Who cares? XP supports IP-over-Firewire out of the box - why would I want to slave one computer to another when I can set up a peer-to-peer network that's just as fast?
Oh, wait - I know. The box that implements Target Disk Mode comes with a fruit on it, so therefore it's automatically the best thing ever invented....
Oh, wait - I know. The box that implements Target Disk Mode comes with a fruit on it, so therefore it's automatically the best thing ever invented....
Actually there is a real reason for doing this and it is not intended for permanently slaving one computer to another. It is very useful however for temporarily slaving one computer to another.
For instance, my wife upgraded her computer and I "inherited" her Powerbook, which is about a year newer & somewhat faster than my old Powerbook.
Target disk allowed me to wipe her computer, and then "clone" everything from my old computer to her newer one. And I mean everything OS, applications, data and permissions. An hour after I started I had a newer, faster computer with more disk space & a faster processor, but which had all my applications, registrations, data, etc. in exactly the same places as my old one. Just pick it up & start using it.
Go ahead, try that with a Windows machine.
The only way to do anything like it is to do a clean OS install, l find all of your original application disks, install & then upgrade them, and them transfer your data over. Sure, I know how to do it, but it would take over a day, if I could find all of my original application disks. Yours may all be in a neat stack somewhere, but most of us have them in obscure places around the house.
That is the last time I will use Target Disk mode for the next year, but saving a tedious day of my time is worth quite a bit to me.