How to display Mac Mini on iMac desktop

[jbdean]

I have a 2005 Mac Mini & iMac, both using iOS 10.5. I can't find my monitor adapter to hook the mini up to the ViewSonic monitor I used to use with it and I was wondering if I can just get it to show up on the desktop of the iMac as an external drive. I've hooked it up by usb and firewire but it's not showing on the desktop. Am I doing something wrong or is it just not going to work?

I've been on Macs since 1988 but I've never used more than one at a time and never as an external HD (though I have had lots of those, they were just external HDs).

Any help would be very appreciated!

Thank you!!

 

[Boyd01]

I think your computers are probably running MacOSX 10.5, iOS is for iPhones.

Newr iMacs have something called "target display mode" that allows them to be used as a monitor when connected with a thunderbolt cable, but yours is too old for that.

I use the regular screen sharing feature to access my Mini at home. If your Macs are already connected to the same network (with wifi or ethernet) this is very simple. You would need a monitor connected to the Mini in order to set this up initially however - see this: https://mobilemeandering.com/screen-sharing-mac-osx-lion/

It will work best if both computers are on a gigabit ethernet network, but will still work over wifi although it will be less responsive. Caveat: you are running a really old version of MacOSX so I'm not completely sure whether screen sharing is available or if it works the same way as I described.

 

[BrianBaughn]

The question is about file sharing.

Does the Mini connect to your local network when started up? With both Macs ON do you see the Mini in the Finder sidebar of the iMac?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Starting the mini up in target disk mode while holding T, then connect a FireWire cable

 

[Boyd01]

The question is about file sharing.

Ah, my bad, sorry, when he said "display Mac Mini" and mentioned monitors I thought he wanted to see the screen. Should have read the whole post.

It sounds like Target Disk Mode will do what you want in that case. It will let you access files on the Mini's disk if that's all you want.