Firewiring

justinjustin
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Still too lazy to format my Windows NT hard drive and get the files over to an Apple, I suddenly had a thought (yes, yes, I'm slow on the uptake, but maybe worthwhile).



Is there any reason why I can't firewire my Windows machine to my Apple powerbook, and download the data directly, rather than have to use an external hard drive?



Has anyone tried this? Does it work?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    theapplegeniustheapplegenius Posts: 584member
    well, i don't think Windows NT supports IP over Firewire, so i think your best bet is to use an external hard drive.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    Windows computers have no target disk mode, so the mac would have to be the one to be mounted from the Windows computer. The leads to the problem that the Windows computer does not understand HFS+, the format used by MacOS X. You can get software to get this functionality, but this begs the question of whether this is worth it.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    justinjustin Posts: 403member
    Nuts.



    Blow to that idea.



    Karl - what software do you mean? I like the idea of having my Windows talk to my Apple through a wire, than through an external HD.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I thought Windows was the first to implement a IP over firewire ability. In is not installed by default, but I'm sure it is there somewhere.



    If you can use SMB reliably over it is another matter. It is buggy enough just between 2 Macs.



    Now if you want to do that like everyone else, just use ethernet. It is a bit slower, but at least it is known to work and there are a lot of help topics here if it does not.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    I thought Windows was the first to implement a IP over firewire ability. In is not installed by default, but I'm sure it is there somewhere.



    Windows NT doesn't have proper USB support, let alone FireWire.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    Windows NT doesn't have proper USB support



    What do you mean? Just curious.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gene Clean

    What do you mean? Just curious.



    I don't know these things first hand as I haven't used NT 4 extensively (I presume we're all talking about NT 4, right? not something older and not 2000 or newer -- obviously, 2000 and XP have good USB support).



    Here's a Microsoft support article on the matter.



    Here, on the other hand, is information on third-party drivers.



    So basically: USB is possible -- but Microsoft doesn't make it particularly easy. The OS just hasn't been designed with it in mind, and you're on your own and rely on third parties.
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