Target Disc Mode + Disc Mounting issues

I hope this is a suitable forum for this topic.
Anyway, I recently posted a question concerning the connection of 2 Mac's (one disabled), in order to save the contents of the disabled MBP.
I have since obtained a 6 pin to 9 pin cable (to connect my MB's FireWire 400 to MBP's Firewire 800), and have tried to access the MBPs hdd via Firewire/Target Disc Mode.
I have no problems booting the MBP to Target D. Mode, but the disc will not mount on my Macbook.
The main problem that I have noticed is the S.M.A.R.T status on the MBP's internal drive is saying "not supported". From what I have read this is a common status message for 3rd-party installed harddrives, but my internal is the factory installed drive.
Im pretty sure I know the answer: The drive is dead, ie. get a new one. But I just thought I would ask the you guys if there is some way to "fix" the SMART status so that it will mount.
Also, (and this is what makes me 99.9% sure the drive is dead) when linking the 2 computers in Target Disc Mode, the Leopard Install disc that was in the optical drive of the MBP was read on my Macbook, so I know the Firewire cable/both ports are in working order.
Hope this makes sense, as I tend to ramble!
Thanks for any help or suggestions,
Matt

If the drive does not mount and is otherwise inaccessible then booting into Target Disk Mode isn't going to help you. A drive's SMART status is not reported over FireWire or USB. The SMART status is only reported for the internal drive, locally. SMART has nothing to do with whether the drive is working or not. It is merely an information report.
All that you can hope to accomplish might be to purchase recovery software, boot the computer from the recovery software DVD, and hope something is recoverable. Or you can send the drive to one of the many disk recovery businesses to see if anything can be recovered from the dead drive.
File Recovery Software
Data Rescue
File Salvage
TechTool Pro.
The first two have demos you can download. The demo will indicate what if anything is recoverable, but until you pay for the software and get a serial number you cannot recover anything. You would also need the bootable DVD. This will not work if the drive's motor is dead or if the drive's interface board is no longer functioning. Both of these render the drive inaccessible. In this case recovery would have to be through a data recovery service like Drive Savers.
Each of the preceding comes on bootable CD.
Message was edited by: Kappy

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