Just toggle target mode, issue a quick sudo shutdown -r now, and you can plug the offending machine into another computer and run your diagnostics. Often, you can ssh in from another machine (assuming you have remote login turned on) even when finder crashes and a machine appears to be frozen. Any value, even zero will work.Īnother potential use is for a disk you suspect is corrupt, or to unstick a frozen system. That's a actually a bit of a pain: habitual command line users expect that '1' will toggle a behavior, and '0' will untoggle it, but that isn't the case here. It only works for the next start-up, and can't be unset. That will set the machine to boot in target disk mode at it's next start-up. with the command line, it's "no muss, no fuss," just: I often hit 'reboot,' figure I have enough time to finish off a task on another machine, get caught up in the new task, and miss the window of opportunity to start the first machine in target disk mode, switch the startup disk, or whatever it was I wanted to reboot for. One, if you, like me, tend to be doing two, or three, or ten, things at once, holding down keys at startup can be a pain. Select that volume and then choose File > Mount from the menu bar. The target disk should appear as a volume in the Disk Utility sidebar.
HOW TO START MAC IN TARGET DISK MODE MAC
Click the Startup Disk icon and afterward click on the Target Disk Mode button to restart your Mac in Target Disk Mode.
Why would you want to do this? A couple of reasons. To enter Target Disk Mode, click the Apple menu, and choose System Preferences. Today, it was that EFI Macs can be set from the command line to boot into FireWire target mode on their next reboot (Open Firmware macs can do it, too, but it's more complicated). Shut down your Mac and disconnect the cable.You really do learn something new every day. This will interrupt the connection between two Mac computers.Ħ. Once done, you can drag the disk icon to the Trash folder to eject. On the target Mac computer, and you can drag your wanted files and transfer them to the other Mac computer.ĥ. Once the Mac computer started up, you will see a disk icon on the other Mac computer. To do this, turn on the computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until a FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB-C symbol is displayed. Open Startup Disk > click the Target Disk Mode option. Boot a target computer to target disk mode.
When the Mac is on, click Apple menu at the top-left corner of the desktop > click System Preferences. Choose the Mac you would like to regard as an external hard disk, start this Mac up and at the same time press and hold the T key.ģ. Find your Firewire or thunderbolt cable to connect your two Mac computers.Ģ.
HOW TO START MAC IN TARGET DISK MODE HOW TO
How to use Target Disk Mode to transfer and move files?ġ. If you are wishing to browse and copy files to another computer quickly, then we suggest you give this target disk mode a try. Users can take advantage of this function to transfer and move files to another Mac computer using firewire or thunderbolt cable. So, what is target disk mode? For two Mac computers, one will be regarded as an external hard disk on the other. Usually, all Mac computers will be connected with each other as long as they come with FireWire or thunderbolt ports. How to Use Target Disk Mode to Transfer and Move Files Between Two Mac Computers?Īs a Mac regular user, have you been wondering how to transfer files between two Mac computers? Looking to know how to browser and copy files on another Mac? Here is an answer, we’ll use the target disk mode.