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Target Disk Drive

How can you use target disk drive on newer macs that do not have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports? I tried USB C but get the warning to use thunderbolt.

Posted on Sep 10, 2021 3:32 PM

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6 replies

Sep 10, 2021 3:55 PM in response to Jack-19

It’s a iMac I got new in 2017. It only has USB and USB C ports in the back. I’m trying to connect it to another Mac to try and recover data as attempting to update to Big Sur caused some sort of glitch where it will not install fully. The only thing I can do is boot it in recover/safe mode but every time I try to reinstall it stops at the exact same spot in the install and because it’s Big Sur I can’t install the OS that came with the Mac because Big Sur was downloaded. So just attempting to recover any data if I can before I wipe it. Yes I’m learning the hard way to back up certain data I don’t keep on my external HDD’s.

Sep 10, 2021 4:22 PM in response to Jack-19

That's false. The USB-C ports are also Thunderbolt 3. - Did not know that


Im trying to see if it will work on the MacBook Pro I have which I believe is a 2020 model. Has the same ports, 2 on each side. I attempted it earlier with these ports but didn’t mount the main HD but a secondary mount. When I tried to un-mount it it says it was 1 of 2 mounted but the other wasn’t visible. I only tried using the ports on the right side of the MacBook unless some ports have different purposes.

Target Disk Drive

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