Transfer files from old Powermac G5 to new Mac Studio?

[guitarman777]

I busted out my old Powermac G5 tower and would like to get some files & such off it and onto my newer machine. I'm talking mp3s & M4As, various documents, pictures, etc. Thing is, I've got the ol' HFS file system conflict thing going on. The Powermac can read my external USB drives, but it won't write/copy anything to them. Short of physically removing the drives from the Powermac and connecting them somehow to my Mac Studio and using "hfsutils", what are some options for transferring these files? Is there no drive formatting option that'll bridge that gap?

 

[Arctic Moose]

The last time I needed to do something like that I started an ftp server on one and ran a client on the other.

Burning optical disks may also be an option.

Edit: You have USB, which I didn’t. Can’t you just format an external drive to something that the older one can write and the newer one can read? If you format it to whatever the default file system for the OS on the G5 is and copy the files to it they will be readable on a modern Mac.

 

[macsound1]

Target Disk Mode. Should be able to startup the G5 while holding the letter T on the keyboard. I always used to do it over Firewire which would require some adapters, but it should still work.

 

[eyoungren]

I busted out my old Powermac G5 tower and would like to get some files & such off it and onto my newer machine. I'm talking mp3s & M4As, various documents, pictures, etc. Thing is, I've got the ol' HFS file system conflict thing going on. The Powermac can read my external USB drives, but it won't write/copy anything to them. Short of physically removing the drives from the Powermac and connecting them somehow to my Mac Studio and using "hfsutils", what are some options for transferring these files? Is there no drive formatting option that'll bridge that gap?

Is your G5 and Mac Studio both on the home network?

If so, turn on File Sharing on the G5 and share the drive. Connect via AFP or SMB from the Mac Studio, copy what you need off.

I tested this with my G4 PowerMac and my work M2 MacBook Pro on Monday. The G4 will not connect either way to the M2, but the M2 can use both AFP and SMB to connect to the G4.

 

[guitarman777]

Edit: You have USB, which I didn’t. Can’t you just format an external drive to something that the older one can write and the newer one can read? If you format it to whatever the default file system for the OS on the G5 is and copy the files to it they will be readable on a modern Mac.

That’s part of what I was wondering. I’ll try dumping the data off one of my drives and reformatting it to match the Powermac, transferring some data, and seeing how the Mac Studio reads it.

 

[guitarman777]

Target Disk Mode. Should be able to startup the G5 while holding the letter T on the keyboard. I always used to do it over Firewire which would require some adapters, but it should still work.

I found a FireWire adapter just the other day. Might still be in my office at work. Worth a shot also.

 

[guitarman777]

Is your G5 and Mac Studio both on the home network?

If so, turn on File Sharing on the G5 and share the drive. Connect via AFP or SMB from the Mac Studio, copy what you need off.

I tested this with my G4 PowerMac and my work M2 MacBook Pro on Monday. The G4 will not connect either way to the M2, but the M2 can use both AFP and SMB to connect to the G4.

They are, but I’m wondering if my network settings aren’t preventing it from being able to actually see anything else on the network. I’d have to check; meanwhile the other two ideas posed here seem a bit easier. I’ll keep this in mind though.

 

[eyoungren]

They are, but I’m wondering if my network settings aren’t preventing it from being able to actually see anything else on the network. I’d have to check; meanwhile the other two ideas posed here seem a bit easier. I’ll keep this in mind though.

You can always connect directly. Finder>Go>Connect to Server…enter credentials. Save them if you want.



I happen to have most of my IP addresses of network Macs/PCs/Devices saved and memorized Just easy to connect that way. Some of my Macs have multiple IP addresses. For instance, Youngren14 is my Intel MacPro and it has four network connections. Two ethernet, one a USB to Ethernet connector and one WiFi. Ethernet connections are 192.168.0.6 primary and 192.168.0.8 secondary. The USB connection is 192.168.0.7 and the WiFi connection is 192.168.0.78. These are all static addresses and I set them specifically for this Mac so I know which connection I am connecting to.

But if I don't know an IP address offhand, there's always a scanner. On my Intel Macs I use Angry IP Scanner. On my old PowerPC Macs I'd use Wake From LAN.

Below is Angry IP. You can see the Sharing names next to the IP addresses.

 

[guitarman777]

The last time I needed to do something like that I started an ftp server on one and ran a client on the other.

Burning optical disks may also be an option.

Edit: You have USB, which I didn’t. Can’t you just format an external drive to something that the older one can write and the newer one can read? If you format it to whatever the default file system for the OS on the G5 is and copy the files to it they will be readable on a modern Mac.

So yeah, ended up being as simple as removing the data on an external drive and connecting it. Once the drive didn’t have any files on it from a newer machine/OS, the HFS conflict was a non-issue. Dumped the files I need right onto the drive and put them onto the new machine easy peasy.

Thanks for all the solutions offered!

 

[barracuda156]

What is that “HFS conflict” by the way? Never encountered such, apparently.

 

[Chuckeee]

If it is a one time (or occasional) transfer. Directly attach the machines together via an Ethernet cable, restart both machines and enable file sharing on both machines. You don’t need to go through a network switch or router, and it lets you avoid all of the complexities of IP addressing issues

 

[barracuda156]

If it is a one time (or occasional) transfer. Directly attach the machines together via an Ethernet cable, restart both machines and enable file sharing on both machines. You don’t need to go through a network switch or router, and it lets you avoid all of the complexities of IP addressing issues

Target mode is an easier and more reliable way.

 

[guitarman777]

What is that “HFS conflict” by the way? Never encountered such, apparently.

To my knowledge, it’s related to system changes in newer OS releases that take advantage of SSD performance & function. I wasn’t able to write any files from the Powermac to the external drive I was using that had files in it from newer machines.