Cant only get into TDM mode - need to get advice

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Level 1

9 points

Cant only get into TDM mode - need to get advice

I have a family friend who has come ot me for help. She has no istall disk as the laptop was bought second hand. Looks in good condition otherwise and has been running well. She knows very little about the OS and she estimates it is 3-4 years old.

Ok so I have created a bootable USB from my macbookair. I tried inserting this and I get no differece. On pc I would set the boot options. Of course on the mac there si no bios.

So I assumed it might try to boot from USB if it found one that was bootable. But it makes no differece. From looking around a lot online and trying umpteen restart methods I can get TDM mode and if I start with option or alt then I get a black cursor I can move on the standard background and nothing else. I cant seem to get into command line version either.

I would like to know if anyone thinks it is worth me opening up the shell and trying the hard disk connector. However I would have through that TDM mode would not have worked. I dont have a firewire cable to test if it seems to look like a hard disk from my laptop.

I dont want to suggest she pay for a new OS is something bigger is the fault after all there should be some boot options behaving differently. Its a black laptop about 14" with no other markings other than macbook under the screen.

Really appreciate anyones help.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)

Posted on Feb 23, 2014 5:31 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 23, 2014 6:21 AM in response to landed.at

Some facts to bear in mind:

1. Only Intel Macs can boot from a USB drive. Do you know if computer you are trying to boot has an Intel processor? And even if it does, the USB device has to be correctly formatted. Is it?

2. You can get some information ab out your friend's computer from the serial number.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1366

3. With the serial number you can get more specs:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1635

Without some basic information about the computer anything we suggest here would be pure speculation.

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Answer 2

Lyssa

Level 8

41,405 points

Feb 23, 2014 7:20 AM in response to landed.at

Do you know if this computer had any liquid spilled on it? I wonder if a key or two is stuck and that's forcing it into TDM on boot...

~Lyssa

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Answer 3

landed.at Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2014 8:09 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

Thanks for the great info - I used this to get the model

~VIN,MACBOOK (13-INCH EARLY 2008)

So is this enough to see if it is an intel based ? To the other poster I want to clarify that TDM is the only boot option that seems to work.

I from memory think that mac went intel after this time. So if it isnt intel what next.

I consider to open it up and check the hard disk connection.

After that I guess I would like to see if I can get anywhere with an install CD.

Dont want to invest in a new license if it isnt going to work !

Again thanks for replies.

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Answer 4

Feb 23, 2014 8:27 AM in response to landed.at

Yes, that is Intel based. You should be able to boot from an external USB. Did you make sure the USB device is correctly formatted?

Here's the information:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948

Another point to remember is that you cannot boot the Mac with an earlier version of Mac OS X than the original one - the version that was installed when the Mac was bought. And the Macbook has to be compatible with any newer OS version for the boot to happen. For example Mavericks does not run on the early 2008 Macbook.

In other words installing any old OS you happen to have on the USB device may not work.

As for Target Disk Mode, you will need a firewire cable and two Macs with FW ports.

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Answer 5

Feb 23, 2014 8:41 AM in response to landed.at

Using a USB with the OS from a MacBook Air might not work. The drivers would be different. Unless you were using a retail install disk and not from the install disks from the MacBook Air.

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Answer 6

landed.at Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2014 9:08 AM in response to frederic1943

I am not sure having ANY thing on a USB stick will work as ther eis no bios selector or boot up option for me to choose a USB anyway ! Thats my sticking point ATM..just checking what the app store has..still I feel that I need a cd though again no guarantees its going to look at that any more than the USB stick 😟

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Answer 7

landed.at Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 23, 2014 10:07 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

Thanks again for such good ideas and advice.

Has been formatted with a GUID partition type
Contains an installation of Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later, or Mac OS X 10.5 or later, which is compatible with (orshipped with) the Mac that the USB device is connected to. Note: You should not use a version of Mac OS X that is earlier ("older") than the version your Mac shipped with.

yes to the first point above..but what would the install look like

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Answer 8

Feb 23, 2014 12:41 PM in response to landed.at

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

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Answer 9

Feb 23, 2014 12:53 PM in response to landed.at

boot up option

Hold the Option key down immediately after the start up chime.

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Answer 10

landed.at Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2014 3:25 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

It was unusually quiet trying this today and it sounded like the disk was not right. This may be the issue.

If the disk is caput :

If I format a usb stick with GUID and select journal partition and stick it in the USB (even without any files) then I would have thought it would at least run the boot selector program. Again I get just the cursor on an empty background.

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Answer 11

Feb 24, 2014 3:56 AM in response to landed.at

When a Mac boots but cannot find a bootable device, it displays a folder with a question mark. Since that is not what you are seeing, my guess is there is something other than the boot drive that is not working.

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Answer 12

landed.at Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2014 3:59 AM in response to landed.at

Ok I used this tool to finally get the boot manager working !

http://lion-recovery-disk-assistant.en.softonic.com/mac

This looked to be exactly what I needed and before this alt booting just gave me a cursor but now I get to select the USB. However on selecting the USB I get the no entry icon. But this could be a really great tool for your machine.

For me it leds weight to the theory that the hard drive is not good as the mac cant see it to boot from it. I will try and get a firewire to help but could I in theory find an off the shelf drive for this 2008 machine ? And maybe stick some ram in at the same time ...would be great to just get mavericks running on it.

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Answer 13

landed.at Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2014 4:09 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

No that is what I am seeing the folder and question mark if not noing a special boot.

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