This can be done by powering off the target (unbootable or High Sierra) computer and then powering on again, this time by long pressing the “T” button or key. Starting Up Mac in Target Disk ModeĪfter connecting your Mac running OS X High Sierra (10.13+) (or a computer you wish to recover with Disk Drill that is unbootable) to another Mac that is working, the target Mac can be started in Target Disk Mode. Please continue reading this guide to learn how to configure Target Disk Mode. You only need to connect your Thunderbolt or FireWire cable to establish a connection between the two Macs. Remember that using Target Disk Mode is only one of several means of recovering from Mac OS X High Sierra with Disk Drill. The use of Target Disk Mode requires that you have another computer that is working and a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable to link the two of them. All you need is another working Mac and you can “remotely” access the disk on the Mac you wish to recover.Īnother great use of Target Disk Mode is if you still possess an older, unbootable Mac that is not mounting well and the internal drive from which you want to recover files no longer boots, Target Disk Mode can be used to access the drive. While there are multiple solutions to this situation, one of the easiest is Target Disk Mode. Due to the new restrictions introduced by Apple, some third-party apps are unable to access the main boot disk for operations like file recovery. One of the most recent uses is file recovery on the latest macOS release, High Sierra.

Target Disk Mode has several uses in correlation to Disk Drill (and in general).

Target disk mode not working