Korin Hasegawa-John
- 2001.07.06
First of all, I'm new to Low End Mac,
and this is my first column (apart from a My First Mac piece schedules for July 17).
I live in Vermont, have used a lot of Macs, run a Mac
troubleshooting business on the side, and play in a band.
If you have a PowerBook, you know there are several ways to
transfer files from your mobile machine to a desk-bound computer.
The main ones are floppies, ethernet, and Internet. All of these
have their own problems, and none of them are particularly
fast.
However, there is a very fast, efficient way to transfer files
between a desktop and a laptop - SCSI disk mode (or target disk
mode or FireWire target disk mode, etc.). Basically, this mode
causes your PowerBook to behave as an external hard drive on your
desktop Mac.
You need a special adapter for SCSI Disk Mode. It's called the
SCSI Disk Mode Adapter, and it looks different from Apple's
standard SCSI adapter because it's a dark gray color. You either
need this cable or an adapter made by a third party that supports
disk mode (sometimes marked "docking" on these adapters).
Before you connect any cables, open your PowerBook's SCSI Disk
Mode control panel and select an ID that your desktop doesn't
already use for a SCSI device. Then turn SCSI disk mode on and shut
down your PowerBook.
If you have Apple's SCSI disk mode cable, it's very easy. Make
sure that both computers are turned off. All you have to do is
attach a cable that has the standard 25-pin to 50-pin connector to
your desktop Mac. Apple recommends using a pass-through terminator,
which you should do. Attach the pass-through terminator to the
PowerBook's cable, and then attach the other end to the desktop's
cable.
If you have a third-party adapter, you need two extra pieces.
Another 25 pin to 50 pin cable, and a 50 pin gender changer, to
allow the the two SCSI cables to connect to each other. Connect the
cables as above, with one 25-50 cable from the PowerBook and one
25-50 cable from the desktop. Then connect the gender changer to
one of the cables and the terminator to the other. Then connect the
gender changer to the terminator.
Start up your PowerBook. There should be a SCSI icon bouncing
about your screen with a SCSI ID number in the center. Then start
up your desktop machine. If everything is connected properly and
terminated (prayers and animal sacrifices optional), the
PowerBook's hard drive will appear as an external hard drive on
your other Mac's desktop. Then you can drag and drop files between
the PowerBook's hard drive and the desktop's hard drive. This is a
lot faster than ethernet - 5 Mbps!
FireWire Disk Mode is even easier. Just get a 6 pin to 6 pin
data cable, plug it into a FireWire port on the desktop and a
FireWire port on the PowerBook, and turn both machines off. Start
up the PowerBook and hold down the 'T' key. The little FireWire
logo should appear. Then start up the desktop and transfer files at
50 Mbps!
