Connect your Macs via a Firewire or Thunderbolt cable.
You can also enter Target Disk Mode by rebooting your Mac and holding down the T key as it boots. Click the Startup Disk icon and click the Target Disk Mode button to restart your Mac in Target Disk Mode. In earlier generations of Apple MacBook computers, TDM or Target Disk Mode was a boot mode that made all internal drives appear to an external FireWire capable system to be LUNs which could be consumed by another endpoint (This usually included the internal Hard Drive and CD/DVD-ROMs). MacDrive from Mediafour ( is a well-known and useful tool for accessing Mac drives in target mode or Mac formatted hard drives you receive. To enter Target Disk Mode, click the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
#Target disk mode without firewire software#
#Target disk mode without firewire Pc#
When using a Windows PC to access the target Mac hard drive, there are a few things to prepare: Make sure the cable being used fits the connector on the Mac since there are different shape connectors for FireWire standards. Any Mac with a FireWire or Thunderbolt port can be started up in Target Disk Mode. Once the computer is in Target Disk Mode and available as an external volume to the host Mac, you can copy files to or from that volume. Some Windows laptops have PCMCIA or ExpressCard/34 slots that allow insertion of a FireWire or Thunderbolt card when the system doesn't include one of these ports. What is Target Disk Mode As mentioned, Target Disk Mode lets your Mac be used as an external hard disk connected to another Mac. If there is not a FireWire port on the Windows host computer, you will need to purchase an adapter for the system. Target disk mode requires the host computer (systems accessing the Mac) to connect via the FireWire or Thunderbolt port to the target Mac. Therefore, target disk mode allows forensic examiners and IT professionals to access the internal Mac drive as an external hard drive from another Mac or a Windows PC. Removing hard drives instead from a Mac computer can be time consuming and result in damage to the system when not performed properly. Booting an Apple Macintosh in target disk mode allows users to copy relevant files from the internal drive on a Mac computer.