FireWire Target Disk mode Video

FireWire Target Disk mode Video Transcript

Looking for a way to transfer files from one Mac to another, the easy way? It exists, and it's called Firewire target disk mode. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com and we'll show you how to do it on Insider Secrets. So what exactly is Firewire target disk mode? It allows a Macintosh computer with a FireWire port, we'll use this one, which we call "the target," to be used as an external hard disk, and connected to another computer, this guy here, called "the host." The "target" computer is started up as a FireWire hard disk and is available to "the host." You can copy files to or from that volume. Unfortunately, this doesn't work out of the box with PCs, because a PC can't see a Mac formatted drive. But, a Windows application called MacDrive will enable you to do it. For this demo, we're sticking to the Mac. Now we have our two Apple computers with Firewire ports and a 6-pin-to- 6-pin Firewire cable. The "target" computer will be turned off, and you'll see "the host" computer is up and running. First thing, Were going to connect the computers together using the firewire cable. Now power on the "target" computer and immediately press and hold the "T" key until a Firewire icon appears on its screen. You are now in target disk mode. Right after that, the "target" should become available to the "host" computer and should appear on the "host" computer's desktop. You now have full access to drag and drop files both ways between the two computers. When you're done, you can drag the "target" computer's hard disk icon to the trash, and you'll see an eject icon. If you don't like the idea of that you can also choose "Eject" from the File Menu. Press the power button on the "target" computer to turn it off and you're good to go! So try it at home, easy file transfers for Macs using Firewire target disk mode. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com with another Insider Secret.