What has been your experience with Target Disk Mode on Mac? Do you have any tips or tricks to share? Let us know in the comments.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 (Thisusually included the internal Hard Drive and CD/DVD-ROMs). While Firewire is no longer shipping on Macs, thankfully Firewire was replaced with Thunderbolt as a high speed data connection on newer machines, which allows this feature to carry on, and that’s so much better than removing the Target disk feature completely.Īnd no, for the record, you can’t use Target Disk Mode with USB, for now at least, though you can boot from an external USB drive or flash drive if necessary, just not in target mode like this.

Target Disk Mode gets frequent use by many power users because it’s ridiculously fast and an excellent method to transfer giant files, but it’s also amazingly useful for troubleshooting problematic Macs and performing some last minute backups of critical files and data if a computer is on its last legs. Once the target Mac has been ejected and disconnected it can be used as normal. When you are finished, safely eject the target Mac as if it’s any other disk.In a few moments, the Mac will bot as usual and the target Mac’s hard drive should appear on the host Mac’s desktop, allowing you to access it like any other external drive.Boot the target Mac while holding down the ‘T’ key until you see a Firewire or Thunderbolt icon displayed on screen, this signifies that target disk mode is detected and working.Now connect both Mac’s to each other with the Firewire or Thunderbolt cable.Turn off the ‘target’ Mac (the one who’s drive you want to show up on the host).How to Use Firewire or Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode on Mac A converter may work, but it is not recommended.

Additionally, each Mac must use the same port, for example, if you’re booting target disk with Thunderbolt, both Macs must use thunderbolt to connect to one another. Before beginning, be sure both Mac computers have Firewire or ThunderBolt ports, and that you have a Firewire or Thunderbolt cable.

Thunderbolt 3 target disk mode