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The Hidden Power of Firewire
macapper.com — Both Macs and PCs have had FireWire for years, but Macs can do some really cool things with FireWire that Windows users have probably never even dreamed of. Many of these features are not widely known among people who have not had to use them in an emergency situation, but they can be quite useful in a pinch.
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- wolphcry, on 10/12/2007, -22/+7Target Mode is very handy.... simple as Apple+T at boot
- ez12a, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18on intel macs at least, its just "T"....
but yes, firewire is awesome. i have a bootable image of my current HD on my external drive! and Firewire/400 is faster than USB 2.0 in real world applications! - DonWilson, on 10/12/2007, -26/+7I prefer SATA and eSATA. Thanks. =)
- uranium, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6If it wasn't for Target Mode I would never be able to install Tiger on my old iBook without the DVD drive (through iPod).
- ModernGeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8On my PPC Mac Mini, it is just T. I think it's just T for PPC and Intel works the same way on my MacBook Pro and Intel iMac.
- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25It is just T. Always has been just T.
- lo0ol, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Another fun tidbit: plug two Macs together with a Firewire cord and you can go into "Network" and mount the other Mac as a sort of drive. I use this all the time to take large video files from my iMac and pipe it over to my MacBook; works a lot faster than over my slow wireless network, and it's usually faster than throwing it on a jump drive. Just wish I had Firewire 800 to help out on this... that'd make things *really* fast.
- bonexaw, on 10/12/2007, -24/+18All of this, target disk mode, etc.. isn't hidden to Mac users.. in fact these aren't even "special features of Firewire". They are just good communication protocols used by OS X. Windows can do pretty much the same from USB (boot from USB if bios supports it, boot from network drive, transfer PC settings from one computer to another (using Windows software))
PC's could do all this with FW if MS decided to implement it.
Dugg down as just being inaccurate... and basically just lame. - raptordrew, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3I don't see Target Disk mode as a huge "feature" that makes me want to run out and get a Mac, I'll just get an enclosure and hook it up to either type of computer I want; one thing I read recently in Apple service documents (becoming certified) that I found interesting, though, is that you can't Target Disk an Intel Mac and hook it up to a PPC Mac; no explanation was given why, just that it won't work. You'd think they'd figure out a way to remedy that.
- kingkilr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Streaming video from your cablebox via MythTV, that is what firewire is all about.
- Malakin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@lo0ol Isn't what you're explaining "target disk mode"? This is the first thing mentioned in the article.
I've never owned a mac so I've never used target disk mode but it sounds pretty cool. Sure on my PC's I can just remove the hard drive and hook it up to my external drive thingy, but target disk mode would make it a hell of a lot easier.
- ez12a, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18on intel macs at least, its just "T"....
- pcharles23, on 10/12/2007, -5/+41Yes firewire is a really great standard, its like 9 years old and it still rocks ass! I am sorry but i think firewire400 out performs usb2 any day!
- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33Of course it does. It's 400Mb/sec SUSTAINED rather than burst like USB.
Firewire controllers are more expensive, though, since they can handle device-to-device communication (no host/slave) and are more complicated. USB 2.0 makes sense for a lot of things, but Firewire is to be much preferred for any data intensive stuff (hard drives, camcorders and such). - daofma, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4Nevermind. Explained better above.
- starf, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6I prefer usb just because it's everywhere.
On important stuff, like an external hd for videos, I try to get firewire 800 + 400 + usb for maximum compatibility + performance. - estvir, on 10/12/2007, -18/+4pcharles23, I guess you'd also say a car outperforms a bicycle any day ?
Newsflash: things have different purposes as GeneralAntilles pointed out. - m3th0dm4n, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0eSATA noob.
- pcharles23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Firewire for... iPod was awesome... Firewire for Reliable data transfer eg, cd-dvd burning, External hard-drives... So Basically if you need high speed reliable sold FAST Communication you want firewire. USB2 is a Play standard... The most i have ever been able to pull from usb2 was 22 MB/s with Firewire that is 8 9 years old i pull 30 to 40 MB/s all day long... same with apple computers. they are a premium reliable computing standard!
- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -3/+33Of course it does. It's 400Mb/sec SUSTAINED rather than burst like USB.
- nakeddave, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Target disk mode is a cool feature i never knew about. never know when it might come in handy!
i wish they had that on pc.- unit101, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24Target disk mode has saved my ass so many times.
- keyboardduder, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5See, Linux/windows computers don't need target disk for a reason. It has many ways to boot to retrieve data.
- pants428, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I use target disk mode at least once a week to make images to deploy on our systems...
- WetSplatter, on 10/12/2007, -16/+1You mean... pulling the drive and putting it into a USB enclose, oh my!
- catylist, on 10/12/2007, -18/+4why not just pull out the hard drive and plug it into another computer?
- pants428, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12@catylist:
Yes, you could do that, but it would require more work... And you would need a machine, with an easy accessible drive bay, spare controller available, etc... A laptop would be even more work, since not all laptops have easily removable drives.. Target mode is quick, simple, and easy to use..
- futureisours, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3yeah firewires are gr8 they keep my system safe from haxors. i use zone alarm and it works gr8.
- chingy1788, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I wonder when eSATA appears on cameras
3Gbps hehehe- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7Who cares about that kind of throughput when even the fastest consumer hard drives can only handle about 70MB/sec (420Mb/sec for the technologically disinclined) in ideal situations. Interface throughput gains are pretty pointless right now without improvements in mass storage technology.
- fr0z3nph03n1x, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I use Target Disk mode to disc check all my HFS+ partitions. Could not live with out it.
- ztirffritz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22It is also a networking tool. It is possible to set up entire networks using firewire.
- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I used IP-over-Firewire a few years ago to get an old iBook dual-USB that had a broken ethernet jack and no Airport card online.
- HunterTV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's a notable omission in the article. I have a FW network between an iBook and an iMac. Works really well. I backup files and share the printer through the laptop. Nice since the Ethernet port is being taken up by the broadband connection to both.
- voidvector, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4The reason Firewire isn't as popular in Windows community today is because a misunderstand between Apple and Intel awhile back during development. You can read about it on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire#History_and_development
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#FireWire- MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2It's not "popular" because not everyone needs it.
Apple builds computers, and decided to put Firewire on every computer, as they helped create it. When if first came out, there were not many devices that used it, like all new connectors. And with Macs having a much smaller marketshare than PCs, Firewire devices were even slower to develop.
Any computer manufacturer could have licensed Firewire and installed it... but why? There weren't many devices that needed it.
Today, DV camcorders are the most popular uses for Firewire. And, if your windows computer doesn't have Firewire, you can easily add a PCI card.
Even if every PC did include Firewire... it doesn't mean you'd use it. - letelenny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@ mscrip, I really think you should read what the Wikipedia article says. The reason Firewire isn't used on windows machines is because apple charges a patent fee on the device. People didn't want to pay extra for it so they went with the cheaper USB devices.
- MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5> "The reason Firewire isn't used on windows machines is because apple charges a patent fee on the device."
Are you talking about the word "Firewire?" I have a "IEEE 1394 PCI card in my windows machine. Is that how I should say it instead?
Most motherboards today include Firewire on the motherboard as well as a header. And look at how many cases have 1394 ports on the front. Firew... er, 1394 is on more and more PCs these days. And almost every Dell laptop for the past 3-4 years have a 4-pin 1394 port. It's common. So I really don't understand what you said. - MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Just an update...
There are over 120 motherboards for sale at NewEgg that have Firewire...
Firewire... it's not just for Macs anymore!
...going down... - letelenny, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I'm comparing it to USB, which is more popular (I'm not saying that firewire isn't used), and I'm just trying to explain why it is more popular. (on windows machines)
- MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Oh, well yeah, in the beginning it was cheaper for manufacturers not to include Firewire. Now, it's everywhere.
But you said, Firewire "isn't" used on Windows machines... which was just a silly statement!
Hope you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! - davidrools, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4FW800 isn't on any PC motherboards, afaik. But then again, there aren't many devices that use FW800 so it would probably go to waste. That's one thing that bugs about Apple: they always want to include things that you don't need but have to pay for. When you build a PC or buy a low end PC and upgrade it, you pay only for what you need and use. But for others I guess it's okay.
- rubah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I have a firewire port in front of my desktop and have never used it in six years. I've never had anything to plug in there. I was dang surprised when I found out that it *was* a firewire port. I wish I had something to use with it :(
- MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2It's not "popular" because not everyone needs it.
- pintomp3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9target mode is handy, saves having to pull the hard drive out and popping into another machine. i believe booting from external devices is not exclusive to firewire though.
- MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1The Mac-to-Mac migration looks cool!
Has anyone done this before? I'm a little concerned about migration. What all does it move? A neighbor had a G4 iMac... and now they have a 24" iMac. That's a 2 generation jump. What "settings" would come from the old Mac to the new Mac? Suppose they already have their new Mac working properly... what old settings from the old Mac mess it up?
Or can you have it only migrate their data? They asked me to help them with this.... but I don't wanna screw anything up. I suppose they just want their pictures, music and document. Any advice?- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Pretty much anything in the User folders and fairly simple network and users settings. Nothing that would be different over a couple generations. It's basically the same as doing an archive and install with an OS X install DVD (with copy settings checked).
- smhill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I did it when I upgraded to my MBP. It went flawless. I copied pretty much everything. Including stuff outside the Users folder. Very painless way to upgrade a machine.
- fanboydcs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Be careful, I had a old g3 ibook and did a migration assistant with my 20" imac and it pulled over all the worthless os9 stuff, I had to reinstall the OS on the 20" and just migrate over the user directory.
- bgbs, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2I use RAID. ...and last time I checked MAC's dont brake. I dont know Im starting to hear more and more of these freaky stories that Macs are braking.
No thianks, I will stick with my RAID on my PC- WetSplatter, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Check this story out. You may think the "blue screen" is limited to a PC but Macs have their very own version. Good article, was on digg a few days back.
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=29052 - jamesrdorn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Dont mean to be a spelling jerk, but I believe you mean "Break". However, Target Disk Mode is useful for lots of things, not just repairs. And when it comes down to it, and your OS doesnt boot, you have quick & easy access to the data without tearing apart a MacMini or laptop.
- Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1 by bgbs 5 hours ago
I use RAID. ... I will stick with my RAID on my PC.
---------------------------------
Wow you must be a real HOTSHOT.
Of course you know that Firewire RAID devices are available...
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php/cPath/101?osCsid=6aa7a18031fe89ae75212659d55ed223
...and that OS X supports software RAID out of the box. I've got a RAID set on a USB flash drive.
- WetSplatter, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Check this story out. You may think the "blue screen" is limited to a PC but Macs have their very own version. Good article, was on digg a few days back.
- ogletree, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4PC's do not have firewire. FIrewire is a brand name and can only be on a mac.
- bgbs, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Firewire is an ancient technology which I had on my PC laptop 8 years ago.
Today I use Wireless - MScrip, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Let me grab a "Kleenex" drink a "Coke" and use a "Q-Tip."
Even though FireWire is a brand name... it's still commonly referred as that. Good call though. - nfxmedia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12@ogletree
Firewire is just a branded name for IEEE 1394. Sony calls it iLink and yes, PCs do have it. Although it was developed by Apple, it is a standard used by both PCs and Macs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire
- bgbs, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Firewire is an ancient technology which I had on my PC laptop 8 years ago.
- bgbs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2On a PC migration is done by swtiching the Harddrive.
- WetSplatter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Wrong, on a PC (XP and Vista) there is built in software to transfer settings, data, and application from old PC to the new PC. All you need is a male-male USB or link them by ethernet.
- smhill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That is not migration.
Suppose your hardware is different. When I did it I was upgrading from a iBook to MBP. Why would I want to take my machine apart? And my new machine had a faster and larger harddrive, not to mention a completely different CPU. Swapping harddrives if fine if the machines are same or similar enough, not if you are doing a significant upgrade.
- foxmajik, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14>Target disk mode is a cool feature i never knew about. never know when it might come in handy!
>i wish they had that on pc.
If you connect two PCs running Windows XP with a firewire cable you can setup a home network and share files.- kitwaites, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Or use ethernet and share useful things like an internet connection like a normal person.
There's a good reason why firewire hasn't taken off on PCs - it's too expensive and there's no point in being about to transfer at 420MB/sec if your HDD won't transfer at the same speed. Only stupid Mac fanboys get excited over it - it's like buying a Ferarri then only driving it down narrow lanes @ 15mph. - Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Networking and Target Disk Mode are very different.
- Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1 by kitwaites 4 hours ago
"Or use ethernet and share useful things like an internet connection like a normal person.
There's a good reason why firewire hasn't taken off on PCs - it's too expensive and there's no point in being about to transfer at 420MB/sec if your HDD won't transfer at the same speed. Only stupid Mac fanboys get excited over it - it's like buying a Ferarri then only driving it down narrow lanes @ 15mph."
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Is it comforting to have such a small view of the world? How about when you've got 4 or 5 or more FW devices chained into the same port, eh? Still think that bandwidth is wasted?
And ethernet, unless it is Gigabit (available on All Macs), is pathetic for sharing anything large.
Oh, and you can get a FW card for your PC for under $15. Sorry if that breaks your budget. You must have bought Vista Ultimate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815104226
- kitwaites, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Or use ethernet and share useful things like an internet connection like a normal person.
- monototo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Can't believe they missed the real hidden power of firewire, according to Woz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R96M53f3iSw - truegodofwar, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Here's another "feature" firewire has: direct memory access. If you leave your laptop sitting on a table unattended, someone could walk up and hack your system with you even knowing it. You would come back and think nothing has changed. Great feature, huh. I don't have any firewire devices so I went ahead and disabled it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire#Security_issues- Bootes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think I would be more likely to have a missing laptop including it's memory and hard drive if I left it on a table where someone could and would want to do that.
- Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2 by truegodofwar 5 hours ago
"Here's another "feature" firewire has: direct memory access. If you leave your laptop sitting on a table unattended, someone could walk up and hack your system with you even knowing it. You would come back and think nothing has changed. Great feature, huh. I don't have any firewire devices so I went ahead and disabled it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire#Security_issues"
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I guess you missed the memo about how if you don't have physical security you don't have any security.
- sivart84, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Wait, Mac users have 'emergency situations' just like PC users?
What happened to, "Get a Mac - It Just Works?" - yuvrajparihar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3@ogletree: You may wanna rethink that statement, pc's do have 'Firewire', which is in fact Apple's trademark for the IEEE 1394 standard. You can stick in a Firewire port into a pc about as easily as sticking in a usb port, albeit with less functionality/features than on Mac's due to relatively poor OS support. And yes, Firewire is very powerful, sometimes i do wish it was the standard as opposed to usb, but nevermind.
- bonlebon, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Impressive, but will it blend?
- stox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Firewire can also be used as part of an awesome debugging tool. For the same reason, it can also be used as an awesome security breaking tool. I won't go into details. Fortunately, the dark community hasn't taken advantage of this, yet. Well, at least as far as I know of.
- stou, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hmmm... You _can_ actually use Firewire (or serial) to debug kernel mode drivers under windows XP (probably vista too)... it's kinda weird and cool. I ran wintendo under a debugger like that once... it was "nifty"
- nukem996, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3More Mac BS
Target disk mode: This is really just a BIOS feature not a Mac or firewire feature, I'm sure there are a few PCs that do that. Anyway if you need to get data off try knoppix.
Mac-to-Mac migration: Again this is a Mac feature which uses Firefox which can be found on PCs
Booting from Firewire devices: This can be done with any OS and again depends on the BIOS supporting it
FireWire 800: While yes Firewire is fast in some areas, USB is faster in others. USB happens to be more universal and computers now come with more USB ports(usually around 6) then Firewire(1 if your lucky) which is the reason most things use USB
Well now I'll let the Mac mob digg me down.- specialK16, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0nvm
- smb1985, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Check your facts.
First, target disc mode only kicks in after the pc has started booting, so it's not a bios feature
Second, Mac-to-Mac migration has nothing to do with firefox, mac to mac migration uses its own program
Booting from firewire devices can be done with any os, i agree there.
Next, firewire 800 is MUCH faster than standard firewire or usb 1.1 or 2.0, but standard firewire is 400mbps sustained, usb 2.0 has surges up to 480mbps, but overall data transfer turns out to be faster with firewire.
Btw, i'm not a mac fanboy, i just hate people who don't know what they're talking about. - jketterman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Migration uses Firefox? Wha~ I didn't get that memo.
Obviously you've never used it. It is simply an interface for file copying from one drive to another. You can do it manually by copying over your old Home Directory onto your new one afterwards if you want. - tenken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Wow, you're going to get dugg down alright. It's great to see a post that thinks it has all the facts straight only to be completely wrong ;)
- smb1985, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0so, how is this news, if you know anything about your own machine, this stuff is obvious
- goffy59, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Why do mac articles always claim mac's are for pros? I think that's a load of *****, but lets not discuss that. I just feel anything you can do on a mac, you can do on a PC. Except..... give us better fire-wire support :). I think PCs have good hardware support, but I think PC software companies need to add more support into there programs for fire-wire. I have fire-wire but Ive never had to use it that much really, except for testing out this fire-wire enabled sound card(really nice BTW).
- aclements, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I use target disk mode several times every day, but then again I work at a walk in help desk where ~1000 junior high kids bring their iBooks when they break them.
- smb1985, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1lol, hooray for careless kids, eh?
- h4mx0r, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Meh, all the points listed in the article are indeed nice, but the thing is, they are just simplified versions of what you could do with a PC. You just save 2 or 3 steps, so if you aren't really lazy, you can improvise and achieve the same effect.
- L0g1X, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Did you know Windows Me, 2000, XP, and Vista all support firewire networking to transfer files from one PC to another? Ya, it's pretty old technology and not a "Mac Only" feature.
Windows now have a better method for transfering files and settings like the Mac on their Windows Vista. This is called "Windows Easy Transfer" that you can find in Start Menu> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools.- smb1985, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2the idea was that it was and easy to use program, as opposed to trying to get the network up, messing with the IP, etc.
- L0g1X, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ya, it's much easier with the Macs. But I'm just telling people it exists on Windows too based on the description.
"Macs can do some really cool things with FireWire that Windows users have probably never even dreamed of"
- rkettner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I recently used the mac-to-mac migration feature to move my data from a MacBook Pro to a Mac Pro. It worked seamlessly.
It's odd to me that it's taken this many years for ANY computer maker to implement such a feature. - wwnexc, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6Mac Users, please get off the pot and out of your cave. A PC can boot off an external drive over usb and fire wire. Migrating data isn't that hard either.
Windows is the best O.S. for home, office and general use.
Linux is the best for servers and specialized applications.
Macs are good as flowerpots, paperweights, and targets for practice.- smb1985, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6i've never yet heard a good reason that windows is better than osx, just because it has a game doesn't make it better or more capable, it means that someone decided to make a game for windows.
- wwnexc, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1It's not just about games, but also the general availability of software, and the fact that windows is the most supported os. There is a program for everything on windows.
Performance: Adobe was payed by apple to take a benchmark off their website, stating that windows performed much better than mac os in photoshop and premier. The best thing: the PC cost half the money of the mac.
- Arkonnan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wow, something is wrong with the comments. First I'm commenting in the Iraqi poll thread, then my reply magically appears in the Firewire thread. Now it's appearing blank. What's up with that?
And to stay on topic, - SuperSunny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Jesus what's with the ***** attitude? A Mac computer is a PC that runs Mac OS X instead of Windows (and Windows if you like), with an Apple bootup instead, and with standardized parts. What makes them efficent is that they are standardized, like game consoles. That's pretty much it. I have a MacBook. I have a PC. I use both equally.
- maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1So other than firewire 800, how is this not OSX specific, firewire doesn't create target disk mode, this could be done with USB if you wanted. All of the features are supported by the OS not the firewire spec......lame.
- astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No, it can't be done with USB. USB stupidly doesn't allow two 'hosts' to connect to one another.
- wesball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3There’s another cool thing Mac’s can do with firewire that I only recently found out.
Output any quicktime movie stream through firewire. You could hook up an DV camera and record the video, or you could get one of those cheap D/A converters and pipe it straight into your TV.
You have to download a little app from apple, but hey, its FREE!
Check here for more info.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2004/12/22/video_out.html- pen25, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is also capable on the windows machine as well. even back to windows 98se
- pen25, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1FANBOIS uinit! hahaha dayum all the fanbois upset that others are saying the apple isnt special on all these things quoted. BTW i posted about my thinkpad being able to do all those things except target disk. well i didnt think it did but press a button and it allows me to connect to another device so the thinkpad uses USB to do this. so does this mean USB2 is special or does this mean firewire isnt special? no it just means bios and software allows allot of these things to happen.
- bedouin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5One thing the article didn't mention is that you can actually boot from another machine that is in target disk mode. OS X installs aren't picky at all about being booted from various hardware, something Windows can never seem to manage very well.
I have a G3 iMac with Linux on it, and I can remember a few occasions where I needed to boot it into OS X. My PowerBook booted into target disk mode made that painless. Of course that only works if both machines are running the same architecture, unfortunately.
Another time a friend's Mini was acting goofy and I needed an easy way to determine if it was a hardware or software problem; I booted his Mini with my MacBook and the problem persisted. That saved me 30 minutes reinstalling OS X on his machine only to find out a ram stick was bad. - rdas7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2FW iz 4 HaXX0rz, usb is 4 nooBs. Nuff said.
- alansky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"The Mac-to-Mac migration looks cool!
"Has anyone done this before? I'm a little concerned about migration. What all does it move? A neighbor had a G4 iMac... and now they have a 24" iMac. That's a 2 generation jump. What "settings" would come from the old Mac to the new Mac? Suppose they already have their new Mac working properly... what old settings from the old Mac mess it up?
"Or can you have it only migrate their data? They asked me to help them with this.... but I don't wanna screw anything up. I suppose they just want their pictures, music and document. Any advice?"
The Macintosh Migration Assistant gives you options. You can move everything or just the items you select. The Mac you're migrating from can be any Mac that has a Firewire port and is running a reasonably up-to-date version of OS X. This method won't work with Macs that are still running OS 9.
Using the default settings, the Migration Assistant moves everything: Applications, Utilities, plus your entire Home directory (which contains your Desktop, Documents, Music, Movies, Pictures, Mail, Bookmarks, Address Book, Calendar, etc. etc.). The Migration tool does a beautiful job of moving everything from one computer to another.
The situation gets slightly more complicated if you have already created a Home directory on your new computer that has the same name as your Home directory on the old computer. In this case, you should change the name of the Home directory on one computer or the other before transferring files. Ideally, you should also back up the data on both computers before starting the process. I've used this method to upgrade dozens of Mac users and it always works like a charm. - nycmac247, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1IP over FW is the best.
Failover is supre important and I'm sure that with the new Xserve LightsOut we're going to be seeing these two "features and benefits" having sex soon.
But seriously... only scanning I did not see IP over FW mentioned here --- WTF?!?!?!?
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