Can't exit Target Disk Mode

I tried to login to my brand new iMac (running Lion 10.7) via Target Disk Mode so as to transfer my data from my old machine. However, the passwords didn't work. This is not a disaster, however, I am now unable to exit Target Disk Mode. I have tried removing RAM and restarting holding down alt+cmd+R+P to reset the PRAM but it just goes straight back to Target Disk Mode. No matter whjat I do it goes back to Target Disk Mode with the padlock and opassword box. Any ideas anyone? Thanks very much.

Is it a USB or wireless KB?
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
nvram boot-args=""

Similar Messages

Gracefully exiting target disk mode?

Hi all,
I just purchased a new 2011 Mac Mini and have been using it in target disk mode for some stuff and was wondering how do I exit target disk mode on the Mac Mini. I eject the Mac Mini from the computer it's connected to and then the only way i've found to exit target disk mode on the Mac Mini is to hold down the power button, but i've always thought this wasn't a good idea to shut off the computer this way or is it acceptable to do this when your booted up into target disk mode?
Just curious maybe there is another way to exit it that i'm overlooking but all I see is the floating Firewire and Thunderbolt icons there isn't any shutdown button or anything.
Thanks for your help

I would not worry about it. Using the power button is the proper way to exit. If for some reason, the shorter ~1 sec press doesn't shut down for you, feel free to hold for the 3-5 force shut down. I've been around mac users for a very long time and have never actually heard of anyone 'actually' have a negative effect (that full reboot couldn't fix) from force shutting down.
I wouldn't lose any sleep over using it.

Can't get Target Disk Mode to work with host computer

Here's the problem. My Powerbook G4 went down a week ago (it's 7 years old) and I suspect the problem is either the hard drive or the portion of the logic board controlling the drive. I also have a Power Mac G4 400 that's running OS 10.4 Tiger. I've been trying to extract some files (that I failed to back up) from the Powerbook via Target Disk Mode using the older Power Mac as the host, however the target disk doesn't show up on the host screen. When I boot up the Powerbook holding the T key, it chimes and the FireWire symbol shows up like it's suppose to, but that's as far as goes. I plan on upgrading to a newer Mac, which would probably work better as a host, but money is a bit tight right now. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If the trouble with the Powerbook is either a failed hard drive or a failed hard drive controller, FireWire Target Disk Mode isn't likely to work with any host computer. What you may want to try is installing data recovery software on the desktop G4 and seeing whether it can see the Powerbook's drive (connected in FWTDM) even though it won't mount. Data recovery software is often able to salvage data from drives that won't mount normally; it may be able to do the same thing via FWTDM.
These three DR utilities are all available in free downloadable demo versions that will show you what the full version would be able to recover before you have to pay for anything:
Data Rescue
FileSalvage
VirtualLab
Good luck.

Can I use Target Disk Mode over USB?

When I enable Target Disk Mode on my MacBook Pro, can I connect that via USB to a PC (which doesn't have FireWire) and use the Mac as an external hard drive?
If not, are there any third-party products which would let me do this?

No. I doubt you can use FW mode on a PC anyway.
The cost of USB or FW external drives is so low buy one for the PC. IF it is formatted FAT32 then the mac and PC can both read and write to it.

Can't see Target Disk Mode

hi - i've had a serious system issue (performed a software update and found myself in darwin mode) which i've been trying (/sbin/ and DU repairs) unsuccessfully resolve. i've resigned myself (because of the two "illegal name" errors which keep cropping up) to disk warrior (fingers crossed) and/or the genius bar. before my visit, i'm attempting to back up the old, problematic HD to my powerbook via firewire/target mode and i can't seem to see it. any tricks to try? (i know the target mode is working b/c i was able to see my OS X install disk, but not the hard drive.) thanks in advance! cw

hi! well, ran file to give permission with DW and my comp ate it up (yummy!) but still only resolved to a blue screen (no Darwinland, but still no Macland either!) tried a few tricks michael coniff outlined in this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=320663 but to the same end (static blue screen).
AND still no luck with target mode to back up (and the DW disk showed up so i know it's working). any other tricks up your sleeve? tried to figure out DVD cord. do you mean the DVI to VGA cord? if so, where does it go? i can find the male side, but not the female input on the powermac. pls. drop a line re. this if you can. thinking about dropping a line to michael above just to show him the console code i'm seeing to see if he can decipher. i'll bore you if you're interested, but since i'm way beyond the bounds of my initial “target” question, just let me know.
thanks for all - have a lovely evening! cw

Is it possible to install OSX on another computer via Target disk mode?

Hey there...
a friend of mine has an older iBook. the drive on this iBook is broken (snapped off) so there's no way of using it.
is it possible to install OS Panther from another computer (use OS X panther install running on a MacBook, or G4) targeting the iBook via Target Disk mode?
thanks!
-

Hello Again SCHPiLKAS!
As roam posted, you cannot use the Intel MacBook install discs, on the PPC iBook.
Additional info in these links.
Using OS X Install CDs/DVDs On Multiple Macs
What's A Computer Specific Mac OS X Release
Software Update, Upgrade: What's The Difference?
If the iBook meets the Panther System Requirements, and the Additional Panther System Requirements, and you have a Full Retail Version, of the Panther Install CDs, you can use Firewire Target Disk Mode, to install the system.
The Panther discs should look, exactly like the images in the above links, and not say Upgrade, CPU Drop-in DVD, or "This software is part of a hardware bundle purchase - not to be sold seperately." on them.
ali b

When/Why is TARGET DISK mode necessary?

I am hoping for some frank and practical advice from the Mac Gurus.
The background is that I am about a year and a half into a move to mac from a "PC" (really Windows XP on Boot Camp on my Mac Pro) and I now have both the MacPro running Snow Leopard and the MacBookPro running Snow Leopard.
I had a heck of a time with permissions and other assorted complications in trying to get my data MOVED from the PC environment and now I am finding that I still have assorted issues (various errors and permissions and file in use etc) in MOVING data from the MBP to the MacPro. My routine now is to COPY data from one machine to the other machine and then to go back and DELETE the folder on the originating computer. I do this because if I force a move by holding the option key down, I find that I am a total and complete loss as to WHAT has been moved and what has not been moved and if the folder that was being moved has multiple SUB-FOLDERS with files in them it is almost impossible for me to determine how to recover from this - effectively - crash. Previous advice has been to simply do an Undo but this is impractical in the sense that I cannot stop my day simply because I want to move a folder that will take a couple of minutes.
Also, I am now trying to make sure that I PLUGIN to Ethernet and TURN OFF the Wifi in order to make sure that I am moving data via Ethernet.
To be honest the decision to COPY data is a new one and I am not sure how effective this is going to be but I have been running into a lot of errors when I was force moving data. This always seemed to me to be a much "cleaner" way to do this since it meant I was not open to the possibility of making a mistake as to what had been moved already (in a hectic day or with a long time for a copy of data) and it also seemed to me to be a good check that everything had been copy-moved since the computer was deleting the originating folder, instead of my doing it manually.
Anyway, long story short -
1. Are there any "cleaner upper routines' that I should be running on these two machines to prevent these various errors and/or to check that everything on each machine is copascetic?
2. /When/ do you decide to boot into Disk Mode and do you basically check the size of your large folders before Moving or Copying Data in order to do this? I assume you can only use target disk mode in firewire is that right?
3. How do folks work in a large networked office with big amounts of data moving around? I mean, is my experience typical and if not, why am I having such difficulty with this?
Thanks for any advice

See mount section in 1st linked article.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal

Target Disk Mode issue

I tried to use new Intel iMac, the host, (with OSX 10.6.2) to access hard disk in old iMac G5, the target, (with OSX 10.4) using a Firewire cable (800 at Intel iMac and 400 at G5 iMac). I can get the Firewire floating icon running at G5's monitor, but I cannot get the G5 hard disk mounted at Intel iMac.
Here are what I found:
1) At the Intel iMac, I can see the Target Disk Mode is on under "Hardware Overview" "Firewire."
2) Firewire icon is not floating all the time. Sometimes, it stops moving.
3) If I have target iMac to stay on and restart the host with the Firewire cable connected, the boot process at the host will slow down and cannot get past log in window.
4) Tried disconnect and reconnect cable, and the hard disk still cannot be mounted.
Since I cannot boot the G5 by itself (with its hard disk only or Tiger disk), I thought Target Disk mode was the solution for me to get the files out of the old iMac. At the moment, it is not working, please suggest solution.

Simon (UK) wrote:
Tried to use new Intel iMac, the host, (with OSX 10.6.2) to access hard disk in old iMac G5, the target, (with OSX 10.4) *using a Firewire cable (800 at Intel iMac and 400 at G5 iMac).*
I would question this method of connecting?
Try using an external hard drive and SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner to clone to it. Then use that 400 drive, which probably has 800 also, to connect directly to your new Mac and then transfer via Migration Assistant. If you already set a home folder make sure it is identical to the Home folder you are transferring from or else it will create a second user.
-mj

Why can't Disk Utility wipe my old iMac in Target Disk Mode?

I want to donate my old iMac G3 with all my personal data removed.
As all my old start up disks are long gone I went online and followed advice to wipe it remotely. I connected the G3 via FireWire to my 15" MacBook Pro (late 2008, running OSX Lion 10.7.5) and restarted the G3 in Target Disk Mode. I opened Disk Utility, selected the drive (not the iMac partition), selected Erase, renamed the drive and chosen the 7 pass option. And waited...
After leaving it overnight, I awoke to find it was still preparing. I then Skipped that stage (it gave me the option) and left it for 24 hours. It was still skipping, so I had to Force Quit Disk Utility. The G3 is perfectly fine, and Disk Utility works as I just erased a memory stick as a test.
What's going on?

You need to do the following:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Only use a single-pass to zero the data. Any more is overkill and will take many hours to complete.

Can you install tiger on a power mac g4 with out a DVD drive if so how, I do have have a 2011 iMac can I use that in target disk mode with a FireWire cable any help would be appreciated

Can you install tiger on a power mac g4 with out a DVD drive if so how, I do have have a 2011 iMac can I use that in target disk mode with a FireWire cable any help would be appreciated

Hello,
You need to put the Tiger Install Disc in the 2011 iMac, boot the 2011 uMac into Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Boot the G4 holding the Option or alt key, hopefully the Install Disc in the 2011 iMac will show as a boot choice.
We just want to use the 2011 iMac as a big expensive FW Optical drive, it cannot be installed osing the 2011 iMac itself.

Can I install FROM a working iMac TO an iMac in Target Disk Mode?

Hi.
I have a distressed iMac - it's in Target Disk Mode (the Firewire logo is on its screen), and it's hooked up to another iMac. I can see and navigate to the distressed Mac's hard drive via the good one. Can I insert the SL install disk on the good mac and install it on the bad one? I've tried the other way...but the distressed iMac stalls out when booting the install disk visa-versa.
The distressed iMac's internal optical drive is dead, and for some reason it WILL NOT recognized an external firewire/usb optical drive.
Thanks.

Sure, the working mac should see the other one as a firewire connected hard drive, nothing more - so long as the working one is an intel, and the target drive is partitioned suitably; 10.6 ought to install no problem.

My account, my files, but can't see them in Target Disk mode?

I have a desktop machine and a laptop (PowerMac G5, Intel MacBook) both running 10.4.11. When the laptop is connected to the desktop in Target Disk mode, I can't see my laptop user account's desktop files, or files in the Document and other folders. I make clone backups of the laptop onto an external drive using SuperDuper, and have this problem in that environment as well. I understand that this is about account permissions etc. but how can I get access to an (admin) account that I myself manage?
SuperDuper tells me that it is because the short names for the accounts are different. Should I take the drastic step of using the utility ChangeShortName to change one of the names? Or is there a more ordinary fix?
Thank you--
Hester

Thank you Niel, for your suggestion.
However, it does not seem to do the trick. I did allow "All others" full read/write access to the account's Desktop, Documents, and other folders, but when I restarted the laptop in Target Disk Mode, the red minus signs are still there and I still get the message telling me I do not have sufficient access privileges. I am able to see the files in the account on the laptop that has the same short name as the account I'm using on the desktop, which is why I asked about changing the short name.
I am the administrator of both computers but have different account names for the primary accounts I use on each. This is a problem to me in Tiger. I used to be able to transfer files easily from the laptop when it was in Target Disk Mode.

Can a MacBook Pro with Leopard be Target Disk mode to take my Snow Leopard iMac data?

I might be going about this wrong, but I wonder if it can be done: I have an older MacBook Pro that has a clean fresh install of Leopard on it. I would like to get my current account and data from my iMac (running Snow Leopard) on to the MBP by using Target Disk Mode. I tried to take saId data off the iMac by target disking it ( FROM iMac TO macbook ) but that gave me a warning about going from a newer operating system down to an older one. Soooo... can I go in the other direction and target disk the laptop? Somehow, I don't think that is really the best way to do it. I do not have the Snow Leopard install disk anymore, so I can't upgrade the laptop. But is that what I am really going to have to do, to do this right? Thanks!

You can't migrate a user account from a later OS to an earlier one.
You can use TDM to move your data by drag & drop, but you won't be able to retain all preferences.
Easiest way would be to put the MBP in TDM and use Disk Utility from the iMac to erase the Macintosh HD on the MBP and then use the Restore function to clone the whole system from the iMac to the MBP.
But there are caveats - If the OS on the iMac was installed originally from a retail SL disc (white with white cat on it) this should work fine.
But - if the OS on the iMac is the one it shipped with (installed from a grey disc), it won't have the battery management software required by the MBP.
In that case your choices are limited to manually moving your data from your home folder to the new account on the MBP, or buy a retail SL disc and upgrade the MBP then use setup assistant to transfer the user and applications.
As always, I would recommend backing up your data from the iMac to an external drive before starting any of this.

Can u boot from a Mac in target disk mode

I'm wanting to know if I put a Mac mini in target disk mode, can I boot from that Mac mini from my MacBook Pro. I'm wanting to set up a mini as a server but it may have to be the basic and ill install server on it but I prefer to do it without using a monitor. I'm curious to know if its possible.

You don't need a monitor with the MM, and neither boot in Target Mode. Like me, use screen sharing for remote access over the network:
On the MM, -> System Preferences -> Sharing, there check Remote Management and choose which user, if not all, may have access. If you're not the only one, you can limit access for each user under Options.
Under -> System Preferences -> Energy Saver, it makes sense to check Wake for network access.
Then you can log out from the MM, leave it sitting at the login screen and turn off or disconnect its screen.
On the remote Mac, open Finder and find the MM under Shared. Click in it, then on Share Screen. You'll need to enter the login credentials for your account on the MM, eventually save it to your Keychain. Then your MM's login screen should appear in a window on your remote Mac. You have now full access to the MM.

Can't Connect to Laptop in Target Disk Mode

I start my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.8.5) in Target Disk Mode, and connect to my iMac (OSX 10.9.4) with an ethernet cable, I am NOT able to see the MacBook Pro on my iMac desktop. I need mount the hard disk onto the desktop in order to do a SuperDuper backup.
I know the ethernet cable is connecting, because I can start the MacBook Pro normally, turn on file sharing, and then I can see files and folders from the iMac.
Why can't I mount the MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode?

OK thanks.
My iMac has Thunderbolt, my MacBook Pro (17" vintage 2010) has Firewire. I assume then that there is no way to directly connect one to the other using Target Disk Mode, correct? Any other solution?

Can't exit Target Disk Mode

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