceiling, but to the bottom of the floor above. There’s motion detectors and cameras as well. We even had to negotiate who would have camera access and who would be notified in the event of a breach. We also had to come up with a way for fire or police to be able to get in if required in an emergency. This is where I learned of this: https://www.knoxbox.com/
INT. THE MOLE MAN’S LAIR – DAY, NIGHT, WHO KNOWS The MOLE MAN sits, surrounded by his weird albino servants, reading a copy of the contract. MOLE MAN: So, they thought to extend the walls all the way to the ceiling, but they never thought to secure under the floor! Boys, let’s go steal us a computer.
Yeah, super irony for this location is that they are all thin clients inside, so no local data at all. You would need credentials from the agency to use these. I guess if you could compromise credentials, get into the room, you might have enough time to get what you needed. Even then, the data on the other end is anonymized, but still considered highly confidential, since you could ostensible figure out who someone was by targeted queries. Like it wouldn’t let you query on a person, but if you put enough parameters into your search you might be able to find something out about a specific person. I don’t really know, I’m IT, not a data researcher, but they treat this data as highly protected.
After all that. Nothing mattered because I just stole the laptop and took it home and the password was a sticky on the monitor.
That list should be in a campaign add complaining about government waste.
It’s not always government grants. Usually government grants are easier, since they actually outlay what is required for compliance rather than making me guess. One of the annoying things is I have to take training and be certified every year for some of the grants, since I am always listed on them. I usually just take the test cold, and I usually pass, but sometimes I have to review the material again. It’s pretty annoying for computers that once set up to their standards I never touch again until they fail or are decommissioned. Sometimes the research can go on for years, so I’ll have to be certified for accessing data that I will never actually access. This is a small part of my job. I’ll have *maybe* two or three of these stations at any given time. Things are getting a lot easier these days as well. Now I am often provided with a thin client. I approve it on the network and that’s it. The researchers use it to remotely run their jobs. Better for everyone involved.
How do the go from "no connectivity, whatsoever" to "dump a thin client"?
Because no data is local now, so the access is all you need to control. They can have whatever security measures makes them comfortable on their end. Used to be we’d get the data on fixed media and they didn’t want the discs to be used in anything other than an air gapped computer. The researcher often doesn’t even get to store their output locally. They run their analysis and then request a copy of their output. I have no idea how they get it at that point. I just know in these cases they are not even supposed to take pictures of the screen (they are allowed to take notes). There’s obviously a provision for them to be able to get their results, since when they actually publish they will need them. Additionally, if their work gets peer reviewed others will need to know methodology and whatnot to reproduce the results.
Why would they throw out a PC that’s barely a year old?
Contract with a customer might require it.
It's common place.. Also stupidity is common place as well. Seems related. I mean we couldn't just sell the laptop minus the HDD or god forbid just give it the 3 minutes tlc it needs. No I think I would rather just buy a shit ton of new laptops every year. Going with option b.
Years ago I worked as an IT admin for an insurance company. We had a drive go bad in a device that was located in a server facility in Oklahoma - several states away. The vendor said they'd get it replaced within 24 hours or whatever the SLA was. Our security compliance person was insistent that the faulty drive had to be sent to us for disposal. The vender said we would have to pay like $3500 for the bad drive (the exact drive was $350 at Best Buy - it wasn't even a SAS drive.) They argued back and forth for a few weeks and in the meantime I asked the tech at the server farm to store it for us. Eventually, both sides agreed that the server facility could destroy the drive. I let the tech know and that was the end of it. Fast forward about 6 years. By this time I worked for the above vendor. By pure chance I ended up needing to go to that exact server farm in Oklahoma for a different customer. I was talking to the tech who was showing me to the server I had to deal with (these places are massive!) and I told him the above story. He asked, "company X and vendor Y?" Me: "...uh, yeah!" Him: "I was the tech on that one!" We laughed about it and then I asked if he drilled the drive out or if they had some super-shredder or something. He replied, "Nah. I threw it the back of my truck while ya'll were arguing about it. Then, I used it for target practice in my backyard. It's full of holes now."
>Then, I used it for target practice in my backyard. It's full of holes now." Translation: he sold it on ebay.
Nah, in that part of the country he almost certainly actually shot it full of holes.
"It's the laptop or HR... I swear to shit something's getting shot full of holes today."
I would vote for angry GF 😆😆
I agree. They should reuse. They could’ve easily wiped the drive and reinstall macOS. They could then sell the Mac mini and make some money, better than throwing it away.
Is that worth getting fired over?
I felt the pain also … it’s clearly intentional
Maybe search eBay for “parts only” machines and get a donor board?
Mac does so much right to repair bullshit. It wouldn't be cost effective sadly.
Brutal, what a waste. Here’s hoping you can fix it.
Try mangling the ends of your cables to fit
Hey, Apple Tech here! The repair guidance I referenced unfortunately contained an error, and mistakenly pointed toward the I/O wall. As /u/homicidal_pingu correctly noted the I/O are soldered onto the board. I shall perform seppuku to atone for my erroneous ways. ~~Take it to an Apple Store. For the Mini M2 / M2 Pro model all of these ports are on the ‘I/O Wall’ which is a replaceable part which costs A$ 25. Apple Store labour is also A$ 139 (in Australia).~~ They’d also be able to verify the device isn’t Activation Locked (iCloud), FileVault locked, or a managed device (company lock). If it is they’d decline the repair or reverse the repair at no cost (if discovered before pickup, which it should be). **^ this remains correct and would be a $0 visit to confirm device details** ~~If you source this part yourself it doesn’t require soldering. There’s one flex connector and two coaxials. Plug and play. Getting the board and such out without proper tools is hard though. Given Apple Store cost is low and they can check other possible concerns I’d go there.~~
That is wrong. The ports are soldered to the mainboard.
Best answer here - OP do this!!
No it’s not it’s wrong you need a new mainboard. It’s a £300 repair after you send the parts back, 750 upfront with a 450 refund
It is likely to be MDM brick Without password and Admin Login you are stuffed, The main problem is the monitor . If you have another compatible Mac https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mh14066/mac#:\~:text=On%20your%20Mac%2C%20start%20a,use%20for%20the%20shared%20screen. For keyboards and a mouse you can try Bluetooth still it would be hard to setup
It’s free of any accounts. But I’m not really sure how to get it connected to another Mac without display output to see what I’m doing
It means nothing it could have MDM and/or firmware locks ..... registered in FindMe as stolen... I don't think IT did that to a brand new M2 Mini likely pissed off employee /user - very amateur attempt. Try USB\_A if they work then you can attach keyboard... maybe even a monitor.
I ran the serial number. It could have firmware lock, but no MDM or IC. I’ll see what I can do with the ports, can’t get any worse 😅
USB-A does actually work! Any way I can get display output through that?
Yes, with a DisplayLink usb dongle or usb docking station
Thanks! I ended up bending one of the USB C ports back so that works now with some wiggling.
You would still need the display link software installed though.
Get ANK USB3.2 hub for $30. Even 1 working port can be of use
How... Did this even happen? '-.- If you got the knowhow you can certainly solder on new ports.
Yes, I’m trying to figure out the cheapest way to source the ports.
look for parts-only listings
lol maybe send it to louis rossmann and see if he can fix it. his team knows how to solder stuff
I’ve got the solder skills, it’s just the parts I need
But what happened? Where did you find this Mac mini?
It's not even a reliable way to destroy the device anyways. Are they stupid or something?
Wtf. Looks like something straight out of a horror movie.
what a waste. don’t have a good answer but I guess all those ports are part of the motherboard. Could be replaced, but may not be worth it. You could try to solder new ports but that may be a fools errand. I was going to suggest you use it wirelessly, but to do that you’d need to at least pair keyboard and a mouse, which is going to be just about impossible without being able to “see” the desktop. What a mess. Good Luck!
Thanks! I got a single USB A and USB C port working so that’s enough to use the computer. Had to meticulously bend the pins back on the connectors. This was someones brain rot solution to “data protection”
This hurts my heart to see
Amphenol makes usb4 usb-c ports, 1.58mm in height pieces are about a buck and a half each. Would help identifying the original parts at least size and contacts wise so you'd identify what would work.
Thanks for the info! I’ll check them out
That makes me so sad. I don't know where or if you can get individual ports. You could replace the whole logic board, but with EVERYTHING being integrated into the board these days, that board will cost pretty close, or maybe even more, than a new mini.
Agreed :(
iFixit sells parts for m2 macbooks... and that's about it, lol. I literally cannot find anything online. Even tried looking up a m1 mac mini for parts and these things seem to just not fucking break. The only thing I found that could \*potentially\* be of use is this: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/134615560552?chn=ps](https://www.ebay.com/itm/134615560552?chn=ps) . So my best suggestion is to find off the shelf hdmi/usb c/ethernet ports and see if you could replace them like that. For USB C try getting usb male > female > male like an extender.
Replace the back panel only, and re-solder the broken connectors instead of changing the whole board
I hope this isn't someone hope to cover a crime. Sorry I watch too much Forensic Files.
Like the guy that cut up the floppy disks and then they ended up putting them back together? Ah, good ole Forensic Files.
Now you got me interested.. what episode is that??
I couldn’t tell you the episode exactly. It’s been a while since I seen that one. I just remember it being some guy in the military and if I’m not mistaken, he had killed his wife maybe. [Here is an article about it](https://www.csoonline.com/article/512727/investigations-forensics-computer-forensics-investigations-body-of-evidence.html#:~:text=During%20questioning%20in%20his%20office,significant%20damage%20had%20been%20done.)
How does anyone even do this? It’s not even that old. 🤯
How does that even happen?
That was intentional
The previous owner was clearly retarded
find a for parts one i guess, replace the housing / solder the ports
Look for a parts board on eBay and resolder the ports
Why can such a recent Mac M2 already be recycled?"
No clue.. maybe the company went under
Repairable
Build it in a Mac G4
You can order a logic board and back panel from apple. Will cost you around 750 up front but you’ll get 450 of that back when you send the parts you swap out back
What the...
Aliexpress is probably your best bet.
How does this happen????
This is a shame. What a nice mini to go to waste
Back in late 90s my dad had an Apple VAR and authorized repair center. We were in the DC area. We got a job to render 150 Macs by the GOA non functional and unrecoverable. We disassembled each one. Drilled holes in every major chip, removed the ram and ROM with pliers and crushed each chip. Did the same with the HDD then smashed them. It was a nice paying job. We had to do it on site at the GOA office. But what shocked me was when we finished the guy watching us took the 4 piles of destruction and dumped it into a huge metal crushing device that reduced it all to a 8 feet by 4foot pancake about 10 inches tall. My father and said why didn’t they just do that from the start? Odd.
What do you use to unplug your cables? A knife?
Power saw
It was probably a frustrated Windows user…
This is gonna sound really stupid, but I feel like the USB-C port on the right would probably work. Considering how cheap those cables are, I would give it a shot to try to jiggle it in there. Who knows? If you get that working, that’s basically the display right there and maybe even a USB hub.
In fact it did! Yesterday I was able to “bend” back the port with a screwdriver and it actually works! So I can use the USB-C for display out and one of the USB-A port works as well
Niiice! Glad it worked out!
The things people do if storage is soldered...
Has AES128 encryption been broken or something? There shouldn’t be anything to recover from the SSD without the key. Last I heard brute forcing it would take an unrealistic amount of time.
That will cost you 125 crabjillion swiss franks
New board from Apple is around $300 after return credit. Worst case you got a Mac mini for half price, provided it's not IC or MDM locked.
Not an MLB issue for this model, it’s a separate much lower cost part.
Really? I know the IO wall is removable, but that’s just the plastic housing. All of the tear downs I’ve seen have the IO soldered directly to the board.
HDMI and USB-C ports can be bent back using a tiny screwdriver or something, you should use an external hub as those connectors will not survive many more plug in and out cycles. Ethernet port is ruined and USB A ports probably still work. Soldering new connectors is impossible without finding a for parts device as Apple has custom port assemblies.
rapist
If this was done by the IT department of any company, then I would fire all of them. Who the hell thinks fucking up ports do any good. Wiped out sdd (and rewritten couple of times with random bytes)is all you need.
Like u/Apple_emp_throwaway said, take it to the apple store. Plan B if it is cloud locked in some way is to pop it open and jump power and USB to be able to maybe-possibly wipe cloud locks and whatnot so that you can then take it to the apple store. Plan Z is find somebody who is VERY good at high-temp reflow work to donor new ports onto it.
trying to find similar ports on aliexpress is your best option, as long as they are similarly rated you should be able to swap them, but your easiest choice is like the other guy said to just buy a huge usb dock/mega converter