Laptop to desktop

[ComputerDragon79]

Question. I'm trying to connect my desktop (a PC) computer to my laptop computer (a macintosh) using a firewire card. I know it can be done, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

[Mac Medic]

if you have a network card in the pc
you would be better off linking the two
via cat5. if not you will need to assign
ip addresses to the pc firewire card.
which mac os?. X?. Post back with this
additional info and ill try to point you
in the right direction.

[ComputerDragon79]

The OS is Mac X. I mainly want to use the firewire card for the 400 Mbps transfer speed. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

[Mac Medic]

Ok, turn on windows file sharing in OS-X. On the windows box the FW card will be listed as a network adaptor, choose it's properties and give it an IP address etc... Plug the two in and the mac may try to mount the pc HDD. If not, you may have to mount it as a server.

[ComputerDragon79]

Thanks a lot, that really helped. Is there anything else I should be aware of when doing this?

[Mac Medic]

Never Mind. The reason it worked for me is i still had my airport card turned on and saw the PC over the network. Im a dumbass. When i turned off the airport card i got nothing. Im still researching this so bare with me.

[Mac Medic]

According to this apple care document, it's only for mac to mac connections.

TOPIC

This article explains what FireWire target disk mode (TDM) is and how to use it.

DISCUSSION

Description and requirements

FireWire target disk mode allows a Macintosh computer with a FireWire port (the target computer) to be used as an external hard disk connected to another computer (the host). Once a target computer is started up as a FireWire hard disk and is available to the host computer, you can copy files to or from that volume.

Important: The computer will not go into FireWire target disk mode if "Open Firmware Password" has been enabled.

Host computer requirements

Host computers must meet the following requirements:

? Built-in FireWire port, or a FireWire port on a PC card
? FireWire 2.3.3 or later
? Mac OS 8.6 or later

Target computers

The following models can be used as target computers:

? PowerBook G3 (FireWire)
? PowerBook G4 (All models)
? iBook (FireWire and all iBook models introduced after 2000.09)
? iBook SE (FireWire)
? iBook (Dual USB)
? iBook (Late 2001)
? iBook (14.1 LCD)
? iBook (16 VRAM)
? iBook (14.1 LCD 16 VRAM)
? iBook (Opaque 16 VRAM)
? iBook (32 VRAM) and iBook (14.1 LCD 32 VRAM)
? Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) with ATA drive
? Power Mac G4 Cube
? Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet and all models introduced after 2000.07)
? Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)
? Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver)
? Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002)
? iMac (Slot Loading) with Firmware version 2.4 or later
? iMac (Summer 2000 and all models introduced after 2000.07)
? iMac (Early 2001)
? iMac (Summer 2001)
? iMac (Flat Panel)
? iMac (17-inch Flat Panel)
? iMac (17-inch 1GHz)
? eMac

FireWire software

You can download the latest Firmware and FireWire software from the Apple Software Updates Web site (http://www.apple.com/swupdates/).

How to use FireWire target disk mode

Important: Unplug all other FireWire devices from both computers prior to using FireWire target disk mode. Do not plug in any FireWire devices until after you have disconnected the two computers from each other, or have stopped using target disk mode.

To use FireWire target disk mode
1. Make sure that the target computer is turned off. If you are using a PowerBook computer or iBook computer as the target computer, you should also plug in its AC power adapter.

2. Use a FireWire cable (6-pin to 6-pin) to connect the target computer to a host computer. The host computer does not need to be turned off.

3. Start up the target computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until the FireWire icon appears. The hard disk of the target computer should become available to the host computer and will likely appear on desktop.

4. When you are finished copying files, drag the target computer's hard disk icon to the Trash or select Put Away from the File menu (Mac OS 9) or Eject from the File menu (Mac OS X).

5. Press the target computer's power button to turn it off.

6. Unplug the FireWire cable.

If the target computer's hard disk does not become available to the host computer, check the cable connections and restart the host computer.