Can I use a Mini Displayport cable for this?

[DRR]

Need some insight on some 10 year old technology so came back here to ask the gurus.

I have a Mac Mini (2012) that has crapped the bed. In the machine is a SSD and a HDD. IIRC the SSD had the OS install (for speed) and the Users folder is on the HDD (for storage). I have not used the machine in 5+ years, was in storage.

I believe the SSD has died, booting the machine leads to a ? Folder icon. Booting into recovery mode, and Disk Utility can see the HDD named "Users" but not the SSD.

So I want to see if i can pull files off the machine without opening it up, which I can do, but is a bigger project.

Target Disk Mode on this model is an option, but only over Thunderbolt. Can I use this cable...

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13365

...to connect to another mac with Thunderbolt? I realize this is a Mini Displayport cable, but it's way cheaper than the official Apple Thunderbolt cable. I don't really care if it's slower, it just needs to work.

Related, if I put this machine into target disk mode, will I have the option of seeing the volume on the non-boot drive? I don't know how TDM works when a machine has multiple drives.

Any insight appreciated. TIA

[Tiangou]

No.

Yes. Usually, a second drive is discoverable in Target mode.

[DRR]

Thanks. $30 Apple cable it is.

[AllGold]

I think that machine has FireWire so you could use TDM over FireWire... if you can find another machine with FireWire.

You should be able to do TDM over ethernet as well.

[Buzz]

Not sure what your other machine is, but if it has FW800, you can probably scare up a no-longer-needed TB to FW800 adapter for cheap, or maybe a TB to USB 3 adapter if your other machine is too new for FW800. OTOH, are you sure the 2012 Mini can't use TDM via FW or USB? IIRC, unless you're using Big Sur, or newer?
https://poshmark.com/listing/Thunderbolt...gdm_unpaid
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[DRR]

Thanks everyone. I believe the Mac Mini can do TDM via thunderbolt, or Firewire. Not sure about ethernet, will have to check on that. I might be able to borrow a FW mac so I'm looking into that... also leaning towards cracking this thing open again and just replacing the drive(s) so I can reuse/regift the machine. A $30 one time use cable doesn't seem worth it.