Connecting two macs?

I have an imac and a macbook pro. Is there a way to transfer content and information between the two directly? So far, externals and dropbox have been the only way to handle it. Does Airport do that?


How do I connect the two.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Apr 17, 2011 3:42 AM

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9 replies

Apr 17, 2011 3:47 AM in response to Sparklebuns

Connect them with a Firewire cable and then restart one of then while holding down the T key to force target Disc mode, it will then appear as a Volume on the other Desktop.


If too far apart then in System Preferences/Sharing check File Sharing on both, then from the Finder top menu bar you can select Go/Connect to Server and hitting the Browse button should show the machine you can connect to. If you want to read and write then make sure you log in with a username that has admin permissions.


User uploaded file

Apr 17, 2011 3:57 AM in response to Sparklebuns

Of course you can, and it is simple. There are 2 situations:

1. You have a wl router, in which case you must check your computers are file exchange active: System Preferences/Sharing, check file sharing and whatever else you need, e.g. printer sharingUser uploaded file


2. You do not have a wl router, and you want to create an ad-hoc wl network. In this case, go up to the Apple bar, choose the wl icon (the demicircles), and choose to create a network.

User uploaded file

Apr 17, 2011 4:04 AM in response to Sparklebuns

There are several ways to connect the two. The easiest and cheapest is to turn on file sharing in the settings app. You can chose which volumes or folders you want to share and how you want to connect under the options button. Since your only connecting to another mac, the best option is AFP. Once this option is selected on both macs, you'll be able to drag, drop and see all the files/folders you are sharing in your Finder. I think by default OSX connects as a guest but in the Finder there's a "Connect As" button which will allow you to connect as the Admin. Of course, you could connect your iMac to your macbook pro physically through a firewire cable but the file sharing route is the easiest and you'll get a good transfer speed since this feature is done over your Airport/ router.

Apr 17, 2011 7:53 AM in response to Sparklebuns

Connecting via Firewire is not an option when some else is using the computer.

And creating a network between computers is cumbersum


The best/easiest way, like Ethanhunt500 was saying, is to "connect" to the other computer using an user account on the computer. Idealy the admin account.


  1. From the Finder window choose the Computer your connecting to on the sidebar under 'Shared'
  2. Click on "Connect As", (near top right of Finder if not in columns mode) enter in a user name and password for an account that is on that computer
  3. DONE. You have assess to that users account/desktop/files.
  4. If that user is an Admin account, you'll have access the the whole HDD.



level 6 person suggest firewires!?! sheesh. Only do that if your transferring large/many files

Aug 20, 2011 7:33 PM in response to Dah•veed

you can connect two macs to each other simply using an ethernet connection? I thought you needed a special crossover cable or something. I Think that would be better than firewire because then I can keep both computers on and able to do something on each. Doing something over wifi would take too long so I'd prefer the physical connection.


Edit: Never mind, I found this:How to connect two macs via ethernet?https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3146552

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