Connecting Powerbook to PC using firewire - not working

[thephiller]

I've searched the internet for hours including this forum but I've come up empty handed so this is my last hope...

So I want to back up the files I have on PC on my Mac so I can format the PC, I figured transfering the files onto the Mac would be done best using firewire. I read about booting the Powerbook G4 in Target Disk Mode so I did that. The only problem is that I don't see the Powerbook listed as external HD on the PC...
It does show that there is a firewire connection but no sign of the Powerbook.

Very frustrating so if anyone could give me the answer or some tips on how to fix it I'd really appreciate it. Also, is there maybe another way to connect the Powerbook to the PC using firewire?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[robbieduncan]

Unless you have special software on your PC to allow it to use HFS+ disk partitions this is not going to work. Although your Mac is now "pretending" to be an external disk it is formatted in HFS+ (Mac native format). Windows can't read/write this.

 

[Nickygoat]

Stealing lock, stock & barrel from Blackstone

Actually... on a Windows machine, you'd just have to boot up from a Knoppix CD and copy whatever you like onto a USB drive. I do it all the time to recover data from PCs whose Windows installations have gotten corrupted.

 

[Danksi]

Stealing lock, stock & barrel from Blackstone

Stealing lock, stock & barrel from Blackstone
Quote:
Actually... on a Windows machine, you'd just have to boot up from a Knoppix CD and copy whatever you like onto a USB drive. I do it all the time to recover data from PCs whose Windows installations have gotten corrupted.

I believe this'll only work if you have a destination hard drive that's formatted in FAT32, so that knoppix can recognise and write to it.

You may have better luck using an ethernet cable, instead of firewire.

Assuming you don't already have a router in your home network and your machines aren't actually networked already, then you should be able to network the two machines using a manual address of 192.168.0.1 & 192.168.0.2. Once networked the format type of the hard drive doesn't really matter.

If your PC OS is corrupted then you could use knoppix to network them together as well.

 

[robinmurphy]

Ok, firstly, STOP RIGHT NOW!

I tried to do this when I first got my iBook G4 and it caused my iBook to show an unhappy mac face - reinstall mac didn't work - sent to Apple support - took over a month to get it back.

From what I understand, Firewire target disk mode is for mac to mac connections only not PC to Mac connections - they really should make this clear in the manual.

 

[thephiller]

Thanks for the replies.

So basically there is no other way to transfer the files from the PC to the Mac other than through my existing network connection. I could do that but I was hoping there would be a faster way...

It's strange though because on the packet of the firewire cable it suggests you can hook up either Mac's or PC's.

Edit: Just came across two programs called MacDisk and MacDrive. Apparently they let Windows read the HFS/HFS+ format. I'll give those a try later so fingers crossed