Once your machine is in a state where data is accessible, there are a few ways to retrieve it that aren’t just dragging and dropping every file or folder you want onto another storage medium.

If you want to transfer entire user accounts, apps and settings included, Migration Assistant is Apple’s tool for doing this.

Using Migration Assistant is possible with all methods outlined in this Guide aside from using Terminal commands. Terminal will bypass the need for this and copy items directly.

This method does not apply for Apple Silicon Macs since Share Disk Mode does allow to attached device to be recognized as a startup disk.