I will *NEVER* buy a computer that doesn't have a Target-Disk-Mode able port on it

[paduck]

Wouldn't you need something like this for the Air?

Were kits like these made available, by the way? Didn't Apple block them (or at least one of them)? Also with TDM there's no need to dig out the HD/SSD.

Digging a drive out is a legitimate Apple concern. Especially with the new iMacs. Here is the SATA/IDE -> USB connector. Worth its weight in gold about once every year or two. Only downside is that USB is a little slow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

 

[bushbeat]

...But NEVER is a strong word and the case study here misses the point...

I think that this somehow sums it up.
It's great when TDM can do the trick, but a solid backup strategy combined with hardware adapters and lowlevel recovery software has all proven to be needed many times for me.

Wouldn't you need something like this for the Air?

Interesting. I have no experience with Macbook Air, but I would like to have an adapter for the SSD, if we had some fine machinery like that around.

Motulist, I hope that you got all your data back - it's awful when it fails.

 

[nagromme]

I think the OP was just giving high praise to a feature he loves. He didn’t attack anything, but he got a real tempest in return!

So I will chime in and say that, although I love my Air in spite of lacking Target Disk Mode, I will love my next Air even more for having it It’s a great Mac feature, and wireless doesn’t replace it (WiFi is slower for one thing).

 

[ActionableMango]

If I'm to understand this correctly, here is the use case scenario presented by the OP:

If your hard drive fails in a way that the data isn't lost, but still works in a way that works with target disk mode, then you can get your data back, but first you have to buy a second Mac and connect it to your first Mac.

That scenario is comical in so many ways.

 

[em500]

If I'm to understand this correctly, here is the use case scenario presented by the OP:

If your hard drive fails in a way that the data isn't lost, but still works in a way that works with target disk mode, then you can get your data back, but first you have to buy a second Mac and connect it to your first Mac.

That scenario is comical in so many ways.

Yup. The cases where TDM is really useful are actually pretty limited: namely where the OS on the internal drive won't boot, but the computer itself, the drive (and hopefully also the filesystem) are still intact (if the drive is physically broken, the only thing that will save you is a backup).

And in every case where TDM is useful, there are alternatives which are at least as functional (often even more so), such as external enclosures/SATA-USB adapters or a linux live boot cd/USB stick.

So it's fine if people like the feature, but declaring that one would *NEVER* buy a computer that doesn't have TDM, just because it was handy to have once in a blue moon is indeed somewhat comical. From the wording of the OP it sound like he'd been totally lost in his situation without TDM. The reality is that without TDM a solution to his problem was still quite trivial: download an ubuntu live cd, boot from that, copy files from internal hard drive to an external drive over the network to another computer.

 

[dime21]

Target disk mode is one of those features that you literally only need once every year, maybe even only once every 2 or 3 years, BUT... on those rare occasions when I need it, target disk mode COMPLETELY saves my butt. Like right now. My old powerbook G4's hard drive finally gave up the ghost after 7 and a half years (longest lived hard drive I've ever had). I did have a back up, but it was a couple of months old. If I lost the data I accumulated since that last backup it certainly wouldn't be the end of the world, but I definitely would rather have it than not. So I just plugged a firewire cable into it and connected it to my new computer, and boom, I was able to save all my data.

This is why I would never buy a computer that didn't have firewire or lightpeak/thunderbolt or some other port capable of doing target disk mode. Because even though you may only need it once in every 700 days, but on that 700th day it *completely* saves the day.

I agree with you in that it's a priceless feature, when you need it, it's exceptionally useful. It is not a matter of port capability though, but rather it's a firmware feature. In the case of the Apple laptops, there is nothing special about the port or the chip set - target disk mode is a feature of the EFI firmware.

Peecee makers could implement this in their PC BIOS if they wanted to. But since this target disk mode capability is relatively unknown outside the Mac world, well, ignorance is bliss. They don't know what they're missing, so the Peecee makers have no incentive to implement it. Heck, I'd wager most Mac users don't even know about it.

 

[em500]

I agree with you in that it's a priceless feature, when you need it, it's exceptionally useful.

It's not priceless, and in fact only useful in very limited cases. Namely when a) the computer itself is still ok so that you can actually boot into the firmware AND b) the drive itself is still relatively intact AND c) the OS on the drive is corrupted to such extend that it doesn't boot AND d) you have another computer around with the same port (FW/TB) and which understands the Mac filesystem.

Only in that that circumstance, TDM is somewhat useful (in the sense that it saves you some minutes compared to the alternative below). Otherwise, you're almost always better off with easily removable drives and a IDE/SATA-USB adapter (which works even if the computer itself is completely dead) or with a flexible linux live cdrom/usb drive (which can mount the drive and copy the files to be rescued to external drives, burn to dvd or export over the network to Macs and non-Macs alike).

It is not a matter of port capability though, but rather it's a firmware feature. In the case of the Apple laptops, there is nothing special about the port or the chip set - target disk mode is a feature of the EFI firmware.

Peecee makers could implement this in their PC BIOS if they wanted to.

No they cannot, and neither can Apple, despite using EFI. In addition to smart firmware, TDM requires USB host-mode support in the chipset. USB was explicitly designed as a host-slave setup, where the computer is the host, dumb devices are slaves, and the roles cannot be reversed. This was later amended with the USB On-The-Go spec, but that requires extra chipset support (it's not in the Intel, AMD and nVidia chipsets used by Apple almost all PC makers) and non-standard cables, and never gained ground in the PC world (it's mostly used in embedded applications and on some phones).

But since this target disk mode capability is relatively unknown outside the Mac world, well, ignorance is bliss. They don't know what they're missing, so the Peecee makers have no incentive to implement it. Heck, I'd wager most Mac users don't even know about it.

It seems the ignorance is mostly found in the Mac camp with people who have occasionally used TDM and keep raving about it, apparently barely aware of all its limited scope, and the fact that a bootable usb stick is almost always a better solution.

Seriously, Macs have enough perks to sell as they are, and TDM can come in handy in some cases. But I really wish people stop hyping such a minor and marginally useful feature (which isn't even present in all Macs anymore) and make themselves look like a bunch of religious fanatics.

 

[the.orange.tuba]

I started reading this cause I was like, "What the heck is this TDM?" And I'm glad I did because you guys offered up some good backup and linux thumb drive solutions, as well as off site backup via Crashplan that I will be checking out. So thanks to you all for throwing in your 2 cents.