Why don't my Macbooks connect??

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Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 15"
I purchased the right cable to connect by old MBP with my new one, and that's a double ended Firewire, one end with the old plug and one with the new but when linked, there is nothing in the finder of either laptop.

Am I missing something or is it most likely an old age issue with the Firewire port on my old model? I did sometimes have problems connecting my camcorder to iMovies but this would come and go and the camcorder was old also.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 duo processor 4 GB of memory 300 GB HD imac, 8GB Ipod Touch 4th generation
Host computers must meet these 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

These models can be used as target computers:

iMac (Slot Loading) with Firmware version 2.4 or later
iMac (Summer 2000) and all models introduced after July 2000
eMac (all models)
Mac mini (all models)
Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) with ATA drive
Power Mac G4 Cube
Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) and all models introduced after July 2000
Power Mac G5 (all models)
Mac Pro (all models)
iBook (FireWire) and all models introduced after September 2000
PowerBook G3 (FireWire)
PowerBook G4 (all models)
MacBook Pro (all models)
MacBook models introduced before October 2008
 
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chas_m

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I purchased the right cable to connect by old MBP with my new one, and that's a double ended Firewire, one end with the old plug and one with the new but when linked, there is nothing in the finder of either laptop.

Since you didn't actually mention it, I have to ask: are you actually invoking Target Disk Mode by restarting the machine you wish to be seen as a "drive" on the other machine while holding down the "T" key?

If not, that's your problem.
 

dtravis7


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Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
You can't just boot both Macs normally and expect Firewire Target Mode to work. You (as Chas stated) have to press the T key and hold it down at Startup with the main Mac turned off. When the Firewire symbol appears on the screen, THEN turn on and boot up the other Mac normally.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
 
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Shoeboat
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MacBook Pro 15"
Since you didn't actually mention it, I have to ask: are you actually invoking Target Disk Mode by restarting the machine you wish to be seen as a "drive" on the other machine while holding down the "T" key?

If not, that's your problem.

Thanks Chas (and dtravis7) I will give that a go, it doesn't sound too technical.

Yeah I want the old MBP to appear as a drive and then I want to select certain folders to be copied over but nowhere near all of them.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Yeah I want the old MBP to appear as a drive and then I want to select certain folders to be copied over but nowhere near all of them.

You don't need to use Target Mode for that. Just connect them together and turn on sharing.
 
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chas_m

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As chscag says, you don't NEED to use Target Disk Mode for that -- but it's a perfectly valid way to do that, as is turning on sharing, or using a thumb drive, or using Dropbox, or any of a half-dozen other ways.
 

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