Now turn your attention to the second Mac. On the source Mac (the one that won’t boot), press the power button then immediately hold T and wait to boot into Target Disk Mode.
Now make sure that the Mac you want to share from (the source) is switched off. You can check if you’re running Intel or Apple Silicon under the Apple > About This Mac menu.įirst, connect both Macs using a Firewire or Thunderbolt cable (this won’t work with a standard USB cable). Target Disk Mode can be used to share your (unresponsive) Mac’s drive with another Mac to transfer files, provided the source Mac isn’t using Apple Silicon.
Do you have a new Mac that you want to restore your old files to? Learn how to restore a Mac from a Time Machine backup. But this is definitely a good option to consider when your Mac just has booting issues or screen trouble etc.Recover what you need or use the search bar in Finder to find specific folders or files. For instance, you can’t use this mode if the target Mac’s drive is damaged or there are other hardware problems. While Target Disk Mode can be extremely useful when your Mac doesn’t boot or for file transfers, there are some drawbacks. This link will provide you with some tips on recovering important files after OS upgrade. However, if you’re still having trouble booting your Mac after using TDM, refer Mac wont boot after Sierra update. Once connected, you can perform troubleshooting on the target Mac or copy important files from the problematic Mac. In such cases, you can use Target Disk Mode and access it through another Mac.
Sometimes you may face problems with booting your Mac (the common problem when you upgrade Mac). This is probably the most useful application of the Target Disk Mode. Troubleshoot or access Mac that won’t boot.This is particularly helpful to transfer large files such as backups, disk images etc. Instead of using a USB flash drive or external hard drive as an intermediary between 2 Mac’s for transferring files, you can directly use a Mac to transfer files to another Mac. Now that we know the basics of Target Disk Mode, let us understand when you can use this mode. Open Finder to transfer any files you need and once that’s done, click on Eject to safely remove the connected Mac. Now you can use this Mac as you would like any other external storage media. Your host Mac should now be able to detect the target, Mac. Once you have Target Mode turned ON, you are all set to transfer files. If your target Mac is turned ON, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select Target Disk Mode.
Restart your Mac and press the ‘ T’ key until you see a FireWire icon on the screen.
This can be done using 2 methods described as follows. Also, make sure your Mac’s are plugged in to avoid running out of battery during the process. Once you have both Mac’s set up, follow the steps below to use Target Disk Mode.Ĭonnect the two Mac’s using FireWire or Thunderbolt cables. The other Mac is the Host this is the system that will be used to access the target, Mac. It could be the non-booting Mac or the Mac with issues.
One Mac acts as a Target, which as the name suggests is the system you want to access. The Mac systems you plan to use for TDM needs to have a FireWire or Thunderbolt port. You will need 2 Mac systems and a FireWire cable to use Target Disk Mode. This mode is also useful when you want to troubleshoot or access your Mac when it doesn’t boot. Target disk mode is a type of boot mode in Mac that is used to transfer large files such as disk images, important backups etc.