Target Disk Mode - 2 Hard disks

I would like to be able to access the files on my old G4 easily with my new iMac. I have attached the two with a firewire cable, booted the iMac normally and then booted the G4 to target disk mode by holding t. I get the firewire symbol on the G4.
The G4 has 2 hard disks but only one of them is mounting on the iMac (the secondary HD is mounting, the HD with the OS is not mounting). Any ideas?

OK so method two is to use a network cable straight from the G4 to the iMac and power up the G4 normally. I can see both HDs now from the iMac, great. Now however the internet connection (supplied over wireless) has dropped from the iMac whenever the two are connected?

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Target disk mode with external hard drive?

Hi all,
I have a very annoying problem. I've just bought a new Mac Mini, previously I had an iBook G4 600 (about 6 years old). My Mac mini works perfectly, but...
1) I don't want to copy everything over from the iBook with Migration Assistant, I'd rather pick and choose what to copy. Is buying a firewire cable and using Target Disk mode the only quick way to do this?
2) I was intending to transfer files using my external HD. But the Mini doesn't recognise my poor old external drive. However, all my iTunes music is on the external HD. It seems by far the fastest way to get the music off (as long as I can't get the mini to recognise the HD)would be to boot the iBook in Target Disk mode then somehow be able to read from the external HD as well. Is this possible? If not, what on earth can I do??
Thanks in advance,
Suz
Message was edited by: Suz

Okay after testing, I am ready to conceded that you are correct that you can daisy chain an external drive and a TDM Mac together and have them mount both drives.
However. unless Suz proves me wrong (Which is always a possibility), I do not think that it will fix her initial problem. Since all's TDM does is allow the computer to act as a Firewire device, so it and the external hard drive, are simply 2 FW devices on a serial bus. If the new Mac Can't mount the external drive from the old computer, I doubt it would mount it with the old computer connected to it. (Unless there is just some funky thing going on that having another firewire device on the bus corrects?)
Let's see if it shows up in System profiler, and if it shows up there how does Disk Utility see it?
Have you also tried resetting the NVRAM?
Also just to be on the safe side, do you have another Firewire device that you can connect, to let us know that the port on the new mac is actually working?

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?

Targeted Disk mode only shows one of two hard disks...

Got a new computer to transfer old info to from my dual g4 1 gig mirrored. When i set in targeted disk mode only one hard drive shows up. I confirmed both are set to cable select and only the master is showing. If I swap the drives the master is the only one that will show up. Any ideas on how to get both showing up at the same time?

Only the Master drive can be used in Target Disk Mode. See
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583>

Hard disk not recognised - will not boot from cd & No FW Target Disk mode

hi,
some help would be greatly appreciated.
Some time ago i was switching internal hard drives around and wound up with a kernel panic of some sort (see my previous posts).
following on from this I have tried FW target disk mode with no success, and it will not boot from a retail Tiger install disc (this machine has tiger installed (i think!). I can't force a boot from the optical drive and i also can't even force it to eject the disc inside to try another install DVD/CD (I have panther discs lying around also).
when i start up with the c key nothing happens, but when i start up with the alt/option key i get a closed padlock symbol, password entry field and a "right facing arrow" button.
anyone got any clues with this? i'm guessing it could either and/or be an internal hard drive ribbon failure (i have swapped internal HDs multiple times in this machine, which can't be good for it) or the familiar PRAM problem (although why would it not boot from an install DVD if this was the case?). I have changed the power supply unit in the past due to having a power cable snap off inside the original one - damage to PRAM caused by this?
help would be muchly appreciated!
Jesse

Hi, Jesse. Remove the hard drive and its cable, then see whether you can start up from a CD or DVD. If that works, replace your hard drive cable.

Firewire target Disk mode-accessing second hard drive

When linking two computers in Target Disk Mode I find that I can only access the boot drive. In the computer that I'm accessing there are two drives. Is there any way to access the second drive?

Appleshare networking would take about as long as installing OS X on another hard drive. Although an external drive case would be the easiest solution.
This is a case I bought a while back, its very easy to install or change hard drives;
http://startech.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?productid=IDECASE35F&c=US

IMac G4/800 in FireWire Target Disk Mode shuts down, hard drive hopeless?

I have found myself in possession of a 12 year-old iMac G4/800. The machine looks stock and was nice and full of dust when I took it apart, so I'm going to assume nothing has been upgraded on it. The person who the computer belongs to has had issues booting the machine and when it does boot, the machine will throw up the "grey screen of death" after a few seconds, I suspect when the hard drive starts to get hit.
I've attempted to start the machine in FireWire Target Disk Mode and the machine will mount on my 2011 MacBook Pro, however once I begin to copy files the machine will abruptly shut off.
I have also attempted to remove the hard drive from the machine and connect it to my MacBook Pro via an OWC Drive Adapter, but it won't mount from the adapter in Disk Utility, Terminal or Disk Warrior. I've connected other (non-IDE) drives with the adapter before, but no luck with this one. Perhaps the IDE connector is faulty on the adapter?
I may look for another drive adapter and I've made an Apple Genius app't for later this afternoon, but I'm curious if anyone has any further advice. Is it more likely that it's a motherboard issue that's causing the machine to shut of in FTDM or a hard drive issue? In any case, this may be one for the Data Rescue Experts. I imagine I may get a few looks at the Apple store with such an old machine.

Another contributory issue to booting in an older PPC Mac is the PRAM battery.
If the battery is more than four years old, it would likely be a partial cause of odd
startup issues and some settings that are required for the computer to start &
run correctly would not be available. The battery is a 3.6V. 1/2AA Lithium cell.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/BAA36VPRAM/
A few companies such as macsales.com show them on their web site... sounds
like your old iMac G4 800MHz could use one. Note there are takeapart instruction
pages online such as one from XLR8Yourmac from years ago. The 800MHz is
similar to the later models with faster G4 processors of the same appearance.
The hard drive type utilized is the older ATA/IDE or PATA; uses older formatting.
Tools, thermal paste, and some other tedious details need to be attended to...
•iMac G4 Take-apart for Drive and RAM upgrades:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/imac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html
And another fairly good page w/ larger images:
•Mr Totes' iMac G4 -- taken apart:
http://www.mrtotes.co.uk/page1/page1.html
Sometimes the power supplies and other components can be the cause of issues
in these iMac G4 models, you can test the power output by using the test ports
that are located in the same compartment as the upgrade RAM slot & wi-fi card.
You may be able to find a copy of an original Apple service manual for that iMac.
Those are harder to get, and used to be available to Apple trained technicians.
Good luck & happy computing!

Can Target Disk Mode be run from an external hard drive?

Hi
My hard drive crashed on me the other day (again) and the apple genius told me all I could do was recover my data and send it in (again)
QUESTION:
Can target disk mode could be run using an external hard drive as opposed to another mac? If so, how?
I think corrupt files on my external hard drive might have crashed my ibook hard drive and I'm wondering if I should really try using the external to save all my info from my ibook. Am I completely clueless about computers or is this actually a possible problem?
Thanks

HI Andrea,
No, you are not completely clueless. If you follow John's sound advice using Target Disk Mode from another Mac, maybe you have a friend or relative who has one. Here's the information on how to use Target Disk Mode that I found in the Apple Help menu:
Transferring files between two computers using FireWire:
You can use FireWire to connect your computer to another Mac and have one of the computers appear as an external hard disk on the other computer. This is sometimes called Target Disk Mode.
To transfer files using FireWire:
Shut down the first computer and leave the second computer on.
Connect the two computers using a 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable. (If both computers have higher-speed FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard FireWire 400 ports, you can use a 9-pin to 9-pin cable with the FireWire 800 ports to transfer data at higher speeds.)
Open System Preferences, click the Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. (Or, start up the first computer while holding down the T key.)
A disk icon for the first computer appears on the desktop on the second computer. Drag files to and from the disk to transfer them.
When you finish, eject the first computer's disk by dragging its icon to the Trash. (While you drag, the Trash icon changes to an Eject icon.)
Push the power button on the first computer to shut it down and disconnect the FireWire cable.
If the computer to which you connect your computer is running Mac OS 9, it must have FireWire version 2.3.3 or later installed. Use Apple System Profiler (located in /Applications/Utilities) to check the version of FireWire installed. If it has an older version, get an update at the Apple FireWire website at www.apple.com/firewire.
It's a very simple process but it can only be done between two Macs. You can only "target" another Mac, not an external drive.
It sounds like your iBook needs service. And if you think that your external drive caused the problem to start with, I wouldn't use it again if you can do the TDM instead to retrieve your important data.
Also, be careful with total free drive space. Never fall below 15% free space. Open Disk Utility from the Applications/Utilities folder. Then select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left. Then look down towards the bottom of the window on the right. You'll see "Capacity" and "Availablity". It's a good idea to keep track of free space all the time. You need a minimum of 15% just to boot.
Hope this helps...
Carolyn

FYI: Corrupt hard drive will cause target disk mode to fail

I have just finished restoring my nephew's iBook which had had a major disk corruption issue - keys out of order, invalid key lengths, etc. in the catalog. While the iBook would boot, it had a lot of problems running due to the corrupt file system.
As part of the restoration process, I tried to connect the iBook in target disk mode, but had a lot of trouble. Apparently, bad file system data structures will cause the target disk mode to hang; I needed to disconnect the iBook from my main system to get out of the SPOD. In the end, I booted the iBook from the installation DVD and ran Disk Utility from there to reformat the hard drive. Surprisingly, it was impossible to reformat the drive in target disk mode due to the corruption.
Once the disk was reformatted, target disk mode worked fine, and I was able to restore the entire system (less files lost due to the corruption) in that mode.

It is impossible to say what can be recovered without knowing the cause of the installation failure. The possibilities range from some interfering third party addition to the previously installed OS to a substandard or degraded hardware component (especially RAM) that can't meet the more stringent demands of the new OS version.
All I can suggest is to try Target Disc Mode & see what you can recover to another drive -- one that your bother should have had for backups to begin with & should now see the value of having if he did not before.
If that doesn't work, the alternatives are investing in special data recovery software (moderately expensive) or a data recovery service (very, very expensive).

Migrating Information in Target Disk Mode Wiped out hard drive

I just helped a friend install Leopard on her new MacBook (it came with a drop in disk of Leopard). After the install, I started her previous 3-year old MacBook in target disk mode to migrate over old system settings. During the migration, the new MacBook froze up and forced me to do a hard restart. After restarting the computer, it would no longer recognize the old MacBook that was still in Target Disk Mode.
After awhile I finally decided to pull the hard drive out of the old MacBook and hook it up to my WiebeTech DriveDock. I now get a disk insertion error telling me that the drive is not readable. I have tried DriveGenius, but I cannot rebuild or repair the drive because it doesn't even pop up.
Has anyone heard of the migration assistance wiping out the drive you were attempting to migrate from? And also, does anyone know of a way to fix this?

She backed up with Retrospect a couple weeks ago, so not much would be lost if I wasn't able to resurrect this drive. The feeling of accomplishment from tackling this problem is the only truly important thing that would be lost.

Computer wont recognize second hard drive in target disk mode

I've had trouble installing Leopard on my iMac (read this for full details: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1196525&tstart=0)
Long story short, I tried to hook up the iMac to my computer, starting it (the iMac) up in Target Disk Mode, in order to save some files before restoring the hd, but my computer wont recognize the iMac hd when it's connected. Is there any way to save these very important files?

Because the drive might not be the only thing that isn't working, it could be your logic board or something else. Removing the drive will isolate it and allow you to see whether your data is recoverable without having to worry about what else is failing on the iMac.

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?

How to remove time machine backup from a mackbook pro used in target disk mode

Many months ago I (as my backup drive failed) I used my macbook pro in target disk mode to store the time machine backup of my iMac. How do I delete the backup on the macbook pro? I am running mountain lion on both machines. When I boot the macbook pro in target mode, it's not showing up in the finder on my mac.

When I boot the macbook pro in target mode, it's not showing up in the finder on my mac.
From the Finder menu bar, select
Finder > Preferences > General
and check the box marked Hard disks.

Data recovery options if drive not accessible through Target Disk Mode

I have the classic data recovery question: my computer seems to have failed, and I'd like to save some data. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Details:
- Most recent backup was about a month ago to Time Machine (unfortunately, this laptop went off on a long trip and didn't have access to the destination disk, and then when it came home was running very slowly and my wife halted the TM backup thinking it was slowing the computer down). Some documents have been backed up more recently via Dropbox and/or Mozy, but not a couple important ones
- When booted in Target Disk Mode, no drive shows up on the computer to which I connect it
- When I boot from an OS X CD, a drive appears in Disk Utility with no volumes on it, and the options to 'repair disk' and 'verify disk' are greyed out.
- When I try to just start the computer up, it gets to the grey screen with the apple and just spins.
Questions:
- Should I attempt anything else myself? I've never learned about Lion's Recovery Mode; can it be used to copy some data off, in the unlikely case that this computer would boot into that Mode? Would any further attempts to boot, etc. potentially reduce the chances of a professional company recovering data?
- I'm planning to take this to an Apple Store today to confirm that this is indeed a hard drive problem and not a failed mother board or something; is there a way for me to do this myself? In the past I've used Hardware Test CDs from Apple and stuff; I don't know if those still work on modern computers.
Thanks again for any help!

I know I used to have a copy of Disk Warrior, but can't find it and it's probably out of date. I downloaded the Data Rescue demo, but it only got partway through scanning the disk and then failed. It told me to 'clone' the disk, but after about three days of trying still wasn't making much progress on it, so I gave up.
However, I was able to recover the few important files I needed simply by removing the drive, putting it in an enclosure, and connecting it via USB. After 10 or 20 minutes, Finder gave me a message that said something like, "this disk cannot be repaired, and is probably damaged. You can still access the disk, but copy everything off ASAP because it will probably fail soon." Some files indeed couldn't be copied, but I could copy the things I needed.
I assume that this is a hardware problem. To confirm, I assume that I can check it without having DiskWarrior simply by trying to reformat it? If it can't be reformatted, I assume there's no chance that it is a functioning drive. Is that right?

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.

Target Disk Mode - 2 Hard disks

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