Target Disk Mode Failure

I am attempting to install OSX onto an old ibook without a DVD drive. What I am attempting to do is boot the ibook into target disk mode and use the DVD drive on my MacBook Pro (MBP) to install Tiger on the ibook. My MBP does not recognize the ibook in the devices pane on finder until after I turn off the ibook. the disk then shows up in the devices pane of finder, but it has no files in it and when I click the eject button, the MBP crashes. Am I doing something wrong, or is something broken?

Shouldn't hurt to try TDM. Just depress the T key at startup.
Have you recently added RAM? If so, remove it. You can have as little as 128MB RAM to startup in Panther 10.3.
 Cheers, Tom

Similar Messages

Won't boot, recognise superdrive or startup in target disk mode

I've been trying to help a friend with his iMac G4 that crashed. Of course he hasn't backed up his hard drive in years. I've searched the forums and have tried several methods to get his machine running or at least recover his data but with no luck.
Here's what happens:
When I turn on his computer I can hear repeated clicking which eventually stops. The screen comes up grey and eventually a flashing icon appears, alternating between a folder with a Finder icon and a folder with a question mark.
Here's what I've tried:
I've tried booting in target disk mode but that doesn't work.
I've tried booting holding down the mouse button but the superdrive tray doesn't open.
I've booted into Open Firmware and typed "eject cd". The system pauses for a long time then gives me the message "can't OPEN the EJECT device".
I've manually opened the superdrive tray, loaded a disc, then booted while holding down the "c" key. I can hear the drive spin, but the computer doesn't boot from the disk. I've tried loading a Tiger DVD, a DiskWarrior CD and an OS 9 CD.
I've tried removing the Airport card and additional RAM.
I've tried resetting the PRAM.
I've tried resetting the PMU.
I've booted into Open Firmware and typed "reset-nvram" then "reset-all".
Nothing has worked. The computer always returns to the flashing Finder/question mark folder.
I'd really appreciate any suggestions on where to go from here.
Thanks!

When you can't boot from any method it usually signals that one of 2 things (maybe both) have failed:
Motherboard
Hard drive - Some hard drive failures lock up the ATA controller so badly that the Mac can't boot from any device.

Using Target Disk mode to reinstall OS-X

I have a PPC G5 Dual 2.0gHz which failed the other day. All the fans were running full and a red LED showing on the logic board (it's just a warning I think). Since then the machine cannot be started up. It will begin the startup process normally but will hang on the Apple logo screen (no spinning gear wheel).
The same thing happens when attempting to start up from the install disks and also when started in safe mode or with Option pressed down at startup.
The logical assumption (given the original failure) is a hardware problem but I'm not entirely certain that's the case and cannot get it to a technician right now. I can run Apple Hardware Test and it passes that. I can also mount the G5's drive in Target Disk mode using a PowerBook G4 as a host so the drive itself appears to be okay. All the data is there and can be transferred.
Is it possible that this is software not a hardware issue? The normal startup chime is there, the relay clicks at startup and it does begin to access the drive and all the normal noises can be heard. Just stops loading at the Apple logo screen. I'm wondering if some OS files were corrupted in the original crash (which happened overnight so I don't know what caused it) and if there is some way to eliminate the OS as the problem before going to a technician.
As I can mount the drive in target mode, is it possible to use my PB as a host and reinstall the G5 OS-X that way? They're different machines so I don't know if that would work or the PB would reject the installation. Alternatively, if it could be just corrupted OS system files would it make sense to try to 'guess' the most likely to have been corrupted and manually replace them, again using the PB as a target host?
I'm really stuck without this machine but just can't get it to a workshop for at least a couple of weeks so I'll try anything!

Boy, I love these forums, and I love Macs (most of the time). I was so convinced this was hardware but it seems (fingers crossed) to be fixed. Yay!
You guys were both right in a way. Roam's solution would clearly have been the easiest but because I had tried it before without success I didn't expect it to work. And, trying it again with the G5 install disk, it didn't. Same problem as before. But Graham's reminder of using the original multi-machine Tiger disks in target mode made me wonder. So before trying Target Disk mode I tried just restarting the machine using the Tiger DVD instead of the G5 disks -- and it booted into the installation dialogue!
I figured I'd need to reinstall 10.4 (and, if it worked, go through the whole update drag to get back to 10.4.10). Before I did that though, on a whim, I tried quitting the installer and selecting the normal G5 system as the startup disk. Restarted and voila -- there it was, all back to normal, everything sweet and no data lost!
I didn't even need to repair the disk. Disk verify shows no problems. Even repairing permissions was just a couple of minor changes. I'm amazed. And delighted.
I might be jumping the gun and there might still be a hardware problem that will repeat the original failure and I'll find all the fans going full blast and nothing working again tomorrow but, if Murphy is having time off, for the moment I'm back in business.
I would love to figure out what caused the problem in the first place. I suspect a big power surge overnight did it but I have no idea exactly what it did to cause these symptoms.
My grateful thanks guys.

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.

Need Help Installing Snow Leopard onto a blank HD via Target Disk Mode

Hey everyone.
Recently I had the HD on my Black Macbook crash due to a mechanical failure. I have just purchased a new Hard Drive for my Macbook. It is completely blank other than the fact that I connected it to my girlfriend's White Macbook earlier today to create 2 partitions. I have a new copy of Snow Leopard that I want to install on it and was hoping someone could guide me through the process.
What I have with me as of now is:
One Black Macbook (UK bought) w/ Partitioned Blank HD and a non-functional Superdrive
One White Macbook (US bought) running Tiger w/ working Superdrive that mounts the SL DVD
FireWire Cable
New Snow Leopard DVD
My first attempt at this failed. I connected the two Macs with the FW cable and started up the Black Macbook in Target Disk mode. Both my HD partitions showed up on the White Macbook. I inserted the SL DVD into the White Macbook and when it mounted I clicked on install. Of course, now it thinks that I want to install SL on the White Macbook whereas I want to install it on the Black Macbook.
I'm a college student without a working computer and with my finals coming up, I'm in deep trouble. I want to mention that my Black Macbook's Superdrive spits out _everything except for Movie DVDs and My Leopard Startup Disk._ It spins the SL DVD for a few seconds and spits it out as well. I'm wondering whether this might be an issue with the DVD region code on the SL DVD though I don't think that's it. My region code is currently set to Region 1 (US) where I purchased the Snow Leopard DVD off Amazon. I initially thought there was a problem with the DVD and CD lens in the drive and I bought a DVD/CD Lens Cleaner CD but I can't run it because the Superdrive spits that out too. I'm out of warranty on the Black Macbook so fixing the Superdrive is pretty much out of the question. I was under the impression that I would be able to install SL via Target Disk Mode without any hassles but boy was I ever so wrong.
Is there any way that I can do this? I'm hoping someone here can help me out. Please do if you find the time to.

By other computer, do you mean the White Macbook? So I should basically put the SL DVD in the White Macbook, restart with the C key held down? Is that right?
Please pardon me if I'm being stupid.

Target Disk Mode error..?

Let me premise this quiestion by saying I am rather new with macs.. love em so far, but have been rasied on PC's..
anyways, I have an ibook G4 that someone gave to me because it had the flashing question mark on startup, I booted from install disk and ran disk utility to 'repair disk' and it gives me an 'Underlying task reported failure error -9972'..
So there are thousands of pictures I would like to retrieve from this ibook, So Im thinking using my new MacBook and doing a little target disk mode retrieval..
So I connect them together of course, I start the ibook by holding 'T', it goes into target disk mode (see the floating firewire icon).. but my MacBook just spits out this error: the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer..
Any and all help would be awesome! im hoping I can retrieve the data, but does it sound like a lost cause?..

Unfortunately this type of work is not covered by Protection Plan, and the cost is too high for me. The only thing I can do now is Initialize, and lose my files.
But before to do this procedure, I would like try another time the Target Disk Mode: I found this (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2528?viewlocale=en_US) in the Apple Site, perhaps is this the problema I had today?
And what about other type of files migration?

HELP! Macbook won't load into Target Disk Mode

basically long story short i had about 100 mb of memory left on my 200gb macbook pro. i was trying to save a word document when everything froze, i manually restarted the computer and thats when all **** broke loose
heres what happened
-weird sounds coming from computer
-the computer takes about 5-10 min to get to the login prompt
-takes another 5-10 min after login to load desktop wallpaper
-takes about 40 min for it to load anything on the dock and then nothing will load after that none of my desktop icons u cant access any programs..the computer will continue to make weird noises during this time.
heres what ive done so far.
-reset pram (didnt work)
-harddrive test (Did both standard and extended ...test results came back fine nothing seemed to be wrong)
-i tried to use disk utility to repair disk and it said:
+"checking extents overflow file+
+checking catalog file+
+invalid node structure+
+rebuilding catalog b-tree+
+the volume macintosh HD could not be repaired+
+error: the underlying task reported failure on exit+
+1 hfs volum checked+
+-1 volume could not be repaired because of an error+
+repair attempted on 1 volume+
+-1 volume could not be repaired"+
-tried the fsck option and it told me basically the same thing
-tried booting in safe mode ...computer wont boot into safe mode it will just shut itself off
so my last option is trying to get info off of my computer using target disk mode...i have a spare macbook that im using as a host for the macbook pro...
i bought a firewire cable today from the apple store
i followed the directions step by step on the apple website
-i connected the firewire cable, both computers were off.
-i turned the host computer on (target computer remianed off)
- held the T button right as the computer started
- then i got a grey screen with a big firewire logo floating around from left to right
[img]http://www.didntyouhear.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/firewire_logo.jpg[/img]
what am i doing wrong!? ??
someone PLEASE HELP!

ok i figured it out however...
everytime i try to click on my harddrive or folders in the harddrive the host computer freezes as does the target computer...
im using a macbook as the host computer to my macbook pro target...
after performing target disk mode on the target computer and connecting the two computers via firewire...
i can see my target drive on my host desktop....
omg and when i clicc on my targe drive i see all my old folders!!! yay!! that means my old files arent lost forever!
the only problem is when i try to access the folders i get the colored pinwheel
and its very slow..... nothin will load and then my host computer freezes and i have to forcequit...i didnt even get to begin transferring the files before the host computer would freeze....as this would happen the fans on the target computer would be whirring up and the floating firewire logo screensaver on the target computer would also stop floating from left to right..
what gives?

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).

What is the set-up when transfer files through target disk mode

I'm a bit confused on how to set up the macs to do a file transer in target disk mode. I am transferring files from an imac to a macbook pro. I have the cable 6pin to 9pin. Now what I can't remember (apple.com instructions is what confused me) is on which computer do I hold down the 'T' on start up? Is it the computer I am transferring the files to? ( in this case the macbook pro). I use to do this fairly often, but not recently, and I have forgotten. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Transferring files between two computers using FireWire - Apple

How do i use my imac 21.5" 2011 as a display for my macbook pro late 2011, through thunderbolt cable ? I have tried and it doesnt seem to work, neither does target disk mode.

How do i use my imac 21.5" 2011 as a display for my macbook pro late 2011, through thunderbolt cable ? I have tried and it doesnt seem to work, neither does target disk mode.
Could it be a borked cable ? I just bought it new from the store today, i have updated both imac and macbook pro to latest thunderbolt firmware and updates. Both 10.7.3.
MacBook Pro:
Vendor Name:    Apple, Inc.
Device Name:    MacBook Pro
UID:    0x0001000A17016E60
Firmware Version:    22,1
Port:
Status:    No devices connected
Link Status:    7
Port Micro Firmware Version:    FFFF.FF.FF

You are correct, here is what Apple Says:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3775
I was able to find these instructions, however they referr to 2009-2011 27" iMacs. I think it's the same, if it's not then contact Apple directly for instructions. If either of the machines is less than 90 days old or covered by AppleCare then call AppleCare tomorrow for help, they should be able to easily answer this for you. You will find the number in your manual or you can use the AppleCare Contact Info link.
Your iMac should automatically recognize the presence of a digital video signal at the Mini DisplayPort and enter Target Display Mode.
If your iMac does not automatically enter Target Display Mode, press command + F2 to manually enter Target Display Mode.

Macbook in target disk mode locks up when trying to transfer files to another computer. Suggestions?

A week ago I installed snow leopard on my girlfriend's macbook without backing anything up. Dumb idea I know. The installation failed multiple times. I ran her computer in target disc mode to try to save what files I could. Now when I try to transfer files it will freeze up at different times. Sometimes I can transfer a huge amount of data like 4GB's and the other times it locks up trying to transfer 4kB's. I'm at my wits end trying to figure this out. I can see the files but can not transfer them.
Any suggestions or past similar past experiences?

Hi Anand,
Have you noticed when you plug the drive in whether its making any sounds? You can put your ear up to the drive on the Macbook. Its located on the right hand front sided of the top case.
Also, check to see if the target disk mode icon is moving after a few minutes. If the firewire icon has stopped moving it usually indicates that theres something seriously wrong (probably mechanical) with the drive.
Id definitely give Disk Warrior a try. Especially if you have a situation where you can hear the drive running or spin up but it doesn't make any sound after that. Hope this helps.

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?

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

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

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?

Target Disk Mode Failure

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