10.3.9 No target disk mode keyboard command??

Hi,
So I have an old PowerMac G4 and it has like 120 GB, so i will like to use as another external HDD and the problem is that i have no monitor nearby so i can't restart it from the system preference menu. i hooked up a keyboard and press at startup la letter "T" and nothings happens it doesn't appear on the desktop of my MacBook (nor in disk utility) and i know for sure the computer is fine. Any ideas?
thanks in advance,
-Victor

Is your computer in this list?
Target computers
The following models can be used as target computers:
iMac (Slot Loading) with Firmware version 2.4 or later
iMac (Summer 2000) and all models introduced after July 2000
eMac (all models)
Mac mini (all models)
Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) with ATA drive
Power Mac G4 Cube
Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) and all models introduced after July 2000
Power Mac G5 (all models)
iBook (FireWire) and all models introduced after September 2000
MacBook (all models)
PowerBook G3 (FireWire)
PowerBook G4 (all models)
MacBook Pro (all models)
To boot into TDM you restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the "T" key until the TDM screen appears.
How to use FireWire target disk mode
Important: Unplug all other FireWire devices from both computers prior to using FireWire target disk mode. Do not plug in any FireWire devices until after you have disconnected the two computers from each other, or have stopped using target disk mode.

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Migration Assistant, Target Disk Mode and Bluetooth Keyboards

Wanted to migrate my iMac setup to a new MBP last night. Kept trying to start up my iMac in target disk mode and it would only boot normally not in TD. Finally realized that my bluetooth keyboard was the culprit in that it wasn't connected once the iMac shut off for the restart. Thankfully I had a wired keyboard; plugged it in and migration went as advertised. Nowhere (that I could find) in the Migration Asst. prompts does it mention anything about needing a wired keyboard to restart as a TD. Did I miss something basic? If not, shouldn't Apple make mention of this to avoid confusion and frustration?
BTW, the new MBP rocks!

Yes, that tidbit of info is buried in a support article, as is some other Migration Assistant documentation. But it would be far better if the app had its own comprehensive, searchable Help built into it, just like most other apps from Apple. Note that when you launch Migration Assistant, there isn't even a Help menu, nor are there any question mark in purple circle icons in its windows to offer context sensitive help.
Basically, that's what I requested in my feedback to Apple.

How do I start-up in Target Disk mode without a keyboard ....?

I am trying to start-up an iMac 700 G4 flatpanel in Target Disk mode without a USB keyboard ... the machine is running Mac OS X.3 Panther & the system prefernces do not include the start-up in Target mode feature that Mac OS X.4 Tiger has ...
Actually, I do have a bluetooth keyboard which works fine once I get to the desktop - but the keyboard will not pair quick enough to register the 'T' hold-down before the system boots up ...
Q: Is there another way I can get this machine to boot in Target mode ...?
Maybe a terminal command ....?
I am not so savvy with Terminal - but if someone can step me thru it (v e r y s l o w l y) - you will have my sincerest gratitude ...;-)
Nutshell: Firewire Target startup between iMac 700 running Panther with no keyboard - to G5 PowerMac running Tiger ....

Niel ....
That's so helpful!! very happy mate - thank you ....
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Q1: How do I reset the PRAM without a keyboard ...?
Q2: What is the Open Firmware reset command via a 'hard-pressed' power-up using the Power button at the rear of machine ...?
... I still cannot pair my Bluetooth Keyboard early enough to register a PRAM reset (Opt Cmd P+R) at start-up (as per instructions by the authour) before the system boots back into the 'fixed Target mode ...
Any suggestions ...? ... or can anyone else assist ...?
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Best,
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Mac Mini won't Boot after Target Disk Mode

We just bought a new iMac and used target disk mode via firewire from our older Mac Mini running OSX 10.4 to transfer data. Now when we go to restart the mini, the grey screen appears with apple logo and it seems to try to boot up but after a long time alway just ends up with a blue screen. I don't think I "ejected" the mini properly from the imac after the target disk mode transfer. Could the mini be stuck in target disk mode? I've tried to restart in different modes eg. safe mode, pram by holding down keys on start up but doesnt make a difference at all almost as if the keyboard isn't registering (and its a wired keyboard). Any ideas???
Thanks

Try starting up from the Recovery Partition holding the Option (Alt) key and see if you can Repair your Macintosh HD, as per > OS X: About OS X Recovery

Power Mac G4 1.25Dual shuts down when pressing T for target disk mode

I am hoping someone might be able to help me with this. I am trying to put my G4 dual 1.25Ghz into target disk mode to transfer my apps and settings to my new Quad G5. I start the G4, hold "t", and instead of showing me the comforting bouncing firewire symbol, the computer shuts down completely. Restarting it without holding "t" will result in normal bootup. I have tried a different keyboard and power cable to no avail. I have reset open firmware, reset the PMU all to no avail. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the response Dale. Unfortunately the computer I am putting into Target Disk Mode (The G4 1.25Dual) definitely has an ATA bus. I use target disk mode with other computers in the studio almost daily so was somewhat surprised to see that this one just shuts down instead. I am still hoping someone might have some insight.

Firewire Target Disk mode confusion

Alright, so after 1.5yrs my PowerMac decides to crash...after spending time on phone with Apple support and internet, only option is complete reinstall. So I was told about Firewire Target Disk Mode and the ability to transfer all data from crashed computer to a working one, and after reading countless post on this forum as well as others, Im still a little bit in the grey on which is the Host and which is the target, so I felt that I would see if I could get a case-specific answer from my friends here...
If please could someone select correct answer.
Both computers off, start the (crashed/working) computer while holding the "T" key.
Also, is there any way I could cause any data loss to the working computer? Its my roommates and it would be terrible in if fixing mine it destroyed his!!!
PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Thank you very much in advance...and please flame me if I didnt make any sense, but hopefully will understand what Im trying to do and help a desperate man out. Thanks again!!!

I'm still a little bit in the grey on which is the Host
and which is the target, so I felt that I would see
if I could get a case-specific answer from my friends
here...
The "Target" in Target Disk Mode ("TDM") is the computer that is placed into TDM. The paradigm is that, by booting the TDM computer with the "T" key depressed, it becomes just a fancy Firewire disk (with the TDM icon on the screen) just like any other Firewire disk, and can be mounted on any other working Macintosh computer (the "Host") as an external drive.
In most cases (but not yours), it actually can be done with either computer as the "Host" and the other one as the TDM (Target). Because you can't boot your computer, it will have to be the Target so that the boot ROM can do the Firewire magic to make the drive be a Firewire TDM drive.
If please could someone select correct answer.
Both computers off, start the (crashed/working)
computer while holding the "T" key.
In your case (see above), it should be the "crashed" computer that is put into TDM mode by booting with the T key depressed.
Also, is there any way I could cause any data loss to
the working computer?
Oh sure, just like you could operating on any Computer. You could drag all of the files on the Host computer to the trash, and many would go there (some would need the admin password). You could erase the disk (Mac OS won't let you erase the boot disk, but you could boot from a CD/DVD on the Host computer and erase the boot drive. And you could make the mistake of copying the files from the TDM drive (the crashed computer) on top of similar but possibly different files on the Host. But connecting the TDM computer as a mounted drive, without more, won't cause data loss. It will require some mistake by the person at the keyboard (you).
Hope this helps,
Russ

G5 won't boot but will go to target disk mode

Hi,
Well it started like this: suddenly a dark grey veil lowered across the screen with a notice in several languages saying "you must restart your mac" (or something to that effect). I panicked and pressed the power button, the mac shut down.
I started it again but it only got as far as the grey Apple screen and then sat there for a while until the fans started ramping up in the famous jet engine style. I shut it down again.
I have tried starting it:
In single user mode = no joy, same as above
In safe mode = some text on a black background, keyboard not functional, fans start going crazy again.
In target disk mode = everything exactly as one might expect, all files accessable, fans ticking over normally.
I have attached an ibook to it, booted the G5 in Target disk mode and run disk utility, repair, but it reported the disk "could not be unmounted". There was a lot of clicking from the G5 though so I assume something happened. I then ran "verify" and it reported that everything was fine.
The G5 still won't start, exhibiting the same symtoms as before.
Anyone got any ideas?
Cheers,
Cliff

Hi Cliff, and a warm welcome to the forums!
See if any of this gives us more clues....
How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939
PM G5 won't start...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2173

My G4 AGP won't startup after turning on firewire target disk mode

Can any one help me on this? I have a G4 AGP Graphics Mac running 10.4.11.
I turned on firewire target disk mode in the startup utilities to transfer files to my G5. The G4 started up in Firewire just fine and I could open it up as a drive on my G5, but the problem now is that the G4 won't startup in anything but firewire mode.
So my question is: How do you shut off the firewire target disk mode? I have tried all the keyboard commands at startup and inserted the Tiger install disk and holding the C key, but nothing will let me get me passed the Firewire Icon at startup.
Any help would be appeciated, Thanks.

Hi Steve, and a warm welcome to the forums!
More things to try...
Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMDOption+of ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
reset-nvram (press Enter)
set-defaults (press Enter)
reset-all (press Enter)
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Tried resetting the PMU?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

Using Mac Pro in Target Disk Mode Connected to MacBook Pro

Hi all,
I am trying to set up two macs to run off of the same monitors/keyboard/mouse/etc. I know about KVMs, but they are too expensive for my current setup.
I want to know if it's possible to run a 2006 Mac Pro in target disk mode connected to a brand new MacBook Pro 13" via a firewire to thunderbolt converter.
I would need to access the files, but also run the applications from the Mac Pro on the MacBook Pro.
Would such a setup work? Would I have to reboot each time I wanted to switch machines? Would there be a significant lag in the Mac Pro's performance?
Any tips or links to articles/etc. would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

Hi Niel,
Thanks for the speedy response.
I should have clarified that I know that I can access the drive like a firewire drive. I'm more curious as to whether I can either:
1. use it's applications in target disk mode (based on your answer -- No, unless all the necessary system components are identical between the two computers).
2. Boot from the Target Disk computer as if it were a separate drive of my main computer. If so, since this is Firewire and not SATA, will I notice a severe loss of processing power?
Nick

Can't boot in target disk mode

I have launched Migration Assistant and attached a 400-800 firewire cable between my new iMac and my PowerMac G4. When I try to restart the G4 in target disk mode (either by holding down the T key or choosing target disk mode in System Preferences), it dies after a few seconds - never mounting.
I have followed the suggestions in the Apple document relating to troubleshooting target disk mode - no other firewire cables attached, keyboard plugged into computer not display, no firmware password required.
I will not use Migration Assistant to move applications, but I do want to move my user account. Any suggestions? Otherwise I will try migrating from the backup hard drive instead.

you can try migrating via ethernet. that does not require rebooting. connect the computers by an ethernet cable and migrate. if that does not want to work either do it via an external drive. you seem to have one. back up the G4 to the external and migrate from that. the backup should be either a bootable clone or a TM backup. you can make a bootable clone using CCCloner, Superduper or the restore tab in disk utility.

Old G5 won't start in target disk mode.

I'm trying to migrate from my old G5 (2003) to a 'new' (second-hand) G5. When I run Migration Assisstant on the new one and it asks me to start the old machine in target disk mode the old machine won't boot up. I have wireless keyboard and have tried pressing 't' on start up to no avail so I have also tried rebooting via the 'Start Up' pane of System Preferences. When I do this it boots up to the blue screen with yellow firewire logo then after less than a second it powers down.
There are no other firewire devices plugged in and as far as I can tell all the firmware etc is up to date (Software Update runs every week)
Grateful for anyone who has any ideas.
Matt.

Hi Matt-
No chime is significant.....
It would be best to reset the PRAM on the old G5. This is best done with a wired keyboard, though you can try it with the wireless (may not work). Hold the CommandOption+PR keys and startup. Hold the keys until you hear the second startup chime, then release. The machine should then continue on to boot normally.
After the PRAM reset, the Startup chime should be restored, and, hopefully, so will Firewire Target Disk mode.

MP really heats up in target disk mode

I understand that, since my computer is not controlled by OS when in Target Disk Mode, the fans will run to prevent overheating.
What I don't understand is, why does the machine actually start running so hot, when I'm not engaging the RAM, processors, video, etc. Is there anything I can do?
I can't measure internal temp, because it's in target disk mode, but it feels as hot as if I'm compressing video, running large audio apps, crunching Flash, etc.

Maybe this won't help you, but rather than run it in FW Target Mode, the setup I use is quite simply have the Mac Pro Quad and the PPC G5 Quad Power Mac on the same Ethernet network, and I can access each of them indistictly from either one.
The temperatures remain very cool in both machines, as measured by Hardware Monitor on each computer.
The two machines share the same keyboard, mouse and tablet through a simple USB switch, and the dual, side-by-side monitors have front panels input switches, so the two machines share them too.
Since I have no clue as to why you use FW Target Mode, it's entirely possible my arrangement would be of no use to you.
In any case, just my ¢2.

Target Disk Mode won't see my dvd

Hi,
I have a iMac (2011, Mac OS X 10.7.4) with the dvd of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) in it, that is in firewire target disk mode.
This one is connected to a iMac G4 Flat Panel (1ghz, 1,25 SDRAM, Mac OS X 10.4.11) to install leopard on it.
Now my iMac G4 can see my hard drive of the new iMac but don't see any dvd/cd/...
anyone knows a solution for this?
Thanks in advance
Spywurm

Hi, cavenet -
I know Apple added 128+ GB support to the ATA bus halfway through a model, but if this is the older version, why does it report the higher number in some placess?
Your G4 533MHz machine is a G4 (Digital Audio) model. Native large drive support for drives larger than 128GB was not added until the second model series (the 2002 models) of the QuickSilver machines.
I suspect the differences in reporting have to do with what OSX is capable of 'seeing' and its attempt to tell the truth, vs. the hardware limitation of the built-in ATA controller.
Re the FwTDM problem, be sure you are using an Apple keyboard, or one which specifically supports standard Mac OS startup commands. Not all 3rd-party keyboards support those.

Tech question - Target Disk Mode

Will the new MacBooks have some form of Target Disk Mode? I just want to be sure when deciding on which model to buy.
Is it available via USB/Ethernet?
Anyone with a definitive answer (not speculation). I'm guessing I'll have to wait until someone reviews a model, but thought I'd ask.

I don't see too many issues with not having Firewire/TDM on the new Macbooks...
If you're wanting Firewire so that you can connect a camcorder, then a new Macbook is probably not the computer for you anyway. If you're a high end user (aka - Final Cut user) then you probably should be using a Macbook Pro which does have Firewire. If you're an educational user, you're probably in the market for the cheapest model Macbook in which case you should get the White Macbook.
If you're using Firewire so that you can rescue data from a broken new Macbook, then the hard disks are very easily removed from these and put into either another new Macbook/Macbook Pro, or into an external SATA 2.5" case with whatever interface(s) you might want.
If you're using it simply as a one off to migrate data from another computer, then you can use the migration assistant over a network.
The ONLY issues I really see are:
1) Migrating over a network is slower though if both Macs had gigabit, then in theory, a crossover network cable is quicker than FW400
2) The Migration assistant when run from the finder lacks the ability to migrate from an attached USB drive, only a FW drive. This is annoying if you say put the HD from the old Mac into an external case with USB for example
3) The Migration assistant from what I can see can only import data from an old Mac over the network if it is running Leopard. I can't see anywhere that the Tiger Migration assistant allows migrating over a network... maybe it does?
You have to remember that Apple isn't going to be able to support all technologies forever... If given a choice, I'd rate the new Macbooks (and old Macbooks) ease of HD removal a far more important aspect from a troubleshooting perspective than say having a Mac with a FW port and a difficult to remove HD (remember iBooks anyone?)
I would like Apple to either release a downloadable Tiger compatible Migration Assistant to fill the void as per no 3 above. I would have also liked Apple to have put 3 USB ports on the Macbook rather than just the two as I like to have an external keyboard, mouse, time machine backup disk, ipod/iphone. I like to leave the second port on the keyboard for incidental use - digital camera, pendrive, printer etc etc.

Target Disk Mode HELP!

Hi everyone, my wife's 12" aluminum G4 Powerbook has died. The only thing I can get it to do is go to Target Disk Mode. Otherwise it just goes gray apple screen on startup (running 10.4.x).
I have it connected to my host computer, an old Beige Box G3 I added firewire and usb to. It is running 10.2.8. I've used it as a host for a powerbook before with no issues.
My issue this time is that the host will not show the icon for the powerbook on the screen! I can't find it on the desktop or finder. That said, it does show in the system profiler, and I found it in Disk Utility, though it just freezes up the old machine when I try and choose it.
Any suggestions for a long-time Mac'r?
Thanks
Sam

Hey Tom! I'm going crazy here, I have my Mac plugged into the same screen as our Dell tower, with two keyboards and two mice. Then a laptop on the desk as well. I am going crazy trying to remember which input device to use!
I have had success using the G3 as a host. However, it was before I had 10.3 installed on anything I think...and before 10.4 for sure!
How do I check and be sure I have Firewire 2.3.3?
Thanks
Sam (wrong mouse again!)

10.3.9 No target disk mode keyboard command??

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