Your computer has two FireWire ports. FireWire is a high-speed data transfer system that lets you easily connect and disconnect external devices-such as digital video (DV) cameras, printers, scanners, and hard disks. You can connect and disconnect FireWire devices without restarting your computer.
These are some of the things you can do with FireWire:
- Connect a digital video camera and capture or transfer high-quality video directly to your computer. Then you can use video-editing software such as Apple's iMovie to edit the video.
- Connect an external FireWire hard disk drive and use it to back up data or transfer files. If you have installed software for your FireWire hard disk, the FireWire disk icon appears on your desktop after you connect the disk drive to your Power Mac G4. Some FireWire hard disks get their power through the FireWire cable, so you don't need to connect an external power supply.
- If you have a problem with your computer that prevents you from starting up or you want to transfer files, you can use FireWire to connect your Power Mac G4 to another computer so that your Power Mac G4 appears as an external hard disk on the other computer (a feature known as "FireWire target disk mode"). See technical document 58583 "Macintosh: How to Use FireWire Target Disk Mode" for more information.
To use a FireWire device with your computer, connect the device to the computer and install any software that came with the device. Your computer automatically senses when you attach a new device. To start up from a FireWire hard disk that has the Mac OS on it, choose System Preferences from the Apple (K) menu, click Startup Disk, then select the FireWire hard disk as the startup disk.
If your FireWire hard disk doesn't appear or can't be selected, consult the FireWire hard disk vendor for updated software drivers.
To disconnect your FireWire hard disk safely, drag its icon to the Trash before disconnecting the FireWire cable.