2009 Apple iMac

[ngford98]

I have a 2009 27" imac that the screen is dark. I know that the system is booting up though. Is there a way for me to use target mode with my apple laptop to get the pictures off the imac? Or is there a way for me to get into the iMac from my laptop to navigate to files in the iMac? Thank you

PS. My MacBook Air laptop is a 2015.

 

[TonyAguila]

I have a 2009 27" imac that the screen is dark. I know that the system is booting up though. Is there a way for me to use target mode with my apple laptop to get the pictures off the imac? Or is there a way for me to get into the iMac from my laptop to navigate to files in the iMac? Thank you

PS. My MacBook Air laptop is a 2015.

Okay, the only connection your Macs have in commen is USB. The iMac has Firewire but not the Air. I have never tried target disk mode over USB, only with Firewire and USB-C/Thunderbolt, but it could be worth a try.

Boot up the iMac while pressing down the T key. Once you feel sure that it has booted into TDM (since you can’t see the screen), connect the two with a USB cable. It will show up, hopefully, on the MacBook Air as an external drive.

If successful, copy away. You can also try Migration to make the transfer. Good luck.

 

[Jonah]

I have a 2009 27" imac that the screen is dark. I know that the system is booting up though. Is there a way for me to use target mode with my apple laptop to get the pictures off the imac? Or is there a way for me to get into the iMac from my laptop to navigate to files in the iMac? Thank you

PS. My MacBook Air laptop is a 2015.

How about hardware test?
Hold down the “D” key during a restart.
With the bluetooth keyboard, you may have to connect it to a charging cable.