Data recovery by target disk mode from Macbook Air not starting and showing 'Prohibitionary Sign'

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Data recovery by target disk mode from Macbook Air not starting and showing 'Prohibitionary Sign'

I have two Apple Macbook Air 2015 (Model A1466) laptops. One of those is not turning on since last few weeks. Most probably, it is a logical error caused due to corruption of drives because I did not shut down the mac properly after using it last time. Corruption of drives in HDD and SSD is also confirmed after running First Aid in Disk Utility.

When I try to turn on the power button and enter the password, I get to see the circle with a slash sign (often referred to as 'Prohibitionary Sign' by Apple).

The problem is that this data is not backed up and I want to recover it. I have attached photos of the ports of the same Macbooks with this post.

Can anyone possibly advise which cable do I need to connect the two same macs to recover data from faulty mac by opening it in target disk mode? Thanks in advance!

iPhone 6s, iOS 15

Posted on Aug 1, 2024 5:43 AM

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Answer 1

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Servant of Cats

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Aug 3, 2024 7:04 AM in response to appleusercbr

The plugs on that Thunderbolt cable have lightning bolt marks, but don't look like USB-C plugs. So I'm guessing that is an example of a Thunderbolt 1/2 cable (with Mini DisplayPort style connectors) of the sort you need.

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Answer 2

Aug 1, 2024 7:35 AM in response to appleusercbr

Each of those Macs has

A Thunderbolt 2 port (with a Mini DisplayPort connector, instead of the USB-C connector used by TB3 and TB4)
Two USB 3.0 ports (with USB-A connectors)

According to the Support document, if either of those Macs has Big Sur or Monterey installed, your only option is to connect them with a Thunderbolt cable. In this case, that would be a Thunderbolt 1/2 cable. Those cables might be a bit hard to find.

If both Macs have Catalina or earlier installed, you can use either a Thunderbolt cable or a USB one. A USB 3 cable should be pretty easy to get.

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