Firewire Transfer

[ddcrandall]

I recently bought a 20" iMac, after my 12" PowerBook failed on me for the seventh time. I was told by one of the employees at the Retail store that if I connected the two computers, and then held the "t" key as the PB was booting up, then I could transfer information from that computer to the iMac.

Tonight I tried doing that with a little success. A couple of documents transferred fine. However, the process kept freezing. I would get an infinite spinning of the hourglass (or whatever it's called on the Mac). Also, the symbol on the PB would stop moving. Is this normal? Is it a sign that my PB is thoroughly ruined? Any help would be great.

 

[mad jew]

Okay, so you were trying Target Disk Mode to get your data back. Unfortunately, this is probably the most robust method for retrieving data from a failing drive, so if it's not working now then there's not much you can do about it. If your data is very important, you could take it to a professional data recovery place and see if they get further.

 

[ddcrandall]

Okay, so you were trying Target Disk Mode to get your data back. Unfortunately, this is probably the most robust method for retrieving data from a failing drive, so if it's not working now then there's not much you can do about it. If your data is very important, you could take it to a professional data recovery place and see if they get further.

Does this mean that the data cannot be recovered? None of it is really important to me, but I'd like to know if I should keep trying.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Okay, so you were trying Target Disk Mode to get your data back. Unfortunately, this is probably the most robust method for retrieving data from a failing drive, so if it's not working now then there's not much you can do about it. If your data is very important, you could take it to a professional data recovery place and see if they get further.

The firewire transfer is probably failing because the Powerbook is failing.

Before giving up, get ahold of a Firewire 2.5" drive case about $45 - $50 (or even a USB 2.0 one $20) and physically remove the drive from your Powerbook and install it in the external case. Hook the (now external) drive to the iMac and try to transfer. This removes the variables of the Powerbook, its firmware/target disk mode, and its power supply. You can maybe get more data off of it this way.

 

[mad jew]

The firewire transfer is probably failing because the Powerbook is failing.

Maybe, but from my experience, Target Disk Mode fails because of a bad hard drive. Either way, it's probably worthwhile trying the external case thing all the same though. I just don't have high hopes because Target Disk Mode is such a similar process to using external cases.

 

[gman71882]

target disk mode should work IF the hard drive is ok because it doesnt load the operating system.
Your HD prob is on the Fritz. Have you noticed any clicking sounds coming from it??? that usually preceeds a failure.

 

[ajunger]

i think that you might want to test out the firewire port on your imac before you worry that your drive is the problem. I have new Imac too and I had the same problem..couldn't transfer files to or from my imac and my powerbook. I tried my external HDD and it would hang up too. The Imacs have two firewire ports, try using the other one and see if it works. Mine did, and since the one wasn't working, I had apple replace my whole unit...

 

[ddcrandall]

i think that you might want to test out the firewire port on your imac before you worry that your drive is the problem. I have new Imac too and I had the same problem..couldn't transfer files to or from my imac and my powerbook. I tried my external HDD and it would hang up too. The Imacs have two firewire ports, try using the other one and see if it works. Mine did, and since the one wasn't working, I had apple replace my whole unit...

It works, or at least partially. So far I've been able to transfer five files from the PB, but it frequently freezes and I am forced to manually disconnect them. I'm worried that this is doing more damage to my HD.

 

[ddcrandall]

target disk mode should work IF the hard drive is ok because it doesnt load the operating system.
Your HD prob is on the Fritz. Have you noticed any clicking sounds coming from it??? that usually preceeds a failure.

No, there have been no clicking sounds.