TargetDiskMode
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Ask TUAW: Target disk mode, iPhoto library, upgrading an iMac hard drive, gifts for a recent Mac convert and more
Hello and welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! This week we've got more questions from readers, such as using Target Disk Mode, moving your iPhoto library to an external drive, putting a bigger hard drive in an iMac, sharing a Magic Mouse, good gifts for a recent Mac convert, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions. Kishen asks: While I connect a 2009 MacBook Pro to a new 27" iMac in Target Disk Mode, is there any way to use the iMac's wireless keyboard and mouse to control the MBP? When your computer is connected to another computer in Target Disk Mode, the connected computer is effectively just an external hard drive and nothing more. So no, there isn't a way to control the MacBook Pro because it isn't functioning as an actual computer when in Target Disk Mode. It is simply another hard drive and behaves accordingly.
Ask TUAW: Target disk mode, energy saver prefs, iTunes sharing and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about target disk mode, energy saver prefs, Safari file issues, iTunes album artwork, iTunes sharing and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.computergeeksjw asks:I have an old iMac Blue G3. The fliesystem failed, but I can't reformat because there is a disc in the slot-loading drive. I tried the tricks I know like Open Firmware (gives me a weird error) and holding in the mouse button (I hear the drive spin up but nothing else happens). I have a newer G4 Quicksilver. Will it be able to boot up into Target Disk Mode even though the filesystem is damaged? (Then I can try to repair with Disk Utility or reinstall from there) or will it fail like a normal boot does?
TUAW Tip: Swap out your laptop's hard disk for a spiffy new SSD
If you're looking for a significant performance boost for your middle-aged laptop, replacing your aging hard disk with a solid state disk (SSD) could give your computer a new lease on life. Solid-state disks (pictured, bottom) differ from traditional hard disks (top) in that they're not constructed with platters and heads. Instead, they're more like giant thumb drives, containing memory chips designed to be written and re-written without wearing out. The upside to this is that SSDs are much, much faster to read and write to, making booting and starting applications lightning-quick. I recently installed an Intel X25-M SSD, a 160GB drive, as a replacement for a 120GB Toshiba hard disk for my 2006-vintage black MacBook. Spendy, for sure, but for the performance increase and the extra life it adds to my MacBook, well worth it. Plus, I had my state tax refund burning a hole in my pocket. The performance is phenomenal. The old disk booted in a respectable one minute, 49 seconds. The new disk booted in a blazing 31 seconds. Ridiculous. Windows also boots in less than half the time it took before. Photoshop CS3 launches in five seconds, Illustrator CS3 in nine seconds. Getting the drive was simple: It's moving the data that takes time. Read on to see how you can migrate your data like I did -- including a Boot Camp partition -- with little fuss.
Target Mode: don't panic
TUAW reader Bryan raised an important question--one that's been circulating on a number of Apple forums--in response to yesterday's confirmation that Open Firmware won't be ported for x86 Macs: what happens to the Open Firmware functions Mac users love, such as Target Disk Mode and holding down "c" to boot from CD? The answer? Probably nothing. The newest Intel chipsets, like the 945g, support Intel Active Management Technology, which allows for on chip control of all kinds of I/O. Its primary purpose is to allow remote control of devices via AMT enabled ethernet cards for easier network diagnostics and server recovery, but it can be put to a variety of other uses as well. The best publicized use has been its support for DTCP-IP, but it should be able to emulate most of the OF functionality Mac users rely on, and probably some things we haven't thought of yet.
