If you just recently bought a new Mac and have an older one, or if you want to transfer files from a friend's Mac, there are numerous ways to do so. The quickest way to do it is by booting up one of the machines in Target Mode and mounting the second machine as an external hard drive on the first machine.

To boot up in target mode and mount the second machine do the following: First, connect both machines with a firewire cable. Hold down the "T" key on the keyboard of the machine you want to act as an external hard drive. Boot up (or restart) the machine that you are holding the "T" down on. A blue screen with a yellowish orange firewire logo will appear on the machine and you can release the "T" key.

On the other machine you will see a mounted drive in the Finder. Simply copy and paste documents to and from for easy transfer.

 

You will also be able see the mounted drive in the sidebar.



Make sure you properly eject the mounted drive.