Mac Pro boots to white screen - no start up commands working

[RomineMusic]

Hello all,

So, it's an old 2009 Mac Pro tower running Snow Leopard, not sure of the exact version.

I hadn't booted it up in a long while, but I wanted some data from it. It booted up fine and I was looking though my files and I wanted to adjust the mouse speed so I clicked the System Preferences icon and got the rainbow wheel until I had to reboot it.

Now it boots up into the white screen. I've tried almost everything I can find online, but they are mostly telling you to use start up commands which don't seem to be working for me.

I can see that the mouse is getting power because it has a light, the keyboard is functional on another computer and the display is functional with another computer as well. Is there anyone that has any way of resolving this problem?

Worst case scenario: Can I still get the data from the drives?

Thanks for taking the time,
Matthew

 

[honestone]

It looks like your Mac Pro has a couple of Firewire 800 ports. Do you have access to another Mac that is functional? And, if so, does it have any Firewire 800 ports?

 

[RomineMusic]

It is true that it has a Firewire 800 port, but the new cylindrical Mac Pro doesn't have that and neither do my macbook pro or macbook air. I may be wrong, but are you thinking of doing like a target boot up? I was thinking that as well, but since command T almost definitely won't work I didn't think it was viable. Is there something different about Firewire? I can probably get my hands on another mac that has Firewire 800 if absolutely necessary. Thanks!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Target Disk Mode works via FireWire and Thunderbolt, but you have a machine mismatch. Your older Mac Pro only has FireWire, and if your other Macs don't have FireWire, they may have Thunderbolt or not, depending on their exact model. There is an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter for $29 that may work in this scenario.

C

 

[RomineMusic]

Thanks for the reply.

To get into target disk mode wouldn't I need to use the startup commands though? Is there any way we could diagnose why no startup commands are working? Has anyone had this problem?

 

[honestone]

First, I have one of those Thunderbolt to Firewire adapters, and I use it to connect my 13" Mac Book Air, which has a Thunderbolt port, to an external hard drive, which has a Firewire 800 port. It makes my backups go faster.

Secondly, the use of the T key on the Mac Pro is intended to try and direct the Mac Pro to basically "act like" an external hard drive, so that the "good" Mac can analyze the Mac Pro's drive.

 

[RomineMusic]

What my question is though, even if I had a firewire 800 to thunderbolt cable without being able to do any startup commands could I even get it into target mode? Does it automatically detect the cable and startup differently?

 

[honestone]

When you boot up the Mac Pro, does it make any kind of noise at all? (I actually can't remember ever just getting a white screen). Also, is there an "Apple Question Mark" on the screen after it boots up?

I do remember when my old 2006 Mac Pro went "bad", nothing would happen at all when it was booted, nor could I get anything via Target Disk Mode. The screen remained dark, no Apple symbol, nothing, nada. I did, though, take the internal hard disk out and put it into an external case, and it was fine. So, I just surmised that the motherboard on that Mac Pro "died".

If you are getting something as it boots up, there is some hope of using Target Disk Mode.

 

[RomineMusic]

I am getting the "chime", but nothing else after that except the white screen. It is crazy though, I was copying the data and if only I didn't want to make the mouse move faster and hit System Preferences it would have been fine lol. So if I just take the drives out and put them into another computer I can grab the data off of them? That would be fine with me at this point, but I figured there would be some kind of protection (I don't encrypt my harddrives and I do know my password), I just figured it wouldn't let me do that.

Thanks for the help.

 

[honestone]

The use of Target Disk Mode would be intended to try and repair the drive, so that you could use the Mac Pro again. My situation was worse than yours, as I was getting nothing. But, given how I make a dedicated effort to keep my machines "lean and clean", and that I had backed up the stuff on that hard disk a few days before the disaster, I figured there was an excellent chance that I could use that internal drive for storage, and that was good enough for me.

 

[RomineMusic]

I'm asking, can I simply pop these external drives out and get the data off them with no permissions issues?

 

[honestone]

I would suspect you can do that. But, do you still want to use that drive for your older Mac Pro? Even if you take the drive out, put it inside an external case, attach to whatever machine you have, and pull data off of it, you could then try and repair it while it is in the external case. If you don't care about the old Mac Pro, well and good. That of course is your decision. We are just providing options for you.

 

[RomineMusic]

Okay, sorry, I think I misunderstood what you were saying at first. I get it now. Thank you guys for your help!

 

[Patrick Denis]

Hello all,

So, it's an old 2009 Mac Pro tower running Snow Leopard, not sure of the exact version.

I hadn't booted it up in a long while, but I wanted some data from it. It booted up fine and I was looking though my files and I wanted to adjust the mouse speed so I clicked the System Preferences icon and got the rainbow wheel until I had to reboot it.

Now it boots up into the white screen. I've tried almost everything I can find online, but they are mostly telling you to use start up commands which don't seem to be working for me.

I can see that the mouse is getting power because it has a light, the keyboard is functional on another computer and the display is functional with another computer as well. Is there anyone that has any way of resolving this problem?

Worst case scenario: Can I still get the data from the drives?

Thanks for taking the time,
Matthew

If you didn't boot for a long time your hard disk maybe stuck opened the macPro casing and try to listen to it if It's spinning or not you could get it working with an external casing plug the power onto it and type it lightly on the corner to make it spin and if it does you will be able to retrieve your dada good luck