afromrnorriston

Q: connecting two macs via thunderbolt firewire cable

I am trying to support my data from my old mac book with a firewire port to a new macbook with retina display. when I start the migration assistant the new macbook doesn't seem to find the old mac book even though I have the firewire to Thunderbolt cable connected. How can I test if the cable works or how do I transfer my data easiest?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 8:28 AM

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Q: connecting two macs via thunderbolt firewire cable

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  • by DBS0407,

    DBS0407 DBS0407 Apr 14, 2015 5:40 PM in response to afromrnorriston
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 5:40 PM in response to afromrnorriston

    An AppleCare agent who used to do migrations in  the store told me that's the best way to do this.

     

    Check the connections first - if the connectors are in place and it doesn't work…

     

    Take your old MacBook, along with your firewire-thunderbolt converter cable to an Apple store / dealer, and see if they can detect it on one of their machines.

     

    I was trying to use an ethernet cable, and that didn't work at all - cable and connectors seem ok for my modem to Airport connection, but it didn't work at all for migrating data.

     

    P.S.  caution:  photos on your MacBook, can be an issue to access on Yosemite (particularly with Aperture).

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Apr 14, 2015 5:46 PM in response to afromrnorriston
    Level 5 (7,694 points)
    Notebooks
    Apr 14, 2015 5:46 PM in response to afromrnorriston

    Do you have Migration Assistant running on both Macs? I believe you need to have it open on both (I have not tried Thunderbolt to Firewire migrations).

     

    You can also try 'target disk mode'…

    How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

     

    That causes the Mac to appear as a hard disk over a Firewire/ Thunderbolt connection. The Mac that you startup whilst holding T should be visible to the other Mac for Migration Assistant to copy data from.

  • by DBS0407,

    DBS0407 DBS0407 Apr 14, 2015 5:52 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 5:52 PM in response to Drew Reece

    That's exactly correct Drew - open the MacBook in 'target disk mode', and Migration Assistant on the iMac.

     

    That allows you to do everything from the machine where the data is migrating to (in this case the iMac).

     

    Depending on how much data, let it run - mine took about 4 hours, and went well.