Issues connecting 2 computers via firewire

[Mr. Anderson]

So I have an older G4 that I want to transfer data from and I've hooked it up to my G5, reboot the G4 and held down the "t" key so that it should just show up on my G5 as disks. But it doesn't happen.

The G4 is running 10.3.9 and the G5 10.4.7

If anyone has a solution, I'd love to know about it.

D

 

[WildCowboy]

Is your G4 on the list of compatible target computers?

 

[iMeowbot]

You might try IP over FireWire as an alternative, or even try putting the G5 in target mode.

 

[jsw]

Although I realize that the transfer speeds are lower, if the Firewire approach doesn't work, you could always connect them via ethernet (just put 'em on the same net and do a ⌘-K from the Finder). You'll drop to 100Mbps, but it should be pretty painless.

 

[b0ned0me]

I just went through all this when moving from a second-hand G4 to my new mini. The G4 was oooooold and couldn't handle target disk mode without a firmware upgrade. Which could only be done under OS9. Which I didn't have and couldn't install since it wouldn't boot off the CD I had. And so on and so forth, leading to PC-like levels of frustration.

I solved the problem by backing up the G4's hard disk to a disk image on an external firewire using superduper, plugging that into the Mini, mounting the image, running the Migration Assistant again and telling it to transfer "from another disk on this Mac" or whatever it's called. Worked flawlessly, but not a lot of use unless you have an external drive with enough space.

 

[telecomm]

I don't know if this applies to desktops, but there's an Apple support page somewhere that suggests leaving one's laptop shut down and unplugged for about 5 minutes before trying target disk mode again.

I'm not joking (presumably some controller component gets reset), and I once used this successfully on a friend's iBook.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Not on the list since it has SCSI drives....

bleh

I'll try using the G5 as a target computer and the G4 as the main one.

Thanks for the help,

D