how can i access a hard drive in second imac

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how can i access a hard drive in second imac

I will be using my old iMac as a secondary screen with my new iMac using a mini displayport cable. Since my old machine will be running I figured why not use and access it's 1TB hard drive?

I did enable the sharing between the two machines and first tried to setup my iTunes on the new machine. I set the music folder to be the music folder on the old machine. I then tried adding the music to my new library and it was incredibly slow going. I disabled wifi and connected both machines with an ethernet cable and it was faster but as soon as I re-enabled wifi on the old machine things quit importing.

Is there a better and faster way to access the drive in my old machine as if it was just an external hd plugged into my new iMac?

Not sure it matters but my new machine is USB3 and Thunderbolt. Old machine has USB2 and firewire 800.

Thanks!

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Jul 17, 2014 4:46 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

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Jul 17, 2014 4:48 PM in response to thelastlight

Connect them with a FireWire cable and a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter, start up the old iMac with the T key held down, and copy the files.

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Answer 2

thelastlight Author

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Jul 17, 2014 4:53 PM in response to Niel

Thanks Niel.

I'd like to actually leave the files on the old machine and continue to access them.

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Answer 3

Niel

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726,935 points

Jul 17, 2014 4:57 PM in response to thelastlight

What I wrote above applies when doing file copies or accessing data. You won't be able to use any method which requires interacting with the old computer's OS.

When using iTunes, start it up with the Option key held down and specify the library on that computer.

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Answer 4

thelastlight Author

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Jul 17, 2014 5:15 PM in response to Niel

Thanks Niel that will work just fine. I only want to keep my music and photos on the old machine so I can do something similar with aperture and keep that library on the old one as well. rather than think of the old machine as a second display with an external hd i should consider it just a second computer. it will still always be on and booted to function as my second display so I'll simply continue to manage my photos and music from the old one.

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