How Do You Boot From Another MAchine??

if you still have the machine in your personal possesion then you can boot from target disk mode. Connect up your mac with a firewire cable, to your machine which your backing up to. then turn on the first machine, turn on the second machine (the one that needs backing up), pressing and holding the letter t on the keyboard as you do.

Then you should be able to access your internal HD from the computer.. It only works with Mac, not too sure on the possibilities if its not a mac that you have. could take the HD out and put it in, but thats quite complex. so each to their own i guess

Hope that helps

PTP

 

I've always booted up things by connecting via FireWire, restarting and holding down the option button until I get the Apple logo and spinning gear.


So I guess you could try that?

 

Okay, not knowing why you need to replace your motherboard, I would have to assume the worst which means you can't use the computer at all and it doesn't boot…

That means your can't boot from another computer because in order to do that, your computer needs to be turned on (and if the motherboard is broken, you can't turn it on).

And best case scenario, your computer does turn on, you need another Mac and connect it to your computer via firewire; USB will not work. Then hold T on your computer during the start-up and then you should be able to access the drive on the other machine (again this assumes you can turn on your computer at all). Yes the other computer needs to be a Mac as well.

Now that said, if you can't start your computer up at all or you can, but don't have another machine to work with, then you have only one solution, and that is to swap out the HDD. Not knowing which MacBook Pro you have, I can't provide a definitely instruction…

If you have a "classic" MacBook Pro, which means you bought it before October 2008, then the instructions are this: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/...-A1226-and-A1260-Hard-Drive-Replacement/670/1

Otherwise, if you have the "unibody" MacBook Pro, just removed the battery cover, unscrew the one screw holding the HDD in place and then disconnect the SATA cable.

Always remember, to use the correct screwdriver and make sure you keep track of the screws. Don't skimp and think you can make do with another sized screwdriver because you may strip the screw head and then you have a lot more issues to deal with.