[PhilCat]

Is there any reason one cannot connect firewire between MBP & MacPro direct and move files?

Main external drives are at different location.
Seems a bit redundant to move files twice from external then to second machine.
Wireless over the network would be slow.

My fairly new 250GB MBP is getting a little tight on space with 100GB of AVCHD movies from camera.

Thanks

[Big Mac]

That's what Firewire Target Disk Mode is for.

[PhilCat]

Thanks Big Mac.
Must of been a deal back about 6 years when I was all PC that it needed a special cable. Glad I made that switch.
If I recall correctly, it had a From & To module in the middle of it.

[Waragainstsleep]

I'm not sure what you mean about modules. Firewire target mode turns one Mac into an external drive which is very handy for most purposes.

You do have an alternative. Firewire will also support TCP/IP so you can hook them together with the FW cable and just setup FW in your network preferences exactly as you would with ethernet. And of course you can also use internet. No need for a hub, switch or router.

In case you don't know how to do this, go to System Preferences -> Network -> Ethernet/Firewire

Change the 'Configure IPv4' drop down menu to 'Manually'

Set one Mac to have IP address 10.0.0.1 and the other to 10.0.0.2, set both subnets to 255.255.255.0. Click Apply.

Click the gear at the bottom of the list of network connections and choose 'Set Service Order'. Set whichever one you just configured to be top above Airport.

Assuming you already have filesharing turned on you should be able to connect and transfer at much higher speeds.

Theoretically, FW400 gets you up to 50MB/s, FW800 gets you 100MB/s and Ethernet will get you up to 125MB/s.

You won't quite achieve those maximums but all faster than wifi which tops out around 13.5MB, again theoretically.

[PhilCat]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

That's what Firewire Target Disk Mode is for.

Target Disc Mode worked great using FW800 between them.
The link you provided to do it was also a big help.
Thanks again.

[PhilCat]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

You do have an alternative. Firewire will also support TCP/IP so you can hook them together with the FW cable and just setup FW in your network preferences exactly as you would with ethernet. And of course you can also use internet. No need for a hub, switch or router.

I made note to file on this, and interesting point on speed as well.
Thanks

[Waragainstsleep]

That should have read "of course you can also use ethernet". You shouldn't need a crossover cable, Macs have had autosensing ports for years.

[PhilCat]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

That should have read "of course you can also use ethernet". You shouldn't need a crossover cable, Macs have had autosensing ports for years.

Funny how the simplest basic functions never came up.
You hear & see backup all the time, but never the 2 seconds of how cool the options really are.
This saved me big time thinking I had to cruise 40 miles to get the big external drives sitting at the shop.
Not once in 6 years of owning Apple have I bumped into the simple firewire transfer, like I performed tonight.
Cheers

[OreoCookie]

(1) Target Disk Mode turns a Mac into an external harddrive.
(2) If you use an ethernet cable, you just create a very small network and you don't even need a switch. You can also transfer files over WLAN, but then transfer speeds will be a lot slower (a limitation of WLAN).