Talk:Target Disk Mode

needs updating?
'''On the “classic” Mac OS, this means FireWire 2.3.3 or later and Mac OS 8.6 or later[1] are required to use a Firewire target. ''' Shouldn't that be Mac OS 6.8 or later? Also, reference [1] is a dead link.


 * The earliest snapshot on archive.org for reference [1] is from July 12, 2004. The relevant line at that time read:
 * The Power Mac G4 computer can operate in Target Disk Mode as long as the other computer has a FireWire port and either Mac OS X (any version) or Mac OS 9 with FireWire software version 2.3.3 or later. — Preceding unsigned comment added by F355fan (talk • contribs) 20:21, 23 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Archive.org also has a snapshot from July 24, 2008 with the same wording I just shared above.
 * F355fan (talk) 20:28, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Capitalization
Apple's site doesn't give a consistent capitalization (it mixed 'Target Disk Mode,' 'Target Disk mode' and 'target disk mode'), but the Mac OS X help files (for Panther, anyway) use full capitalization. I'd recommend moving the article to Target Disk Mode, any seconds? MFNickster 02:30, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Since there seem to be no objections, I will be bold and make the move. MFNickster 17:41, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Compatibility
TDM does not work on PowerMac G3 towers (Blue & White) or the first generation of PowerMac G4 towers (PCI Graphics). These are the only Macs that shipped with FireWire but did not support TDM, but this is not clear in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.65.174.10 (talk) 22:24, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Host Computer Requirements
One of the requirements for the host computer is given as "Mac OS 8.6 or later[1]", but the next paragraph talks about how Windows and Linux machines may be used as the host computer. These cannot both be correct. Is there a reason why "Mac OS 8.6 or later" is given in the requirements? Electron100 (talk) 22:05, 12 April 2011 (UTC)
 * There aren't actually any special requirements for the host, since target disks appear logically identical to any other external drive using whatever bus. These are actually the requirements to use modern Firewire devices (as distinguished from something like the old Apple Firewire Kit,) without which one obviously couldn't use Firewire mass storage of any type. 66.133.250.190 (talk) 03:35, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Not sure of Windows host requirements... but there are caveats for Linux: As of recent Linux , the HFS+ filesystem cannot be written to in Journaled mode. To mount this in Read/Write mode, there are two options: 1) Disable Journaling 2) Use Paragon's NFS/HFS+ driver (I could not get this working... it caused a kernel panic and crashed my system!). Additionally, newer Macbooks have the brand new (as of 2017) APFS that is optimized for Solid State Drives. To mount this on Linux unfortunately also suffers the same problem: ReadOnly access, and either a user-space / apfs-fuse driver, or again the paid piece of software: Paragon APFS for Linux. I have not tried either of these, so I cannot vouch for either one. Jcuzella (talk) 01:03, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

2015 Macbook
At the time of writing it's not clear whether the 2015 Macbook will support target mode but the suspicion is that it will require a dongle if it does... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.208.39.171 (talk) 17:17, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * This ArsTechnica Macbook 2015 article suggests that target disk mode still exists on the 2015 Macbook and needs a special cable but has been removed from the Startup Disk preference pane for some reason. 46.208.39.171 (talk) 05:32, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Cable requirements for Big Sur or newer macOS
According to Apple's Target Disk Mode support documentation, if either the host or the target being connected via Target Disk Mode has macOS 11 Big Sur or newer installed, there is an additional requirement that a Thunderbolt cable be used to connect the two computers. F355fan (talk) 20:08, 23 September 2023 (UTC)