About a week ago, I was working on a MacBook Pro with a dying hard drive. I was able to access the drive via Firewire Target Disk in order to repair the drive using Disk Warrior. The whole process was expected to take at least five hours.
While in the past I’d always just left the LCD display open, in this case I accidently closed the lid. Shiz, I thought! I’ve just waisted the last few hours of hard drive repair; but when I check Disk Warrior, I noticed it was still working perfectly!
I tried opening and closing the display a few more times, the MacBook Pro kept running with the display closed. I just tested closing the lid on my Powerbook G4 – it worked too! I can only assume that all Mac displays can be shut when in Firewire Target Disk Mode — only wish I would have learned this years ago.
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Nice one Brian. I’m a bit concerned about heat from the keyboard, but we’ll put that fire out when the LCD combusts.
Martin, I’m pretty sure the keyboard isn’t used as a heat vent; as long as the side vents aren’t covered, you should be fine. Please let us know if you experience any heat issues…
Thanks!
When the heat builds up everything needs to be cooled down from humans to computers otherwise they sure do go beserk.
My MacBook doesn’t appear to have any side vents. Will overheating in Target Disk mode be more likely to be a problem with the MacBook if I shut the lid?
should be ok (not positive) — it has vents on the back