How-to: faster file transfers?

[mopppish]

Hi, all. I'm a music education student, so I'm constantly ripping music to my ibook at school and then putting it on my imac at home later. This is sometimes a pain as even though it's compressed audio, it may take several transfers with my 512mb flash drive. Bluetooth is slow as hell, and mounting drives over a network to transfer files is sometimes cumbersome. Any suggestions for the best way to make big, fast file transfers? Thanks!

P.S. I am not opposed to any wired options.
P.P.S. My ipod is full to the brim, so that's not gonna work.

 

[portent]

You have an iPod, right? Use that as a hard drive....

(Make sure your music is backed up on your home machine first, though.)

 

[mopppish]

Notice my 2nd postscript.
Clearing room on the ipod to make transfers is just as much of a pain as my other options. Had I not ripped all of my music at 320kbps, then I would probably have room on it to use as a hard drive. Alas, I have audio OCD...

 

[ibooksux]

If they both have firewire, why not book one into Target mode and transfer the files that way?

from apples site:

To use FireWire target disk mode
1. Make sure that the target computer is turned off. If you are using a PowerBook or iBook as the target computer, you should also plug in its AC power adapter.
2. Use a FireWire cable (6-pin to 6-pin) to connect the target computer to a host computer. The host computer does not need to be turned off.
3. Start up the target computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until the FireWire icon appears. The hard disk of the target computer should become available to the host computer and will likely appear on desktop. (If the target computer is running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you can also open System Preferences, choose Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. Then restart the computer and it will start up in Target Disk Mode.)
4. When you are finished copying files, drag the target computer's hard disk icon to the Trash or select Put Away from the File menu (Mac OS 9) or Eject from the File menu (Mac OS X).
5. Press the target computer's power button to turn it off.
6. Unplug the FireWire cable.

 

[Vlade]

Wow ibooksux you beet me to that post, I was typing it and then I checked again and saw your post!

Using the iBook as a firewire disk should be your best bet, you should get around 50MB/s transfer rate so it will be fast enough for you.

 

[ibooksux]

yes, and you'll love the fact that i posted from... my PC!

while i am waiting for my macbook and ram and HD to arrive!!


heard you guys have a pretty cool jazz festival over in rochester... in a couple of weeks or so.

 

[TaKashMoney]

ourtunes works like a charm as long as they are on the same network. Fantastic for both music and video in iTunes.

http://ourtunes.sourceforge.net/

 

[khisayruou]

Run an ethernet cable between both computers....done.

 

[Josias]

Run an ethernet cable between both computers....done.

Actually, that will run at maximum 100 mbps (rarely). It usually just goes 10 mbps. I prefer airport much more, but try the FW target disk mode. That's 400mbps. Otherwise, buy an external HD, and run it through USB. 480mbps.

 

[howesey]

Actually, that will run at maximum 100 mbps (rarely). It usually just goes 10 mbps. I prefer airport much more, but try the FW target disk mode. That's 400mbps. Otherwise, buy an external HD, and run it through USB. 480mbps.

Firewire is the fastest option. USB2.0 claims to have 480Mbps, but in the real world it is not. I find USB to be half as slow as FW400.

I transfer music from university and back on either my 20GB iPod, or if it gets big I use a 500GB external drive. I would invest in an external HDD.