Dermatea Posted January 5, 2008 Share Posted January 5, 2008 Say you've got a Mac with an unbelievably large media collection and you want to copy most of it to a new Mac, BUT, it would be impractical to use DVDs or flash drives and you don't want to mess around with networking options or ethernet crossover cables (whatever the hell those are), what do you do? I was surprised that there wasn't really an easy, well-known way to do this. With PCs, I used a bridged USB cable, which allows me to connect two PCs together, along with third-party software to quickly move large files back and forth between the two PCs at USB 2.0 speed. I tried doing the same with two Macs, but not surprisingly, both of them failed to recognize the bridged USB cable, seeing as how the drivers for it were designed for Windows. Fortunately, both of my Macs also dual-booted with XP, so I could get the drivers running in the XP environment. However, you cannot access the Mac's HFS partition in Windows, without some help anyway. Eventually I got everything up and running, and it was pretty easy too. All you need are the following: 1. A bridged USB cable (I specifically used a Belkin Easy Transfer Cable) 2. Two Macs with XP installed on each of them. 3. Laplink's FileMover program (not free, but fairly cheap) http://laplink.com/filemover/ 4. Mediafour's MacDrive 7 (not free either, but reasonably affordable) http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/ Okay, to start off, boot both Macs into XP and install the drivers for the USB cable on each of them. (drivers are included with the cable when you purchase it.) Then startup MacDrive 7 on both machines, and make sure your HFS partitions are accessible as they should be. Next, connect the two Macs together with the cable and XP should automatically detect the cable. Finally, load Laplink's FileMover program and select "USB connection". I think FileMover has to be open on both machines in order for the connection to be recognized. Then, simply drag and drop files from one HFS partition to the other. That's all there is to it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
BebopBlues Posted January 5, 2008 Share Posted January 5, 2008 or the easier way which doesn't cost anything: How to use FireWire target disk mode Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-566442 Share on other sites More sharing options...
U.C. Posted January 5, 2008 Share Posted January 5, 2008 How bout a crossover cable??? It costs less than a Firewire or USB cable. I am pretty sure this is spam. Delete this topic Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-566475 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted January 5, 2008 Share Posted January 5, 2008 It does seem like an InsanelyComplicated way to do things. Incidentally, a straightforward firewire cable will make a nice 400/800 mbit network connection between 2 machines with no need for target disk mode or windows. I'm not sure whether current Macs have this feature, but a lot of gigabit NICs have auto-sense, removing the need for a crossover cable, allowing a gigabit connection between 2 machines with a straight patch cable. In any case a crossover cable is easy to make or buy, easier than a bridged USB cable at any rate. none of these methods require 3rd party software. laplink & macdrive are both well-established products which should need no spamming.. I guess this is juist another case of doing it the hard way because you can. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-566591 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermatea Posted January 5, 2008 Author Share Posted January 5, 2008 My solution, as stated works without ANY networking involved. Ethernet crossover cables in no way match the transfer speed of USB 2.0, so that's that. As for Target Disk Mode, I wouldn't call it a very seamless transmission of data since one computer has to be rebooted and enters a psuedo-operational state, whereas my method involves two fully operational OSes. I never knew you could connect two Macs using a regular 6-pin to 6-pin or 9-pin to 9-pin firewire cable. Can someone explain how that works? And yes, my method isn't free, but I think it's worth the investment. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-567387 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermatea Posted January 29, 2008 Author Share Posted January 29, 2008 Just to add another purpose for using this USB file transfer method, I'd like to say this would work great for migrating large files to a MacBook Air, which dissappointingly, has no FireWire connection of any kind. Another way would be to use a network adapter, but like I said before, it's nowhere near as fast as USB 2.0 speeds. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-599116 Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomazzzi Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 to connect 2 computers with a firewire cable : 1. Shut down the first computer and leave the second computer on. 2. Connect the two computers using a 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable. (If both computers have higher-speed FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard FireWire 400 ports, you can use a 9-pin to 9-pin cable with the FireWire 800 ports to transfer data at higher speeds.) 3. Start up the first computer while holding down the T key. A disk icon for the first computer appears on the desktop on the second computer. Drag files to and from the disk to transfer them. 4. When you finish, eject the first computer's disk by dragging its icon to the Trash. 5. Push the power button on the first computer to shut it down and disconnect the FireWire cable. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-603962 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluekanoodle Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Actually most macs now have gigabit ethernet. Even accounting for protocol overhead, a network cable would blow this out of the water. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-605012 Share on other sites More sharing options...
mifki Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 lol, its called ichat with bonjour Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-605030 Share on other sites More sharing options...
numberonekiwi Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 As I have a DSL wired/wireless router I just set up sharing in preferences but this can give problems the main one is it keeps disconnecting after you have downloaded a file or multiple files and at random you can also set up screen sharing in this manor as well but once you disconnect you cant reconnect you have to go to the host machine deselect sharing / screen sharing - show all then go back and select those options again I am not sure why but when it works you can transfer files as fast as your wireless card / ethernet cable will allow Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/79930-transferring-large-files-between-macs/#findComment-943784 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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