How do I get the data off my Mac Mini to a safe place before I wipe/replace the disk?

I need help to backup and restore the main data partition on my 2018 Mac Mini running Sequoia 15.7.2.


Time Machine stopped running a few days ago. The error says it couldn't create snapshot of "Macintosh SSD" which is the system disk.


I have run First Aid on the disk and all partitions whilst in Safe Mode, but that fails. I infer that the disk is either failing is so badly corrupted at some level that it needs to be reformatted.


The question is, "How do I get my data off to a safe place before I wipe/replace the disk?"

Mac mini, macOS 15.7

Posted on Nov 24, 2025 5:17 AM

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How do I get the data off my Mac Mini to a safe place before I wipe/replace the disk?

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