File Transfer (Please Help)

Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
America
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2009 MacBook laptop (all-white edition) 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 4Gb of RAM and a 500 GB HD
I have 2 Apple G-4 computers. One is 8 years old, running OS9 and the other one is about 4 years old, running OSX-Tiger. Both computers have USB 2.0, FireWire and Ethernet ports on them. The OS9 Mac has no CD burner, but the OSX-Tiger Mac does have one. I want to transfer all of my files from the old Mac without the burner, to the newer Mac. Without buying an external hard drive, would I be able to hook up the 2 computers to each other by USB, FireWire, or Ethernet cables ? I could turn on "File Sharing" if I go the ethernet cable route. Would file sharing work for what I need to do? I've never used file sharing before and don't know anything about it. My only concern is that someone told me that I might run into a problem because one computer has OSX and the other one has OS9. He told me that I would probably not be able to transfer my files using 1 of the above 3 connection methods that I mentioned. He said the 2 different operating systems would conflict with one another and file transfer would not be possible. Is this true ? He also told me that certain external hard drives might be compatiable with one of the OS's, but not both and that this to, might cause me some problems in my file transfering. I will listen to any and all advice on this subject. Please help. I have thousands of files to transfer to the newer computer. Thank you.
 
Joined
Dec 15, 2004
Messages
614
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
USA
Your Mac's Specs
MacPro, MBP C2D, iMac G4
Well, you can still run os9 in tiger, so maybe you could try transfering files that way. I know you can transfer files via firewire. Why don't you want to get an external hard drive? I think that would be your best bet, and you could find one that will work with both os9 and tiger. Its a good thing to have to store data on...
 
Joined
May 18, 2008
Messages
3,612
Reaction score
95
Points
48
Location
Amberley, Canterbury, New Zealand
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini 14.3, 8.1 & 4.1, OS 13.5, 10.14, & 10.11 & 10.6; Macbook Pro 8.2, OS 10.12.
I have 2 Apple G-4 computers ... I want to transfer all of my files from the old Mac without the burner, to the newer Mac ... would I be able to hook up the 2 computers to each other by USB, FireWire, or Ethernet cables? I could turn on "File Sharing" if I go the ethernet cable route. Would file sharing work for what I need to do?

Yes, file sharing works with two computers operating different systems. I've successfully transferred many Mb of stuff from an old G3 on OS 9.2 to an eMac on Tiger via ethernet; also to a G3 on Panther and OS 9.2 (see my computer specs).

The only glitch occurred with files over a certain size. To overcome that I stripped the hd from the G3 and connected it to both my eMac and then the b/w G3 via an IDE-USB adaptor. That proved to be a very simple way to do it and the cost was about US$20. I warmly recommend you do likewise.

Sorry, I'm not in a position to help you specifically with how to set up your two computers via ethernet as I'm away from home base where the typed instructions are, but I remember it involved Network Prefs on the eMac, and AppleShare on the old G3. Getting the two computers to recognise each other by their IP address was the key. I suggest you post a related question in the Networking section of the Forum. Good luck.
 
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
82
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Durham NC
Your Mac's Specs
Sawtooth G4 and PB G4 w/FW800
Boot the OS 9 machine in target disk mode (hold the T key at startup), then do a transfer via firewire.

Next level of ease is an ethernet cable between the two (you might need a crossover cable).

You could also just pull the hard drive from the OS 9 machine and put it in an external enclosure ($30 or less from Tiger direct), or install it directly into the Tiger OS machine.

What G-4 models are these?

Scott
 
OP
T
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
America
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2009 MacBook laptop (all-white edition) 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 4Gb of RAM and a 500 GB HD
Re: Transferring Files

Hi Scott,
The 2 PowerMac G-4's that I have, are an original model G-4 from the year 2000, running system 9.0.2, 400 MHz processor, 700+Mb of RAM and 2 internal hard drives. The other G-4 is a Quicksilver, with an 867 MHz processor, 1,536 Mb of RAM, CD reader/writer and a DVD reader/writer.

Chris
 
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
82
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Durham NC
Your Mac's Specs
Sawtooth G4 and PB G4 w/FW800
As easy as it is to remove a hard drive in both those machines, I'd just pull the drive from the old one and install in the new one.
 
OP
T
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
America
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2009 MacBook laptop (all-white edition) 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 4Gb of RAM and a 500 GB HD
Re: Transferring Files

Hi Scott,
I have 2 more questions for you. 1.) Will the hard drive from my older G-4 be compatiable with my Quicksilver G-4 ? 2.) The slave drive on my older G-4 has all of my important files on it and I have the jumpers totally removed from that drive. If I take that slave drive out of the older G-4 and put it in the Quicksilver, should I just leave the jumpers out, or will I need to use them ?

Chris
 
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Messages
4,781
Reaction score
166
Points
63
Location
Groves, Texas
If the 2 are connected via a router just turn on file sharing on the OS 9 machine, check the use TCP/IP box, and the OS 9 machine will show up as a disk on the OS X one. You can do this just using an ethernet cable too.
Go to Users and Groups, set up a user (you) and password. Click on Network in the sidebar in OS X, select the OS 9 computer, and click Connect.

The only problem with this setup is putting files from the OS X machine on the OS 9 one. File names can be too long for OS 9.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top