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B&W G3 Firewire target disk mode

Submitted by GEOS on August 16, 2006 - 5:49am. PowerPC Macs

Hey all, I've been trying to get my Powermac G3 to boot up in Firewire target disk mode and cannot get it to work. I have tried it with both USB and ADB keyboards and also tried disconnecting the slave drive just in case it didn't like having 2 drives. I can't get this to work. Does anyone have any tricks I can try? Does the B&W even support Firewire target disk mode since it was the first to ship with internal firewire? I was pretty sure all machines with built in FW could do it, but im stumped on this one.

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Hawaii Cruiser's picture

Not native Firewire

Submitted by Hawaii Cruiser on August 16, 2006 - 9:06am.

The "built-in" firewire on the B&W and the early G4's is actually a separate firewire module connected to the motherboard but not integrated into it--somewhat similar to having a firewire PCI card--so as I understand it, the firewire is not actually native to the motherboard so it does not support target disk mode. I actually remove the firewire modules from my B&W's because I've found them often faulty and problematic and use a PCI card instead for firewire.

See here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

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Some questions

Submitted by Texas Mac Man on August 16, 2006 - 12:58pm.

What OS are you using?

Are you depressing the "t" key at startup?

Cheers, Tom

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iantm's picture

Hawaii Cruiser is right on this

Submitted by iantm on August 16, 2006 - 1:37pm.

Firewire on the Blue & White G3's and Yikes (PCI Graphics) G4 towers is an odd implementation. Since it's not's integrated into the logic board, these units are not capable of booting from firewire or going into target mode. (never thought to remove the fw module - that's a good idea hawaii cruiser)

Target disk mode is only available on the slot load iMacs, fw iBooks, Pismo PBG3, AGP graphics G4 towers, and all subsequent models. Pretty much any model introduced during after July 1999.

Short of putting the hard drive from the Blue and White G3 into an external firewire case, I can't think of a better idea to enable use of the drive via firewire.

» - iantm
ACDT & ACPT
MacBook Pro 15" 1.83 ghz
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iantm's picture

Hawaii Cruiser is right on this

Submitted by iantm on August 16, 2006 - 1:37pm.

Firewire on the Blue & White G3's and Yikes (PCI Graphics) G4 towers is an odd implementation. Since it's not's integrated into the logic board, these units are not capable of booting from firewire or going into target mode. (never thought to remove the fw module - that's a good idea hawaii cruiser)

Target disk mode is only available on the slot load iMacs, fw iBooks, Pismo PBG3, AGP graphics G4 towers, and all subsequent models. Pretty much any model introduced during after July 1999.

Short of putting the hard drive from the Blue and White G3 into an external firewire case, I can't think of a better idea to enable use of the drive via firewire.

» - iantm
ACDT & ACPT
MacBook Pro 15" 1.83 ghz
07 focus zx3
Cannondale M700

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GEOS's picture

Thanks guys, looks like i'll

Submitted by GEOS on August 16, 2006 - 3:53pm.

Thanks guys, looks like i'll be getting an external FW case

» Oh, Hazel, look. The field! It's covered in blood

MacBook Pro 2.16 Core 2 Duo, 12" Powerbook G4 867MHz, iMac G3 600, Powermac B&W G3 450, iMac g3 400, iBook 366, B&W G3 350, Beige G3 350, Powerbook G3 233. Plus many more..

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