Connect 2 Macs w/ Firewire. Not Target disk mode.

I have a PowerBook and an early 09 iMac 24". I used to connected them via firewire to transfer files. Suddenly... the iMac won't recognize the PowerBook... but the Powerbook will recognize the iMac. Actually, the iMac does recognize the PB, but only shows the "drop box" folder.
Is there anyway to configure a firewire connection or something else I might have overlooked? I'm not interested in target disk mode.

Sorry to take awhile to get back to you. I had no experience with connecting two Macs with FireWire, except with TDM. But today I have played around with connecting my iMac and my Mac mini with a FW cable directly.
I assume that you did two things in System Preferences that facilitate this connection; 1. you have created the FireWire network in the Network pane, and 2. you have enabled File Sharing in the Sharing pane. The only other thing to do is make sure that you have selected Bonjour computers in the Shared section of the Sidebar pane of the Finder Preferences.
Then, no matter which style of windows you use for the Finder; icons, list, columns or Cover Flow, you should be presented with a Connect button if you highlight the other computer in a Finder window's Sidebar.

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Disk Permissions changed after connecting mac via firewire on Target Disk Mode.

I have connected 2 macbook pros using firewire in target disk mode and the permissions on the destination macbook pro have changed. Now when I try to start the macbook pro, it stays on the grey screen and the apple sign changes to a prohibitory sign, therefore I cant log in.
Please help!
Thanks

I am unable to perform a safe boot, it simply wont happen.
I tried to start from mac osx install disk and that works so I am able to go disk utility, I can run 'verify disk' and 'repair disk' and it shows that everything is ok, however, I cant 'verify disk permissions' or 'repair disk permissions' as both are greyed out because 'the selected disk is not mounted'. I try mounting but that wont work either, I am told to 'disk can not be mounted, run first aid first and then retry'.
Furthermore, I try to perform 'archive and install' so I follow these instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710
But on number 7, intead of being able to choose volume to install to, there is nothing I can choose! There is no list. And of course I cant continue.
Any help is appreciated!

Power Mac G4 stuck in Target Disk Mode

The other night I put my Gigbit Ethernet into Target Disk Mode so I could migrate my files to a newer machine (a mirrored drive door G4 with dual 1.42mhz processors). After the migration was complete (which took 9 hours), I tried ejecting the target disk but got a perpetual spinning beach ball and had to force everything off. Unfortunately, either because my newer machine came with a faulty Tiger installation, or my migration messed the installation up - the finder kept crashing and things such as "Get Info" wasn't working- I had to endeavor to get a working version of Tiger on the newer machine. I wanted to clone my older drive to my newer drive.
Futzing around for over an hour to try to gain access to my old Power Mac's hard Disc, which was still, according to the bouncing Icon on the screen, in target disk mode, I could not access the drive at all from the newer machine. When I tried, such as by double clicking on its desktop icon, by right clicking on the same Icon, or if I went into the system preferences to change the startup disk with the gigabit ethernet attached, I got the perpetual spinning beach ball. Also, I could not access the drive from the disk utility app that is on the Tiger install DVD. Luckily, I had a pretty fresh bootable backup of the gigabit ethernet on a firewire drive that I cloned to my newer computer. I just have a handful of files that I want to transfer from the gigabit ethernet if I had my drothers.
Am I screwed here? Is there a way to force my Gigabit Ethernet out of Target Disk Mode without hooking it up to another computer? If it's possible to get the Gigabit Ethernet to boot again successfully, I can transfer my file over my network. Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers

I am confused...it sounds to me like what you wish to do is to make an exact copy of the hard disk in your Gigabit Ethernet and apply that copy to the drive in your MDD, correct?
From what I understand, you are saying you cannot access your GE's hard disk using target disk mode? Or am I mistaken? Also, can you not boot up normally on the GE's hard disk? Is there something wrong with it?
The easiest way to clone a disk is to just make a disk image of the hard disk you wish to keep, and then apply that disk image to the destination disk. Disk utility can perform all this very easily, and pretty quickly. Of course, if you are having trouble booting in target disk mode, this can be a problem...
I'm still kind of confused on what exactly is the problem, and what you are trying to accomplish. Could you please explain a little more and answer the questions above? Much appreciated.

Mac shuts down in target disk mode

So I finally replaced my old iMac G4 with a shiny new MacBook Pro. But I've run into problems while attempting to copy user data over during the setup assistant process. I connect the two computers using a firewire cable. I put the old iMac into target disk mode. The PowerBook recognizes all my settings and lets me choose what to copy over. But every time the MacBook Pro starts copying data from the old iMac, the old iMac shuts down. Any ideas?

Don't quite know. Anything in Apple doc.#58583 help?
Perhaps you are using the wrong procedure?
 DALE

G4 PM will not boot after using Target Disk mode connected Intel iMac.

Hi,
We have some new Intel iMacs and have transferred some information from our previous G4 PM (one MDD and one Quicksilver) to the new iMacs. For some reason the G4's will now not boot up and kernal panic on the gray Apple boot screen. This has happened to all the G4's we have in our office. They are running OSX 10.2.8 and the iMacs are running OSX 10.4.4. We can still mount the drives from the G4's using FireWire Target Disk mode.
I have tried zapping the PRAM etc but they still wont boot. I have also tried running the OSX 10.2 Installer disks to try and reinstall OSX on the G4's but the installer cannot see the drives?
Anyone have any idea what is wrong. Never had this problem before using the FireWire transfer.
Thanks,
Nick.

I had an experience with a mini mac after booting in target disk mode while connected to a blue and White G3 via Firewire. After attempting a restart, all I got was a blinking ? which usually means the startup disk or system folder can not be found.
I fixed this problem by booting using the originall install CD and then using the startup disk menu to reselect the original system disk/system folder as the startup disk. On reboot. all was good. Only took a couple of minutes.....

Can a Mac Pro boot off a MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode?

Summary: "Are you able to boot a Mac Pro off of a Mac Book Pro in Target Disk Mode?" OR "Will a Mac Pro boot off an OS X install that was made on a MBP?"
Details:
I'm finishing a music project that was created on a PPC G5 Quad computer and going to a studio in Santa Monica to complete the final mixdown. My 3rd party software plug-in configuration is unique, and the studio doesn't have all of the software instruments that I do on their 8 core mac pro. My G5 software installation is mirrored to my MacBook Pro, but the MBP doesn't have enough CPU power to play the project back.
Is it feasible to have the studio's 8 core Mac Pro boot from my MacBook Pros hard drive? Essentially, we'd be using my OS and software on their powerful CPU / hardware. I figure, since they are both Intel builds of OSX, this should be do-able.
I don't have access to the Mac Pro until I show up to start working.
Thanks for any input / suggestions!

The MacBook Pro boots fine in 10.5.8, and loads the Logic project without any faults. The only issue is that a CPU shortage occurs when you attempt to play the sequence.
Like you suggested, I performed separate UB installations of all the needed software on the MBP solely so I could move Logic projects from one computer to the next without a hitch. (Actually, DropBox does this for me). Migration assistant was not employed in this process due to the PPC / Intel issues you noted.
I didn't need to mention the G5 as it appears to have caused some confusion based on Kappy's reply, but I did want to explain my work flow thoroughly.
It sounds like booting the MacPro from my MBP is feasible. I'll mark this topic 'solved' and head over to the studio tonight. I'll post here any anomalies from the session (if any).
THANKS~!

Using a Mac mini as a target disk for a G4 Powerbook

Hello,
I saw a post that dealt with the above issue but i would like to get a bit more specific. I bought my Powerbook in 2005 and by now it's a bit dated. I use it to run Logic Pro, but also love games... So would it be possible to get a Mac mini Intel Duo 2Ghz, connect it to my Powerbook G4 and run games or other applications on the Mac mini but using the display and controls of my Powerbook? So in a few words, play on the Powerbook but run the game from the Mac mini. It sounds possible, but i am no computer genie! What do you think?
Or should i just spend an extra £200 and a get a Macbook...?
Thanks for your time,
Dimitris
Message was edited by: dimis
Message was edited by: dimis

When you run a computer in Target Disk Mode, the primary unit is what utilizes the processor, and the secondary unit in Target Disk Mode is only serving as the boot volume.
What does this mean?
Let's use two "equal" machines. At least, ones I've worked with. An iMac G3 400MHz and a 12-inch PowerBook G4 1.5GHz.
If you connect your PowerBook in Target Disk Mode to the iMac G3, your iMac will not run faster and things that work with your PowerBook, say, Pages or iWork '05, won't run on your iMac. The primary unit is the iMac and all it is doing is accessing the PowerBook for the startup volume and any files. But it still runs at G3 speed and won't take advantage of the G4 speed since it is not the machine being used. All the iMac is doing is accessing the PowerBook as if it were a bare external drive. (Well, not bare in that sense).
Vice versa, if you were to connect your iMac G3 in Target Disk Mode to your 12-inch PowerBook, things you saw that were slow at 400MHz, will fly at 1.5GHz and in G4 speeds, since the PowerBook is now your primary unit.
To put it in your terms, what you want to do is really use an Intel Mac mini as your primary unit and connect your PowerBook to it in Target Disk Mode so that you will see speed increases there. What you outlined in your post will not be possible.
If you connect an Intel Mac mini in Target Disk Mode to your PowerBook, the G4 processor will be the one being utilized, and in that case, you won't be able to run things like, say, Tiger Woods PGA Tour from EA (Electronic Arts) because while that runs and only runs on Intel-based Macs, with the Mac mini in Target Disk Mode, it will not use the Intel processor.
Vice versa, if you were to connect your PowerBook in Target Disk Mode to your Intel Mac mini, things like OS9 apps in Classic mode wouldn't run on the Mac mini since it's accessing the files on the PowerBook, but the processor being utilized is the Intel one, and Classic is not compatible with Intel-based Macs.
However, Logic Pro, as long as it was the Universal version, would fly on the Mac mini if using your PowerBook in Target Disk Mode.
So, after all that, the best thing to do would be to buy a MacBook, or in an "apples to apples" comparison, the professional equivalent in the MacBook Pro.

Is It Safe To Use Target Disk Mode Between My Intel iMac And A G4 eMac ?

I want to use DiskWarrior 4 to rebuild my Intel-iMac's directories but a suitable startup CD has not yet been produced.
So I intend to put DW on my old G4 eMac (OSX 10.4.10) and use Target Disk Mode between the two.
As they have different processors and OS will it be possible and more importantly will it be safe to do so?
Ian.

I received the very latest CD revision from Alsoft for DiskWarrior, Rev. 42. This latest version is STILL not able to boot the newest MacBook Pros. I tried, and eventually my MacBook just restarts to its internal HDD.
So I tried to run DiskWarrior 4.1 on a PowerMac Dual G4 which I had the Macbook Pro connected via target disk mode. NOTE: Both Macs are running the latest Mac OS X 10.5.4.
About half way through the "rebuilding directory" process, the G4 had a kernel panic and the black screen came up telling me to force shutdown my Mac. I nearly soiled myself. Luckily, the freeze up happened before the vital stage when DiskWarrior is replacing the directory. So MacBook Pro luckily booted back up okay.
So, I'd say to play it safe and NOT try to run DiskWarrior 4.1 from an older pre-Intel Mac to rebuild an Intel Mac's directory via target disk mode.
Currently, I think my only option I have to rebuild my Macbook Pro's directory is to install Mac OS X on an external HDD, install DiskWarrior and run it from there.

Slow transfers with G5 client running in target disk mode

I'm using a brand new dual 3GHz Mac Pro, just arrived today.
I've connected my G5 in FW800 target disk mode, it's two internal drives are mounted properly on my Mac Pro ("/Volumes/Files 1" is the drive in the G5):
/dev/disk3 750G 98G 652G 13% /Volumes/Files
/dev/disk4s3 400G 334G 66G 83% /Volumes/Files 1
I'm copying all my old data, and it's taking way too long.
iostat reveals disk activity on disk4 at 10MB/s (it never passed 11MB/s - it's always upwards of 10.5MB/s, so it's being throttled):
disk4 disk5 disk1 cpu
KB/t tps MB/s KB/t tps MB/s KB/t tps MB/s us sy id
128.00 85 10.62 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 0 1 98
128.00 86 10.74 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 1 2 97
128.00 86 10.74 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 1 2 97
122.07 89 10.60 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0 0.00 1 0 99
There are always 128KB/t when a large file is being copied, so perhaps that's the rate limiter.
iostat will not print statistics about "disk3", which is the destination RAID1 (mirror) inside the new MacPro. What tools are used to monitor IO stats for Apple's RAID volumes, if iostat won't do it?
I'm open to suggestions as to what's causing this. I don't know much about tuning MacOS. Is this a firmware issue? The MacPro firmware is up to date (did it today).
There are no other FW devices connected, period. This is just the G5 connected to the MacPro; FW800.
I have read articles discussing problems with slave drives not being available from disk mode clients, but this is not that type of problem. As I mentioned, the drives in the G5 all mount correctly on the MacPro.
Should I post this in a G5 forum as well?
Thanks for any suggestions.

I am having the same issue - extremely slow transfer speeds from old G5 to new MacPro. Was originally using a FW400 cable - now I am using a FW800 cable.
Goes VERY slow when it starts moving video files (from Final Cut Pro, etc.).
Help! We've been trying to do this transfer for about two days now...

Flashing Question Mark Folder after Clean Install in Target Disk Mode

I have an old iBook G4 with a failing optical drive and the need to reformat the hard drive and re-install OS 10.5.4. Since the optical drive is failing and unpredictable, I figured I'd do everything in target disk mode.
So I mounted the hard drive of the iBook to my Mac Pro via Firewire in target disk mode. I was able to successfully format the hard drive of the iBook, zeroing out all the data with 7 passes, and I was also able to successfully install OS 10.5.4 from my original Install DVD, again in target disk mode.
After the install was complete, I went through all the registration process and User Account setup and the iBook booted fine albeit still in target disk mode. So I shut down the Mac Pro, turned off the iBook and unplugged the Firewire cable. My Mac Pro booted up just fine afterward. But the iBook now gives me the flashing question mark/finder folder.
I know this means that the iBook is having trouble located a startup volume, or that the startup volume is corrupt or missing data. How can this be, though, after a reformat and clean install? Did I do something wrong in target disk mode? Or did I neglect to do something necessary?
Thanks for anyone's help on this.

Thanks, Niel.
I don't see APM as an option in Disk Utility when booting from my Mac Pro. I only have Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended, Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive), MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT.
How do I get my Mac Pro to repartition the iBook properly in target disk mode?

Using Target disk mode from hard drive which is starting to fail, when I move files, I get a preparing to copy message but nothing happens. Any ideas?

Hello, i have a MacBook Pro. The hard drive is failing to such an extent that I can't currently use the computer, only things like utility mode etc. I have connected it unto my iMac and using a Firewire in target disk mode, I am attempting to move files across using that mode. The HD of the Macbook Pro appears in the IMac devices menu and I copy and paste the appropriate folders/files but as I do this I get a progress bar which says "preparing to copy" but then nothing appears to happen. Any ideas on what to do? Is there a password or other issue here that I am over-looking. Perhaps the hard drive of my macbook pro is so corrupted that I can't move files over. Any help would be great?

Try moving smaller groups of files. I' guessing that you don't have a backup huh?

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.

Firewire Target DIsk Mode Mac partition not Boot Camp partition

Hi I'm having issues starting up my Mac and would like to Firewire mount the drive then image it. However, when I do so the Boot Camp partition mounts instead of the Mac partition. I've tried using Disk Utility on the host machine to mount the Mac partition (it does show up in Disk Utility) without success, Is there anything I can do.
(Yes I have yesterday's Time Machine backup, but would still prefer to do a full image before wiping and installing the OS).

Are you talking about starting up one computer in Target Disk Mode and then seeing it with a second computer (and if so, which model computer and which OS)?
[How to use FireWire target disk mode|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661] includes description of hardware and software requirements.
[What to do if your Mac doesn't enter FireWire Target Disk Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75414], also read about [Open Firmware Password Protection|http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/openfirmwarepassword.html] which can disable Target Disk Mode.
[Technical Note TN 1189|http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1189.html#TargetMode] - driver details for TDM

IMac in Target Disk mode won't mount on Mac Pro via Firewire

My iMac (intel Core 2 Duo) won't start up - it has the question mark in a folder icon.
I can't find the Apple Snow Leopard disk, so I've started it in Target Disk mode, connected it to my Mac Pro, but it doesn't mount on the Mac Pro even though it appears in System Profiler on the Mac Pro.
Both running 10.6.8
Can I force it to mount? I have tried front & back firewire ports and restarted several times to no avail.
I'm hoping to repair the iMac disk using Disk Utility or Diskwarrior on the Mac Pro, but need it to mount first.
Any ideas? Thanks.

I want to copy everything off the iMac before re-installing Snow Leopard & starting again.
I do not have a backup of the computer (I've had a backup hard drive on order for 7 weeks that has been delayed due to the shortages...) I am aware that this is very stupid of me.
The disk is obviously in very bad shape as Disk Utility can't do anything with it.
Diskwarrior v4.2 on a DVD will make a 'Preview' of a directory of it, but will not 'Replace' the directory as the disk is damaged.
1. Does anyone know how to make a startup DVD of Diskwarrior v4.4 (I have the v4.4 update but can't find out how to make a new startup DVD using the old v4.2 DVD and the software v4.4 update) and I think Alsoft must now be on holiday as they're not answering... (I would like to use v4.4 as it should be more capable).
2. Assuming I can get Diskwarrior (hopefully on a new v4.4 DVD) to make a 'Preview' again of the iMac directory, how do I copy everying off the computer? My only guess is to connect my Mac Pro in target mode to the iMac. Will the Mac Pro disk show up in the 'Preview' directory & therefore allow me to copy all of it's contents across to the target mode disk?
3. Assuming all the above works, is there a best way to copy all of the iMac contents to a folder in the Mac Pro? i.e. is there a way of Carbon Copying it so that after wiping the disk I can simply copy it all back? Or is it all too late for that
THANK YOU very much for any help.

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

Connect 2 Macs w/ Firewire. Not Target disk mode.

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