What is a good way of transferring a large amount of data from one computer to another?

A external hard drive. You can get a 500gb external for under a hundred bucks. Quick and easy.

or burn a data dual layer dvd to transfer them.

www.skype.com
file transfers of UNLIMITED size
cant beat that

@willbrawn is right if you can be physically there

I didn’t finish reading the question lol get a eSATA external HDD

put a firewire cable in between..

just boot the “source” holding the T so it starts in target disk mode, then copy the data over because the TD machine will act like an external harddrive

good luck !

@patg7590 didnt know that about skype. Interesting thanks.

ZOHMYGAWD target disk mode is the ultimate coolness factor of having a mac haha at least on the old ones that had FW (like mine :])

firewire was only absent for one series of macbook, so i guess he’ll have firewire on both of them, see, my solution is the fastest and cheap as well

buy a couple 8 gig flash drives.
Total cost will be about $40 tops.

@iwamoto oh that’s right, they renamed the aluminum macbook the macbook pro-silly me

This is a transfer link up cable, it works all the way back to windows 98, and forward to Windows 7.

There is no software installation, and is as easy as clicking and dragging. Very fast. I transferred 30GB of movies in 20 minutes.

If you use a medium to store the data on first, you’d essentially be waiting twice for the transfer time, where as this device could probably do it in less than half the time.

Cost 25 dollars from Amazon.

And, it’s reusable as many times as you want, take friends data when they come over, or when you visit them.

EDIT: nevermind, you’re on a mac…but I think there is a similar unit to this for Mac though…I think Belkin Has one.

@RandomMrdan what you gain in compatibility you most definitely lose in speed. For two FW400 macs FW is the way to go

@patg7590 is 30GB in 20 minutes slow? I thought it was kind of fast.

I’m not saying that is slow, im saying I’m sure FW would have been faster, it just is. :/

firewire is 400 Megabyes per second. Unless you’re using Firewire 800 of course.

ok-im just saying FW is faster than usb lol

@filmfann Why would you need more than one?

Removable media is the way to go. USB flash drives are relatively inexpensive.

@benjaminlevi You would only need one if the computers are next to each other. I am having to move a lot of files off my daughters computer, and I am using 2 flashdrives to do it, to cut down the travel time, etc. If the computers are right next to each other, one will do of course.

I ask one of my kids to do it. Takes no time for me.

I think yoou can buy flash drives with 15 GBs these days.

you can buy flash drives up to 128 GB ive seen although they cost $399 :/

An external hard drive can be used to transfer, then after the transfer you can use it as a form of backup.

You can get 160 GB USB hard drive.

Earlier, I used to use hjsplit to split and join files (even set ups or video/media files).

I ended up using a 160 GB external drive. It transferred all 23 GB of my stupid video project in about 10 min. Thanks everyone for your help.

You can just connect the MacBook to the MacBook pro with a cable they both support. Firewire 800 preferably, otherwise Firewire 400. Both mac’s will detect the other as a portable drive but it’s one step full speed copy! Probably the fastest option there is.

No external drive needed (two step copy and extra cost). With a direct FW800 line, 23GB is copied in about one minute.

@martijn86 welcome to fluther! Lurve!

@filmfann thanks ,starting to like it here. Just bookmarked to try and visit more often. Good concept.