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Can a firewire/thunderbolt adapter be used for target disk mode

A

andywallin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 4, 2012
6
0
Hello all!

I've just gotten the new Imac with no fire-wire ports. I have an old 2008 imac 24" with a busted graphics-card, not displaying anything - but seems to be running ok. (Itunes responds and starts playing music when pressing play/next buttons on the keyboard).

And, of course, I need to access the hard-drive.

Is it possible to use a thunderbolt/firewire adapter to put the display-less Imac 2008 into target disk mode and copy the harddrive from there?

Searching for this I've found conflicting reports, some say it can't be done, while others claim it's possible. Heard the adapter is only unidirectional, does that inhibit copying?

Thoughts? Would it be better to just open it up and put the harddrive in a external case? Would preferably avoid this!

Thank you very much for your time! ;)
 
I

iWaiting

macrumors regular
Dec 10, 2012
132
0
they both have ethernet ports use migration assistance to sort it out


note you only need a normal cable not a swapped over one grab the one from your router
 
A

andywallin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 4, 2012
6
0
iWaiting said:
they both have ethernet ports use migration assistance to sort it out


note you only need a normal cable not a swapped over one grab the one from your router
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input.

This is however impossible in my situation because I have no display, so I can't initiate migration assistant on the 'source' iMac. But i figured 'target disk mode' would be easy to initiate only holding the 'T'-key during startup...

So, does anyone know, does it work with an adapter? Or are there better alternatives?
 
B

bflowers

macrumors 6502a
Jul 19, 2006
636
136
if the old iMac is effectively dead, why not pull the drive and put it in an external drive case.
 
A

andywallin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 4, 2012
6
0
bflowers said:
if the old iMac is effectively dead, why not pull the drive and put it in an external drive case.
Click to expand...

Well, it just seems a bit complicated to me, and I am selling it to a company that pays a certain price for it 'unopened'.

And still, it's just the videocard that is gone. It can still be reached on its running webserver, so I thought there might be an easier, or at least, less technically invasive, method.

Appreciate any input!
 
A

AFPBoy

macrumors regular
Jun 7, 2011
115
73
andywallin said:
And still, it's just the videocard that is gone. It can still be reached on its running webserver, so I thought there might be an easier, or at least, less technically invasive, method.

Appreciate any input!
Click to expand...

Have you thought about using FTP (file transfer protocol) with both computers hooked up to the network using software like Cyberduck? Not the fastest, stablest or most elegant method, but it might work for you.
 
G

Grymbok

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2012
25
1
andywallin said:
Hello all!

I've just gotten the new Imac with no fire-wire ports. I have an old 2008 imac 24" with a busted graphics-card, not displaying anything - but seems to be running ok. (Itunes responds and starts playing music when pressing play/next buttons on the keyboard).

And, of course, I need to access the hard-drive.

Is it possible to use a thunderbolt/firewire adapter to put the display-less Imac 2008 into target disk mode and copy the harddrive from there?

Searching for this I've found conflicting reports, some say it can't be done, while others claim it's possible. Heard the adapter is only unidirectional, does that inhibit copying?

Thoughts? Would it be better to just open it up and put the harddrive in a external case? Would preferably avoid this!

Thank you very much for your time! ;)
Click to expand...

Yes, it can be done. I migrated from a 2008 24" iMac myself using exactly this approach. In my case the video card had died completely and the 2008 wouldn't boot but would go in to Target Disk Mode.
 
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