Comments on: A Partial Cure for the No-MacBook-FireWire Blues

By: Kennesawga Garage Door Opener Repair

Kennesawga Garage Door Opener Repair — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:21:02 +0000

All I can say is keep writing. Some professional bloggers post 3 to 5 times a day on their blogs, simply because this regular addition of new content helps them to get regular readers.

By: A Mac Tech

A Mac Tech — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:56:05 +0000

I am coming at this issue from a different perspective. The loss of FireWire target disk mode is huge for any of us in an enterprise-style organization. We image via FireWire for deployment, backup/recover via FireWire, migrate via FireWire. It has become the standard, cradle to grave.

USB2 is two to three times slower than FireWire 400, especially when moving chunks of data. Ethernet is fine for some functions, but unless you have spent the money for gigabit infrastructure it’s not a replacement for FireWire. Target disk mode is a great point to point technology that has no equal in the PC world.

I am sure Apple sees some financial advantage in doing this, that they have some reasons that make sense for them. The problem is that they rarely ask for outside input of any kind and can change thing at the drop of a hat. That makes them an unreliable partner and leads IT to distrust and avoid them. This applies equally to business, K-12 and Higher Ed.

Apple has removed a key technology that provides a competitive advantage. It has done so with no advance notice and no replacement in terms of consistency or ease of use. Bad move, Apple.

By: thehumanyawn

thehumanyawn — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:40:51 +0000

@Lee Collier

That’s a good option too, and it’s faster at 125MB/sec vs. FW400′s 50MB/sec.

By: Lee Collier

Lee Collier — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:57:38 +0000

OR we could all ‘factor in’a 99p/cent ethernet cable and just link them together and turn on file sharing. Macs have auto-sensing ports so no need for a crossover cable.

By: thehumanyawn

thehumanyawn — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 03:19:59 +0000

@NtroP

Who’s to say Apple couldn’t make some changes in the EFI to allow TDM over USB? All they would have to do is write some extra code into it that allows it to become a USB HD.

By: Randall

Randall — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:12:03 +0000

Still, you can’t use any friggin video cams. I had to go up to the MBP just to keep going with vid projects.

$400 for firewire. *shudder.*

By: NtroP

NtroP — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:50:26 +0000

The reason USB cannot be used for target disk mode is that target disk mode uses a part of the FireWire spec that is not available in the USB spec. Apple can’t fix this with a software update – there is a hardware component.

By: Brett

Brett — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:11:13 +0000

delster wrote:
“The main reason target disk mode was so powerful is that you could use it even if the OS was trashed. If OSX was corrupted in some way you could get the files off without having to crack the case and put the drive in an encolosure.”

Yeah , I’ll miss target disk mode. It’s good thing that the new unibody chassis design makes it trivial to pull the hard disk :)

By: Harry McCracken

Harry McCracken — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:16:30 +0000

Good points, all. For the record, I’ve used Target Disk Mode quite frequently to do simple file transfers; if I owned a new MacBook, I’d find value in the Targus cable as an alternative even though it’s by no means a full substitute.

–Harry

By: Tim Robertson

Tim Robertson — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:48:28 +0000

The two above posters are correct. Target Mode was used to fix a problem on a Mac, not to transfer files. It worked REALLY well with, say, Disk Warrior, or even Disc Utilities to repair a drive. You can’t do that if you boot from the drive you want to repair, and while the DVD that came with the computer is another solution, it is not the best one.

Taking FW out of the new MacBooks was not smart without giving us the ability to do the same thing via USB 2.0. (Which they could do via a software update, but I am not holding my breath.)

And a USB to Firewire cable won’t help at all. Can Target Disk via USB. If Apple just released an OS patch to allow USB Target Mode, all would be well.

Great site, Harry.