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Target Disk Mode on Intel Mac and connecting to M2 Mac

Hi,


I need some help. I have MacBook 12" that I believe has a dead drive. When I boot it in Recovery Mode, I don't see the drive in Disk Utility. I want to do one last thing and try Target Disk Mode. When I connect a USB-C cable (the one that comes with the MacBook charger between the MacBook12 and an Intel MacBook Pro, putting the MacBook 12 in Target Disk Mode, I don't see the drive at all on the MacBook Pro. I just want to make sure that it's not the cable so I thought let me try this with the Intel MacBook Pro and a M2 MacBook Air. I put the Intel MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode and connect to the M2 MacBook Air and I don't see the Intel MacBook Pro drive on the M2 MacBook Air. In all the documentation, it shows that Target Disk Mode is different on the Apple Silicon but all the examples are putting the Apple Silicon Macs in Target Disk Mode and not the Intels. If I want to use the Intel MBP in Target Disk Mode, can I just connect them the way I did or is this incompatible with the M's and you can only share the disk from MacBook with the Apple Silicon? This seems overly complicated. I get the sharing is different on the newer models but I would think if I want to share from an older model to a newer model it would be the same.

Posted on Aug 19, 2023 11:25 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 19, 2023 2:43 PM

The definition of Drive is dead:


a drive that will not tell disk Utility its Make&Model and a srtsonable, non-zero size/capacity has died.


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one note in this article suggest that if either computer has macOS 11 Big Sur installed, a ThunderBolt cable will be required.


Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support


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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 19, 2023 2:43 PM in response to texas pete

The definition of Drive is dead:


a drive that will not tell disk Utility its Make&Model and a srtsonable, non-zero size/capacity has died.


--------

one note in this article suggest that if either computer has macOS 11 Big Sur installed, a ThunderBolt cable will be required.


Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support


.

Aug 19, 2023 9:42 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks.


Yeah, I did see that note. I also saw lots of other forum posts where people said they used USB-C cables to do this but maybe they were thunderbolt cables and they didn't realize.


So in theory if I get a thunderbolt cable, I should be able to put the Intel Mac in Target Disk Mode (press T key) and then connect that to an M2 Mac and the drive of the Intel Mac should show up on the desktop of the M2 Mac?


Thanks again.

Target Disk Mode on Intel Mac and connecting to M2 Mac

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