I've numbered each point – as there are a lot – in the hope it makes it easier to reply or ask me for further info. Thanks! 1. The Problem 2. What I've Tried So Far... 3. Next Steps? 4. Screenshots The Problem -------------- 2. 2018 MBP Will not boot using Internet Recovery, nor any other type of Recovery thus far. 3. Get variety of errors - 1008f, 2300f, 2100f. 4. 2018 MBP is running Big Sur (*possibly* a recent beta version, icr) 5. Have updated 2011 iMac to **High Sierra 10.13.6**. It's moving slowly, but it's definitely moving. It's a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, plenty of free disk space - 1.76TB. 6. I have *most* important stuff on the MBP backed up, but concerned due to medical reasons that vital things may not have been backed up in recent times - my eye has been off the ball somewhat... 7. I really want to access the Data on the MBP if I *possibly* can. 8. I fear the Logic Board *might* be on it's way, but hope I can salvage something. What I've Tried Already -------------------------- 9. Updated iMac to HS, to create **bootable installer of High Sierra** using Terminal commands. It's Extended Volume, not AFPS. Can make another in AFPS if it will remotely help. 10. MBP did not boot to it. Still brings up Network prompt which ultimately seems to cause the fail each time. 11. MBP *appears* to process connecting the MBP to WiFi Network each time, but then produces variety of error codes at the end, even when using bootable installer and Option key. 12 Have even put entire High Sierra OS on external drive, endeavouring to effectively use external drive as a Mac Mini with ailing MBP just the screen. Nope. Still wants to connect to to Network (this is for the Firmware, afaik?) 13. Have today connected MBP to iMac using Thunderbolt 3 cable and USB-C to Thunderbolt adaptor. 14. Endeavouring to boot using **Target Disk Mode**. 15. Can see **MBP Macintosh HD - Data** in Disk Utility, but cannot perform **First Aid**, nor **Mount** it. **IMAGE BELOW** 16. Also have a Drive titled **Update** in externals, which seems to show the Data and ?(Big Sur beta update?) maybe? (I haven't called it Update, and I'm not quite sure what it is) **IMAGE BELOW** 17. Tried Terminal commands to Verify **Data**, getting a variety of **Permission Denied** errors. **IMAGE BELOW** 18. Tried \\\ diskutil verifyDisk disk2 \\\ which gives: *Unable to verify this whole disk: A GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning scheme is required (-69773)* 19. Tried \\\ diskutil verifyDisk disk2s1 \\\ (that's the volume(?) with the data on) which gives: *"A whole disk must be specified"* 20. 21. Downloaded iBoysoft to try and recover data. 22. It can see the Data, but there's a padlock on the Drive and it's asking: *"Please enter the password of your encrypted APFS partition"* **IMAGE BELOW** 23. Wondering if this is a FireVault thing? I'm not sure if it's switched on, on the MBP or not. If it is, I have absolutely no idea what the **encrypted partition password** is, nor where I'd find such information. 24. Apparently, I can run iBoysoft Data Recovery in *macOS Recovery mode*. 25. I'm not sure if this will be complicated because I am also using **Target Disk Mode**, rather than running iBoysoft directly on the affected MBP, because I can't. A search of the iBoysoft FAQs fails to offer an answer to this query. Next Steps ---------- 26. Is there any point in creating *another* **Bootable Installer**, this time as APFS, rather than Extended Volume? 27. Where can I find the **encrypted APFS password** info? (I'm not convinced I have one, but it may have switched on by default?) I am a devil for recording passwords so if I was aware this existed, I absolutely would have made a note of it. What would it look like format-wise? 28. And where would I enter it for the Disk Utility or Terminal to be able to access *'MBP Macintosh HD - Data'*? 29. Would entering the command prompt \\\ sudo Fsck_APFS /dev/disk2s1 \\\ do anything helpful? 30. I have a 2019 MBP running Big Sur which thoughtfully simultaneously fell over. This happened while I was awaiting delivery of the super-fast Thunderbolt 3 cable to do the data transfer. It has refused to switch on since, so I am pretty much stuck with the 2011 iMac as rescuer for now. (And yes, I've tried all the usual suspects NVRAM, SMC on the dead second MBP etc) I am an absolute novice at all of this, so please speak ** s l o w l y ** to me in simple terms. This is my first post and I'm doing my best... Screenshots --------------

I'm trying to compare two directory trees via FileMerge and it's stuck on "status: initializing..." for several hours now (statusbar in lower left corner). I've already tried to cancel and restart but same result. How can I troubleshoot? The directories are quite large (1.5 TB): The home folder from an defunct old MacBook Pro, connected via Thunderbolt in target disk mode and its backup copy on an external harddrive (USB-C). The MBP will be wiped and shipped back to Apple and I want to make sure I have all the data. While copying everything onto the external drive the machine I'm running it on froze. It seems to have finished, but when comparing the size of the folders there are some differences between them. So I just want to double check that nothing got lost and they are indeed identical. (Other solutions without FileMerge also welcome. Maybe FileMerge isn't meant for super large directories, after all it's called "File"Merge; but at least [here](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/10252/what-directory-comparison-tools-can-i-use-on-os-x) it is suggested that it should work for directories too ...)

I have a MacBook Pro (Intel, 2017), with a broken internal display and am trying to boot it in target disk mode through another machine. But every time I'm getting the black screen with the "your computer needs to restart bc. of a problem ..." I have successfully connected it in target disk mode and transfered all relevant files. But there are a couple of things (a few settings, licenses, etc.) that I'd like to access while being logged in. I am using a working machine that is exactly the same model (Intel from 2017, both have macOS Ventura installed) to boot the broken machine in target disk mode. After holding option key at startup to get the option to choose a startup disk, how can I then force to boot into safe mode from the external disk?

The MacBook Pro 2014 (macOS High Sierra, A1502) I’m using has a firmware password set. I tried to boot into target disk mode and it asks for this password even after turning it off/on. I tried many key combinations, SMC reset, cmdoptionPR, etc, none of which worked. I just want to boot from the main drive again so it works as usual. Is there anything I can do apart from waiting until Monday to resolve it at my school? I need this thing for the weekend.

### Hardware iMac, 2019 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5 Ventura 13.6.3 MacBook Air, 2020 Apple M1 Sonoma 14.2.1 Thunderbolt cable (edit: actually, charging cable. My mistake.) ### Problem I want the iMac in Target Disk Mode so that I can see it from the MacBook. I have followed the instructions outlined in Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode (support.apple.com) to no avail. The iMac boots in Target Disk Mode (shows lightning and USB icons), but there's no indication my MacBook sees it (e.g., no disk icon on the desktop). **Can a MacBook Air and iMac be connected in this way, and, if yes, how?** ### Notes 1. The cable is working insofar as the MacBook is drawing power from the iMac. 2. No other devices are connected to either computer. 3. Each computer has two thunderbolt ports, but changing ports has no effect.

I have two M1 MacBook Pros running 14.2.1. I am trying to transfer the data from one computer to the other using **Migration Assistant**. I have tried connecting via the wireless network. I have tried using a 10GB USB-C cable and no matter what order I try to do this in neither one of the computers recognizes the other and I am not able to transfer the data. I have also tried doing Target Disk mode, with hopes I could just copy the files over and it does not work. I hold down the T key and boot up. It simply goes to the login screen. I am not sure what I am missing but I know that I am not succeeding. I welcome guidance. **Updated:** One thing that does work is if I connect a Time Machine. That is recognized and allows me to move forward.

I've been copying files from an M1 Mac mini and a 2018 15" MacBook Pro to a 2023 16" MacBook Pro. With the 2018, I can use Target Disk Mode . I didn't time it, but it went so fast as to not bear notice. With the mini, I have to use Share Disk . It seemed very slow, so I benchmarked it—it was going at about 27 MB/s. I rebooted the mini and instead used a direct Ethernet connection (CalDigit TS3 Plus Ethernet to Mac mini built-in Ethernet). That is benchmarking at 104 MB/s. I'm curious what's making Share Disk so slow, or if that's just intrinsic to the technology—or if, in fact, my experience is very unique. I used the same Thunderbolt 3 cable in both cases, plugged into the same port on the 2023.

I need to get some data off of a 2013 iMac whose graphics adapter has failed. I can boot into single user mode but no other mode. I want to try to start it in Target Disk Mode. I can't find a Thunderbolt 1 - Thunderbolt 4 adapter. Does such a thing exist? Would a Thunderbolt 2 - Thunderbolt 3 adapter work to connect to the M2 Mini? Or, to a Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Air?

So I have two older MacBook Pros: - One is a 17", Unibody, Core 2 Duo, 2.8 Ghz, A1297 from 2009 . - The other is a 15", Unibody, Core i7, 2.0Ghz, A1286 from 2011 . More details: - Both are running **OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard**. - The 17" has a **Mini DisplayPort**, and the 15" has a **Thunderbolt** port. The goal: I would like to physically connect the two computers, and screen-share from the more powerful 15" (Core i7), to the older 17". **Basically I want to be able to use the 15" laptop but with the *larger screen* of the 17".** Is there any way I can achieve what I would like to here? Other notes: I am aware that I can share screens via System Preferences over a local network, or Bluetooth or something. -But the picture quality is too degraded, and the frame-rate too slow for what I require. Also, I do not have a male-to-male Mini DisplayPort cable yet, and I don't want to buy one until I can confirm that a connection like this can be successfully made between the two laptops.

Due to being unable to access anything but the recovery mode (and target disk mode) of my broken MacBook, I'm attempting to back up files that hadn't been backed up since my precious Time Machine backup. This includes standard files and large Virtual Machines files. Can I use Time Machine from the Terminal in Recovery Mode to back up my files to my usual external hard drive configured with Time Machine? Or is there any other way to efficiently back up files that were not backed up by Time Machine on the external drive? Can I use Time Machine from another OSX device to back up my broken MacBook in Target Disk Mode? Thanks in advance!

On my iMac 15.1 from 2012 with Big Sur I wanted to startup from another USB-disk. The normal procedure with the Option key did not work so I tried using a Target Disk. That looks like trouble. After reboot the screen is just black with a lock and an input field. Connecting to my recent Ventura laptop via cable does not help. With a wired keyboard and wired mouse I can typ some text in the input field, but there is no reaction. How can I leave the Target Disk mode?

I understand that Apple can unlock it if one provides proof of ownership, but my friend bought his computer on eBay and has been unable to get the original owner's help. He does not have a recovery key, and has forgotten the password. He decided to come up with a long and clever password, memorized it, and used it daily for about a month. Then his laptop charger broke, and it took him a few weeks to decide to finally get another; consequently, he forgot the long and clever password during this time because he wasn't constantly using it daily like he normally would. Forget the icloud reset option, he didn't bother turning that on. He's sure he never turned FileVault on, if that matters. Aside from him being a fool for not better securing a record of this long and clever password, is there any way possible for him to regain access his data? I've done a little research, but can't find a definitive answer so I figured I'd see if any of you smart people might have some insight. Also, what is the point of FileVault on a Mac with the T2 security chip if the chip is already responsible for encrypting the drive? Does having a Mac with a T2 chip automatically prevent someone from booting into Recovery mode or Target Disk Mode or from accessing disk utility or a terminal without having a user's password credential? Finally, are there any stipulations associated with having FileVault turned on or off on Mac with the T2 chip, with respect to booting the device into something like Target Disk Mode? What's the point of FileVault being turned off if the outcome to my question is, NO, the data on his drive is unrecoverable and gone forever...?

Been using Target Disk Mode for the last 15 years flawlessly, except for the last 2-3 years. Yesterday I needed to copy a bunch of files between my 16" Intel and a brand new 14" M1 Pro. Target Disk Mode didn't work. Tried with: 4 Macs (Intel macOS 12.4; Intel macOS 13; M1 macOS 12.4; M1 macOS 13) - FileVault disabled, all APFS. 3 different Thunderbolt/USB-C cables (Apple, Amazon, no-name) All Macs were tested both in Target Disk Mode ("slave") or as receivers ("master") I tried all possible permutations, none work. No Mac can see another Target Disk Mode (not visible in Disk Utility or with diskutil list, connected hardware not listed under Thunderbolt or Storage device in System Info). I also tried to setup a direct Thunderbolt Bridge between two running computers, by plugging them directly with a TB cable and setting up static IPv4 addresses in an unused range, to no avail. The network connection stays "Not Connected" and is never brought up, whatever the cable I use. Is Target Disk Mode… basically dead??

I have a PowerMac G5 PPC running Tiger and an old, white, Santa Rosa MacBook running Leopard. If I create cloned disc images of these OS drives, will I be able to run them in VMWare Fusion/Parallels/etc. on a modern Intel Mac? If I were to create bootable clones of these drives, would these need to be formatted as APM on FireWire drives that would only be accessible from the G5 &/or SR MacBook as opposed to bootable clones formatted as GUID on USB drives accessible from any modern Mac? Is there any reason I would want to clone the drives via Target Disk Mode, hooked up to an Intel Mac, as opposed to cloning them directly from their own interfaces or from an Intel Mac with access to them via ethernet LAN? Thank you

Every year or so I like to do a fresh install of Mac OS on my machines. The method I've always used is to download the OS from the App Store, create an installable USB with Terminal, boot into the USB, format the internal storage and then install. This has not worked on my most recent Mac, which is a 2018 Intel Mac mini (the only one I have with a T2 chip). It first wouldn't let me boot into the USB due to a security restriction, so I rebooted into recovery mode and formatted the internal storage there. Before restarting I attempted to restart to the USB with Target Disk Mode, but it wouldn't pick up my USB within about a minute of waiting (maybe I should've waited longer) so I just restarted it normally and tried once again to boot to the USB on startup. Every time I select the USB device on startup, it falls back to internet recovery mode. The yellow USB drive icon just instantly turns into the globe and prompts me to connect to WiFi. I've tried this method a few times but it sounds like any blip in the connection causes it to give up, and this has happened to me 4 times now. Is there any reason why a T2 Mac with no OS would not boot to a USB device? Is there anything else I can do besides retry internet recovery until it finally downloads everything in one go? Thanks! **UPDATE: I did eventually get Internet Recovery working. [See my answer below](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/419888/356520)**

I got this message on a MacBook Pro 2012: >path /system/installation/packages/osinstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged The first thing to do is to safe data. The hard disk is encrypted with FileVault. Is it possible to plug it to another MacBook Pro (running High Sierra or El Capitan) and pull the data?

I have a late 2014 15.6" Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt 2, on which I accidentally wiped the entire partition table, including Recovery HD (yeah, I was stupid). There's some data on it that I kind of want (nothing super important though). I haven't had any luck recovering the data with freely available tools (I tried a few things on Linux live USBs, and I also tried the Disk Drill MacOS USB, which saw nothing), so I was trying to demo the R-Studio data recovery software to see if it could find the lost partitions and files. However, the USB wouldn't boot on the old laptop, and the tech support guy at R-Studio said the only way I could do it was to run R-Studio on another Mac and read the drive using Target Disk Mode. If I buy a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable, would I be able to use Target Disk Mode from my 2017 15" Thunderbolt-3-equipped work laptop? And would this in fact give the level of hardware access needed for lost partition/lost file recovery? I feel like the data has to still be there in some form, because I haven't written anything to the disk since I borked it up.

I'm working as a technician and would like to learn the capabilities of these cables. I know a USB-C 3.1 gen. 2 can do it, but I'd like to know if a Thunderbolt-3 cable would do it. I know that you cannot use the thunderbolt 3 cable to connect a Macbook 12-inch to a Mac with Thunderbolt-3 port, as Thunderbolt ports seem to only accept Thunderbolt cables for data transfer (and I tried to and didn't work). Can you use a Thunderbolt 3 cable to connect two Macbook 12-inch in target disk mode?

Recently, when I was transferring data between two MBPs, I found that the 15-inch 4 Thunderbolt MBP 2017 was making a high-pitched noise when in Target Disk Mode and connected to another mMc. It doesn't matter whether the MBP was charging or not. It doesn't matter when I connect; as soon as I do, it starts making high-pitched noise. What is a possible explanation for this? The MBP does not make high-pitched noise when in Target Disk Mode but not connected to another mac, when booted up into recovery system, when booted up into 10.13, or when booted up into 10.15.

I want to uninstall rEFInd in a peculiar situation. I overheated my ageing iMac doing a Zoom chat while running other programs. It crashed. Since when it won’t reboot and there are lines on the screen. The GPU may be fried. BUT following various searches I successfully fsck -fy ‘d itand it rebooted as normal. While it was working I verified the install with DiskWarrior (kudos). It is fine. Then it fritz’d again and won’t now reboot. I get to a blank white screen with lines on it. I can see Apple log and progress bars. Before splashing on a new GPU or new iMac I want to remove rEFInd to eliminate the possibility of graphics driver corruption or other boot issues on the iMac. Below is what I have tried so far. I CAN - boot iMac into Target mode - boot iMac into single-user mode - in this case the screen has lines on it but is basically usable. I CAN’T - boot into Recovery mode (either by booting with R or Alt - Alt shows the Recovery Disk and booting it shows a progress bar, and - R shows a progress bar but on both cases it goes nowhere) - boot into Hardware test mode In Target mode connected to my MBP. I can see all the iMac files in the MBP’s Finder. But I can’t see anything below the Mac OS. In single user mode I see the following before the final root prompt: Root device is mounted read only Enabling and disabling services is not supported in single-user mode, and disabled services will not be respected when loading services while in single-user mode. To mount the root device as read-write: >$/sbin/fsck -fy >$/sbin/mount -uw / Doing $/sbin/mount -uw (only) results in root_device on / (hfs, local, read-only, journaled) devfs on /dev (devfs, local, no browse) and the commands below have the same results as shown below, so AFAICS either it didn’t mount as -r-w or I made some other error. In single-user mode localhost:/ root# ls produces s list which includes Volumes but does not include EFI. localhost:/ root# cd Volumes localhost:Volumes root# ls shows Linux Macintosh SSD but not EFI. However, EFI is present on its own partition. Diskutil will not run in single-user mode, but it will run in Target mode, and it shows that the EFI partition is present on the iMac SSD. In Target disk mode via Terminal on the MBP with the iMac connected by Firewire I get: Ric0sMBP% diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS MacBookSSD500gb 371.5 GB disk0s2 3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3 4: Linux Filesystem 127.6 GB disk0s4 /dev/disk1 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *127.9 GB disk1 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Microsoft Basic Data HD 127.5 GB disk1s2 /dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1 2: Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD 799.5 GB disk2s2 3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk2s3 4: Microsoft Basic Data Linux 199.7 GB disk2s4 The iMac is /dev/disk2. Ric0sMBP% ls /Volumes HD Linux MacBookSSD500gb Macintosh SSD iMACtemp Ric0sMBP% The iMac is “Macintosh SSD”. iMACtemp is a temp directory I made for the next step. Ric0sMBP% sudo mount -t hfs /dev/disk2 /Volumes/iMACtemp Password: mount_hfs: error on mount(): error = -1. mount_hfs: Resource busy Ric0sMBP% cd /Volumes/Macintosh SSD cd: string not in pwd: /Volumes/Macintosh Ric0sMBP% So ... I can’t access the iMac EFI partition via Terminal on the MBP, even though I can see it is there. And I can’t mount the disk to -rm it And I can’t use the MBP Finder to delete it, because Finder doesn’t see it. And I can’t access it from the iMac desktop because that won’t boot. And I can’t find the EFI partition on the iMac in single-user mode. Finally (!) I have a TimeMachine backup of the iMac’s OSX partition on an external Firewire drive. That does not contain the EFI partition (either on the external drive or on any folders in the backup). So I guess I could wipe the entire SSD on the iMac, reinstall the OS from a recovery USB (which I have) and reinstall the TM backup onto that. But in order to wipe the drive, I would need to be able to mount it in Terminal. I think. If I try to reinstall the OS from USB without deleting the EFI partition, I think I will still have the same problem. At least, I can’t know that if the problem persists, it is not down to something wrong with the EFI. BTW while the iMac was still working I did a reinstall of the OS (alone), but that didn’t prevent the second crash and didn't enable Recovery mode. That’s the limit of my know-how. --- Can anybody tell me how to remove rEFInd from the iMac SSD, see if that fixes the boot / graphics issue, and proceed from there?