Booting from Another imacs HD

[robcrouch]

Hi All, is it possible to connect one imac to another imac... then boot Imac A using the hardrive that is inside IMAC B? I am aware of target disk mode, but I want to actually boot from the hardrive inside another imac. Is This possible without taking the HD out and plugging it in via an external USB.


Thanks...

 

[martinm0]

I...don't know. I don't happen to have two matching macs to test this on.

What is the end goal in this process? Testing hardware? And I presume these are identical iMacs?

 

[robcrouch]

Yes, Basically one Imac has a sudden Beachball Freeze every minute or so. Disk utility shows no problems but SMART utility shows status as SMART FAILING. so I suspect its a faulty HD. Id like to boot from the other iMacs hard drive just to be sure.

 

[macguru5]

Hi All, is it possible to connect one imac to another imac... then boot Imac A using the hardrive that is inside IMAC B? I am aware of target disk mode, but I want to actually boot from the hardrive inside another imac. Is This possible without taking the HD out and plugging it in via an external USB.


Thanks...

One can boot from an external drive, but not safely from another iMac. If you have an external firewire or USB-3 external drive, hold down the option key at startup, and all attached drive with a valid system file on it will show. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the one you want to start up on, and then hit the return key.
Macguru5

 

[robcrouch]

One can boot from an external drive, but not safely from another iMac. If you have an external firewire or USB-3 external drive, hold down the option key at startup, and all attached drive with a valid system file on it will show. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the one you want to start up on, and then hit the return key.
Macguru5

Actually found that it is possible. For anyone else interested. The image you want to boot from needs to be in target disc mode. Then holding alt from the other Imac on boot will show the hard drive to boot from. Connected together via FireWire