Target Disk Mode / Firewire Only?

I have a friend who has an old iBook G4 14.1" (Model A1055) with a broken screen.
I use a 2012 MBP Retina.
I want to run the iBook in target disk mode, from my MBP. From what I understand, target disk mode only works with firewire (at least the old one does). I don't have firewire on the MBP.
Can I do this? Do I have to use a firewire cable with some kind of USB adapter?

No, you would need to have a Mac with Firewire. There are no adapters for USB to Firewire (there was one old one that worked with some Firewire-equipped camcorders, but it was iffy even for those and has long since been discontinued). Otherwise, you could connect an external monitor to the iBook and transfer files via file sharing or some removable media.
Regards.

Similar Messages

  • Target Disk Mode - Firewire Symbol not bouncing

    My G4 iBook has stopped booting up (all I get is blue screen). I am attempting Target Disk Mode to grab a few files that aren't in my last backup. When I boot up in TDM, I get the firewire symbol on screen, but it doesn't move around like usual. More importantly, the other Mac (MacBook2,1 running 10.4.11) doesn't recognize the other drive. Even Disk Utilities can't find it.
    Now I would assume that the drive failed so catastrophically that it can't be read, EXCEPT that it is a new drive! I installed this drive less than 5 weeks ago.
    Anybody know what it means when the firewire symbol doesn't dance in TDM? I'm guessing that if I get past this problem, then the other Book will be able to see and mount the drive.
    Thanks very much!

    Larry:
    The issue may not be the Hard Disk Drive at all, although I am not ruling that out. I know what is involved in getting into the iBook G4 to either install or remove a HDD. However, if all else fails I suggest that you might want to go back in there, pull the drive, install it in a firewire enclosure and connect it to the iBook G4 or another firewire Mac and see if it shows up. Indeed, I would try to Option boot the computer from the HDD in the enclosure to see if the installation works.
    cornelius

  • Target Disk with firewire only recognizes bootcamp!?

    Hi there, my MBP will not boot anymore.. it just stays at the apple logo.. I only want to rescue some files I really really need(the rest I have on time machine) but when I try to Target Disk my MBP to another MBP it only recognizes the partition which contains Windows XP..
    Does anyone have only a slightest idea of what I can do?

    Usually means the OS X volume is inaccessible. You might try reinstalling OS X if possible:
    How to Perform an Archive and Install
    An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
    1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
    Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
    3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
    4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
    5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
    6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.
    Failing that see the following:
    Basics of File Recovery
    Files in Trash
    If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
    If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
    General File Recovery
    If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
    The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
    Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

  • Firewire Target Disk Mode - Secondary Internal HDD?

    Hello great collective of knowledge.
    Does anyone know if there is a way to target the secondary internal hard disk in Firewire Target Disk Mode?
    Thanks,
    Clint

    FireWire Target Disk Mode will only work with the master Ultra ATA drive. To access other drives, change the position of them in the computer or use File Sharing, with SharePoints if necessary.
    (23400)

  • 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?

  • No write access to Target Disk (in target disk mode of another Leopard)

    Every time I connect my MacBook to my iMac using firewire target disk mode (iMac in control, MacBook in target disk mode), I only ever have read-only access since upgrading both to Leopard. Never had this problem in Tiger. Can't even access the drive or folder permissions on the MacBook drive as they're grey'd out (i.e., can't even login to that drive with the MacBook admin account's username/password). Clearly there is a "feature" here I'm not working with properly. Any ideas?

    Am going to guess on this one but it may be worth a try... Do you have different 'root' admin accounts on both machines? If so, add the iMac's admin account to the macbook's "allow acess for:" in system preferences/sharing... and no, you do not need to be sharing anything it can be disabled... Good luck.

  • Does the MacBook 2015 support target disk mode?

    Will the new MacBook support using the only port it has USB-C to thunderbolt for target disk mode booting?
    thanks

    Kappy wrote:
    Target Disk Mode is only usable on Firewire. If Apple provides a USB-C to Firewire adaptor then you could use TDM.
    Not true: You can access Target Disk Mode through Thunderbolt ports.
    I don't know enough about USB-C to know whether TDM is possible: certainly TDM isn't possible on USB-A ports. We'll all have to keep reading the reviews once the hardware is released.

  • Target Disk Mode - Multiple Drives

    I bought a new mac and want to take the info off my old Power Mac G4 867 MDD. I started it up in target disk mode but i only see ones of the 3 drives.
    How can I see all the drives in the machine
    Thanks

    FireWire Target Disk Mode will only work with the master Ultra ATA drive. To access other drives, change the position of them in the computer or use File Sharing, with SharePoints if necessary.
    (23397)

  • Firewire target disk mode only recognizes 128GB of my 400 GB external drive

    I am using an old Powermac G4 with a Seagate 400MB internal secondary drive as a n external drive via firewire target disk mode. I have used disk utility to format it but only 128 GB of the 400 GB is recognized? Any thoughts?

    More than likely your old G4 has a disk controller only capable or recognizing drives up to 128Gb size. If it's an original G4 model with no additional ATA card in it, that would be normal.

  • Target Disk Mode on new MacBook Air - where to find Thunderbolt to Firewire cable?

    I use a MacPro desktop with a RAID set-up at home, and will use the new MacBook Air on the road. I need to use Target Disk Mode when I return home to sync my Macs. The MacPro only has Firewire 400/800; the new Air only Thunderbolt. Does anyone know how to find a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, please?

    I, too, would like a TB<->FW adapter, but I'll wager that for 99% of those purchasing a new MBA it is not an issue let alone a serious ommission.
    For the rest of 'us' (the remaining 1%) Sonnet has an adapter listed with info due 'later this summer' as to pricing/availability so as Waymen has already stated it may be a while before we see one.
    In the meantime, I'll use a combination of USB2 drives (one of my dozen or so USB2 drives--120GB to 1TB--I have lying around), an Ethernet cable, SuperDrive, or AirDrop.  Not as convenient but a usable work around.

  • No FireWire cable for Target Disk Mode

    I have an original MacBook1,1 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. It will not start up, I have tried everything on this Apple web page , Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup, besides an erase and reinstall and I don't know what to do. It won't read the Snow Leopard update disk (My other two Macs do). When I restart In Verbose Mode, it always stops right after 'Airport: RSN handshake complete on en1'. When i started my other Mac in Verbose Mode, after 'Airport: RSN handshake complete on en1', it went straight to the login window. I called Apple support and they said that I need to perform an erase and reinstall but first I need to get an install disk for Mac OS X Tiger 10.4. and get some things off using Target Disk Mode. I do not have a FireWire cable and do not want to have to go and buy one. I have an Ethernet cable and a male - male USB cord. The two other Macs that I have are an iMac7,1 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, and a MacBook6,1 running Mavericks 10.9.4. If you have any solutions for fixing it without the erase, or just a way to get my info off of it, please help.
    Thank you in advance!

    The USB cable won't be useful in that situation, and the Ethernet one will only help if you have access to a computer running Mac OS X Server. Get a FireWire cable.
    (111882)

  • G4 and Firewire Target Disk Mode

    I am running a G4 made in Dec.99, with ATA drive and AGP graphics, running OX 10.3.9 and I cannot start it up in Target Disk Mode (TDM) to connect it to a Mac Pro. Any ideas? I've been all over "support" on the Apple web site and the only thing I could find is that it may not be TDM compatible, but the list of machines that do work included G4 with AGP graphics and ATA drive, which I have both. I have firmware version (BootROM) 3.1.3ƒ1 and do not know what else I can do. Does anyone have any ideas, as a co-worker told me he was able to TDM a G3. I have already done the obvious checks, cords, ports, power, etc, and the G4 keeps starting up on the system. Should I try restarting in system 9 (still installed) and then try TDM? Help, please.... if anyone can, thanks.

    Hi, Andrea -
    I have firmware version (BootROM) 3.1.3ƒ1
    The current version of firmware for your machine is 4.2.8. It is recommended that the firmware be updated for better compliance with OSX, and doing so may solve the Firewire TDM issue. You can download the updater from here -
    Article #86117 - Firmware Updates
    The firmware update will run only when the machine is booted to OS 9 from the internal hard drive, so it is good that you still have that installed.
    Note - the firmware update will result in a more strict adherence requirement by the startup memory test. Several years ago there was a bunch of RAM sold which did not quite meet Apple's original specs, but was good enough to pass the original memory test requirements. Much of this RAM will not pass the stricter adherence requirements after the firmware update - any that does not pass the test will be locked out during startup. Before installing the firmware update, download and run DIMM First Aid - this utility can perform basic RAM tests, such as compliance to specs, and can correct the coding on some sub-spec RAM so that it is usable after the firmware update. This utility is an OS 9 program.
    Should I try restarting in system 9 (still installed) and then try TDM?
    That should make no difference. Since nothing is loaded, including the OS on the drive, when a machine is started up in FwTDM (the machine's drive appears to the Host machine as if it were an external firewire hard drive), what OS may be set in Startup Disk is not relevent.
    <hr>
    Does anyone have any ideas, as a co-worker told me he was able to TDM a G3.
    Yes, some G3's are FwTDM capable, although many G3s (such as B&W G3 models) can be only the Host machine and not the Target machine.

  • 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.

  • Firewire target disk mode question

    I am using firewire target disk mode to copy some files, but can only see the system drive on the slave computer, what do I do so I can see the secondary hard drive on the slave computer?

    You'll have to swap drives. TDM only sees the MASTER drive. If your drives are jumpered MASTER and SLAVE then switch them. If the computer uses CABLE SELECT then swap the position of each drive on the ribbon cable.

  • Firewire Target Disk mode confusion

    Alright, so after 1.5yrs my PowerMac decides to crash...after spending time on phone with Apple support and internet, only option is complete reinstall. So I was told about Firewire Target Disk Mode and the ability to transfer all data from crashed computer to a working one, and after reading countless post on this forum as well as others, Im still a little bit in the grey on which is the Host and which is the target, so I felt that I would see if I could get a case-specific answer from my friends here...
    If please could someone select correct answer.
    Both computers off, start the (crashed/working) computer while holding the "T" key.
    Also, is there any way I could cause any data loss to the working computer? Its my roommates and it would be terrible in if fixing mine it destroyed his!!!
    PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
    Thank you very much in advance...and please flame me if I didnt make any sense, but hopefully will understand what Im trying to do and help a desperate man out. Thanks again!!!

    I'm still a little bit in the grey on which is the Host
    and which is the target, so I felt that I would see
    if I could get a case-specific answer from my friends
    here...
    The "Target" in Target Disk Mode ("TDM") is the computer that is placed into TDM. The paradigm is that, by booting the TDM computer with the "T" key depressed, it becomes just a fancy Firewire disk (with the TDM icon on the screen) just like any other Firewire disk, and can be mounted on any other working Macintosh computer (the "Host") as an external drive.
    In most cases (but not yours), it actually can be done with either computer as the "Host" and the other one as the TDM (Target). Because you can't boot your computer, it will have to be the Target so that the boot ROM can do the Firewire magic to make the drive be a Firewire TDM drive.
    If please could someone select correct answer.
    Both computers off, start the (crashed/working)
    computer while holding the "T" key.
    In your case (see above), it should be the "crashed" computer that is put into TDM mode by booting with the T key depressed.
    Also, is there any way I could cause any data loss to
    the working computer?
    Oh sure, just like you could operating on any Computer. You could drag all of the files on the Host computer to the trash, and many would go there (some would need the admin password). You could erase the disk (Mac OS won't let you erase the boot disk, but you could boot from a CD/DVD on the Host computer and erase the boot drive. And you could make the mistake of copying the files from the TDM drive (the crashed computer) on top of similar but possibly different files on the Host. But connecting the TDM computer as a mounted drive, without more, won't cause data loss. It will require some mistake by the person at the keyboard (you).
    Hope this helps,
    Russ

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