Wife's iMac won't boot-Target disk mode won't work

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Level 1

30 points

Wife's iMac won't boot-Target disk mode won't work

I've tried single user mode and target disk mode. Noting except single user mode will work and I don't know enough UNIX for that.

Her iMac is running ML and is about 4 years old. It's attached to my 3,1 Mac Pro via Firewire. I have a physical keyboard attached to her iMac by USB. Starting up with "T" depressed or "S" or even command-R or the option key to choose recovery.

Edit - while typing this, the screen came up allowing me to reinstall ML, etc. I chose to go into Disk Utility, selected her boot drive, and chose repair. After a few minutes the message came up that it could not be repaired and to move as many files off it as possible. I do have one partition that still showed with my files on it, but I again cannot get the iMac to either reboot or go into Target mode.

Any help recovering her files would be most appreciated.

Posted on Jun 6, 2014 4:04 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

dianeoforegon

Level 5

7,287 points

Jun 7, 2014 5:34 AM in response to Don T

Do you have an external drive? If yes, do you have room to create a partition on the drive that is large enough to backup the files on her drive?

If no, go out and buy an external drive.

I'm assuming she can't boot into her drive now.

Attach the drive to your computer and format the external drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - Partition Map Scheme: GUID.

You'll need two partitons.

1 Enough space to backup her computer

2 40GB would be plenty to install OS X with no other applications or files.

Install OS X on her drive. You can download via the Mac App Store (MAS). You might want to move her to Mavericks if she meet the requirments. (see below)

After installing OS X, download SuperDuper to clone her drive. It's free to do a full erase and clone backup.

Eject drive and attach to her computer.

Hold down Option key when launching her computer and select the external drive.

Clone her drive.

Verify that the data was copied to the clone.

Open Disk Utility and select her Macintosh HD (internal drive)

Erase

It should default to these options:

Format the external drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - Partition Map Scheme: GUID

Now you can install Mountain Lion or clone over the Mavericks install to the internal drive.

After you boot from internal drive, copy over her personal files.

Make sure you make the User's Library visitble before booting into the interal drive so you can see contents. How to enable the User’s Library folder

Since she was running Mountain Lion, her applications are probably OK, but check this site to be sure .

http://roaringapps.com/

OS X Mavericks: System Requirements

To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

▪ iMac (Mid-2007 or later)

▪ MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)

▪ MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),

▪ MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)

▪ MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)

▪ Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)

▪ Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)

▪ Xserve (Early 2009)

Your Mac also needs:

▪ OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed

▪ 2 GB or more of memory

▪ 8 GB or more of available space

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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Answer 2

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jun 7, 2014 2:39 AM in response to Don T

Can you still access Recovery & the Disk Utility there ?.

If so, use Disk Utility - File menu - New - New Disk Image... to make a copy of at least the Home folder on an external drive, or your Pro.

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Answer 3

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Jun 7, 2014 7:30 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Andy, the last time I tried I couldn't access either, but thanks and I. may try one more time.

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Answer 4

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Jun 7, 2014 7:34 AM in response to dianeoforegon

Interesting idea, dianeoforegon. Seeing another bootable system. The only problem is that even prior to finally being able to get to Disk Utility, holding down the option key at boot wasn't doing anything. I'm also not sure after the attempt at repair if I can even see her drive. It left an earlier, bootable version of mine in Disk Utility visible, but I couldn't boot into it.

Worth a shot, though, as I have a bare drive holder and plenty of drives. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks.

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Answer 5

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jun 7, 2014 7:48 AM in response to Don T

If you've no backup, and Option to display the choice of startup disks isn't working :

Backing up files to a USB drive using single-user mode or similar should help recover whatever's salvageable without specialist software.

Is your Pro running an OS that the iMac will start from if the Pro is in Target Disk mode ?.

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Answer 6

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Jun 7, 2014 8:05 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Love this. Will try it. Thanks.

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Answer 7

Jun 7, 2014 11:53 AM in response to Don T

You need to setup the new bootable drive on YOUR computer. THEN attach to your wife's computer and hold down the Option key to select the new drive.

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Answer 8

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Jun 7, 2014 12:17 PM in response to dianeoforegon

Yes, I understood that part. I created a 2 partition external drive. Installed a fresh copy of 10.8 and updated it. Plenty of room for files on second partition. Was able to boot into it on wife's iMac and could see her drive (with a warning that I need to back up or copy its files). I downloaded SuperDuper (which I use religiously on my Mac Pro to back up my boot drive daily). As I type, it's preparing the backup drive and next step is copying files from wife's boot drive.

Fingers crossed.

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Answer 9

Jun 7, 2014 12:39 PM in response to Don T

Sounds like you are in good shape. Fingers cross that her data copies over successfully.

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Answer 10

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Jun 7, 2014 2:24 PM in response to dianeoforegon

What is finally working, after taking FOREVER to copy anything on her iMac, is that having the external bootable drive plugged in allows me to use Target mode to open it on my Mac Pro, although Disk Utility was reluctant about it, giving the usual warnings. Copying is proceeding apace and, while far from speedy, is much faster.

Thanks, all for the assistance!!!

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Answer 11

Jun 7, 2014 2:50 PM in response to Don T

Great! You can try erasing her drive to see if that clears the problems using Disk Utility from the external drive.

Please mark as answered or mark as helped. This helps others that are looking for answers.

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Answer 12

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Jun 7, 2014 2:57 PM in response to dianeoforegon

I'm pretty sure at this point, with all the warnings and failed DU repair that the drive is toast. It's such a hassle to get into the 2009 iMac (or any) to replace the drive, that it's going on Craig's List to someone who's into such things. I could do it, but I just don't want to.

Getting her an i5 Mac Mini and giving her my spare 24" display, so she'll be getting an upgrade in terms of speed and quality of display.

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Answer 13

sfarri1

Level 1

0 points

Sep 5, 2014 2:51 AM in response to Don T

Did this work in the end? We've got a desktop mac that won't boot up. We get to the apple symbol and a grey progress bar and it turns itself off. Have tried all first aid and repair disc options. Have borrowed a MacBook Pro to try and recover the files via firewire/target disk mode but although I can see the desktop drive on the macbook pro through the firewire, I can't get it to mount. I'm currently formatting an external hard drive to try and follow the above but did not really understand the bit about 'install OS X in her drive'. Did that mean your wife's computer? I'm not going to be able to do that on my desktop as I can't physically get into it at all. Any clarification of the process, what needs to go where and whether it worked would be gratefully received.....

thanks.

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Answer 14

Don T Author

Level 1

30 points

Sep 5, 2014 3:34 PM in response to sfarri1

I'm confused that you can see the desktop icon for the target drive (FW icon on the desktop of the MBP) yet can't get it to mount. If it's' showing up, that means it is mounted. If your goal is to recover the files, then you should be able to copy or clone them for that. In case I too am confused, this is what I did:

Took a spare external FW drive and partitioned it on my working Mac Pro.
Installed a fresh copy of 10.8 on one partition. This enabled the iMac to see a working system and boot into it (BTW, the problem was a dying hard drive)
Started the iMac, holding down the option key immediately, letting me choose the external partition with the OS on it.
Now that I could get into the iMac, I used Disk Utility to show the iMac drive. This took several attempts with warnings that I need to rescue the data ASAP.
Copied the files from the dying iMac drive to the empty partition on the external drive

Hope that helps!

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Answer 15

sfarri1

Level 1

0 points

Sep 5, 2014 3:42 PM in response to Don T

To be honest, I was confused too. I could get the firewire symbol to come up on the target mac but it just would not mount in the host and so I couldn't get to the files....

thank you so much for the detail. That is what we did in the end so good to know we were on the right track and fingers crossed we are about a third of the way through the cloning. it's looking good so far.

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