Can a MacBook Pro with Leopard be Target Disk mode to take my Snow Leopard iMac data?

I might be going about this wrong, but I wonder if it can be done:  I have an older MacBook Pro that has a clean fresh install of Leopard on it.  I would like to get my current account and data from my iMac (running Snow Leopard) on to the MBP by using Target Disk Mode.  I tried to take saId data off the iMac by target disking it ( FROM iMac TO macbook ) but that gave me a warning about going from a newer operating system down to an older one.  Soooo... can I go in the other direction and target disk the laptop?  Somehow, I don't think that is really the best way to do it.  I do not have the Snow Leopard install disk anymore, so I can't upgrade the laptop.  But is that what I am really going to have to do, to do this right?  Thanks!

You can't migrate a user account from a later OS to an earlier one.
You can use TDM to move your data by drag & drop, but you won't be able to retain all preferences.
Easiest way would be to put the MBP in TDM  and use Disk Utility from the iMac to erase the Macintosh HD on the MBP and then use the Restore function to clone the whole system from the iMac to the MBP.
But there are caveats - If the OS on the iMac was installed originally from a retail SL disc (white with white cat on it) this should work fine.
But - if the OS on the iMac is the one it shipped with (installed from a grey disc), it won't have the battery management software required by the MBP.
In that case your choices are limited to manually moving your data from your home folder to the new account on the MBP, or buy a retail SL disc and upgrade the MBP then use setup assistant to transfer the user and applications.
As always, I would recommend backing up your data from the iMac to an external drive before starting any of this.

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