I just got an iMac and hooked it up to my old G4 via Firewire. Went through the motions on the iMac screen and when prompted, booted up my G4 in Target mode. The iMac was searching for disks, when a warning came up saying "It appears there is no Mac OS X installed on your old computer" or something to that effect. I clearly have 10.4.11 installed on the G4. Why isn't the iMac recognizing it as such?? What do I do?
Problems transferring HD via Target Mode
- Thread starter moviefan
- Start date
I have a G4 500mhz "Sawtooth" blue-ish gray tower. I disconnected my slave drive and it boots up ok, but if I go to System Prefs>Startup Disk, and choose my Mac OS X and click on Target Mode restart, I get the Open Firmware screen at boot up and have to type in mac-boot to get started. If I manually restart holding the T key, I get nothing except a normal start-up. What gives? I need to get it into Target mode so I can transfer my files to my new imac.
@moviefan
Make sure the firmware is up-to-date on that G4. As I recall 4.2.8 was the latest for that model. If the firmware is too old firmware, target mode may not work at all. You can get the version by using the System Profiler and looking at the # under Boot ROM. You will need to boot into OS 9 to do the update though & download it from Apple's support page (search under 4.2.8)
I find it easier to pull the hard drive and do the transfer from a hard drive enclosure.
Make sure the firmware is up-to-date on that G4. As I recall 4.2.8 was the latest for that model. If the firmware is too old firmware, target mode may not work at all. You can get the version by using the System Profiler and looking at the # under Boot ROM. You will need to boot into OS 9 to do the update though & download it from Apple's support page (search under 4.2.8)
I find it easier to pull the hard drive and do the transfer from a hard drive enclosure.
Eric--how do I know if I have an Open Firmware password and what steps do I take to resolve my problem? Sorry, I know a little, but not a lot! I did read something somewhere about the open firmware password not allowing you to use certain boot up keys. I am able to Apple Option P-R my ram though...
Guys--thanks for all the help. If I can't for some reason get this Target mode resolved, basically all I want to do is get my email accounts from old mac to new. And some other files (music, etc.). Aside from burning a dvd for my music and files, how can I get my email accounts and Safari bookmarks over successfully? That's all I really need to do. I am going to reinstall all the major software. Thanks!