Subject: MacBook Pro (2017, macOS Sierra) Hard Drive Access and Data Recovery Issue

Dear all,

I am writing to seek advice regarding a recent technical issue.

My 2017 Mac (running OS Sierra) is no longer able to boot from the internal hard drive (HDD/SSD). I can only start it in Recovery Mode, but I am unable to access the files needed to copy them to an external drive before performing a clean reinstallation of the operating system.

I have already attempted the following troubleshooting steps:

• Attempted to repair the disk using Disk Utility, but the process failed.
• Tried to start the system using an external bootable USB stick (with a macOS installer), but the installation process consistently freezes approximately one minute before completion.

I am currently unsure of the best way to proceed and am considering two main options for data recovery:

1. Creating a bootable USB drive with a Linux distribution to attempt to mount the Mac disk's damaged partition and copy the files to an external drive.
2. Connecting the faulty Mac to another working Mac in Target Disk Mode (or equivalent) to view its disk as an external drive and then perform the file copy.

I would appreciate advice on which of the two solutions would be the safest and most effective for successfully retrieving my data.

Thank you in advance to everyone who takes the time to answer this question.