Transferring Data to a New Mac, Let me Count the Ways

So, you’ve got a new Mac. Now how can you copy all of your Photoshop, AppleWorks, Excel, FileMaker, iMovie, and other files from your old Mac to your new Mac? Well, you could:

•  Burn your files onto a CD or DVD
•  Back them up to your iDisk if you have a .Mac account
•  Use an external USB or FireWire drive
•  Use FireWire Target Disk mode to connect the two Macs
•  Connect both computers via Ethernet and turn on file sharing

Information about each of these data-transfer methods can be found in the Apple Knowledge Base article Moving Files from your Older Macintosh to a New One.

But the answer is six. Mac Help provides the other way. In the Finder, just type Command-? and then type "Using IP over FireWire" to learn how Mac OS X Panther lets you transfer data between two Macs with just a FireWire cable.