Old macbook pro screen dead - can i boot that macbook pro using another macbook pro?

[ayupchap]

HI there

SO I have a macbook pro that has a dead screen, super annoying. is it possible to somehow access the hard drive from said machine and run it on another mac. My issue is theres an old version of adobe photoshop on there I need access to and its not on the other machine. is it possible to boot that drive on the other macbook to access it in the short-term before getting a new screen or working out something else i can do.

Any help much appreciated

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Depending on the ports available, you should be able to option boot to its drive from another Mac. What about an external display?

 

[pshufd]

You would use Target Disk Mode which means that you'd connect a Firewire to Firewire or Thunderbolt cable between the two machines. You can Google the directions for Target Disk Mode. I have a similar problem in that I have an iMac with a dead video card. I bought a Firewire 800 cable to connect it to my 2008 MacBook Pro (which also has a dead display) to access the files so that I can copy them off, then erase the drive and then bring it to the Apple Store to recycle.

My 2008 MacBook Pro has a dead screen but I can just hook it up to an external monitor. That may be an option for you too.

 

[Trey M]

You should just use an external screen to boot up your MBP and clone your hard drive using CCC or SuperDuper. It’s really easy to do, you just need a drive that has enough space for MBP HD contents. You’ll be left with a bootable HD you can use every once in awhile as needed or can you clone it to another machine as it is bootable.