Pc to pc data transfer

[bringiton]

I'm buying a new desktop and would like to transfer most of the files on my old laptop onto this new computer. Seems to me this should be easy. Can I just connect the two puters together with a USB cable on the assumption the new one recognises the old one as a new drive? Then I can "cut and paste"!

[Bushfiva]

No you can't. You CAN do it with a special type of USB cable sold for the purpose. It's cheap. Google for something like "usb file transfer".

[BOAC]

bringiton - I have sent you a PM

[rob-d]

You could buy an external harddrive. This would plug into your USB and appear as a new hard drive on your computer. You would be able to copy and paste to that, and plug it into your new machine where you could do the same. They are also handy for backing up data, storage etc.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4426&CategorySelectedId=11157&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11157


http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4HBP&CategorySelectedId=11157&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11157


Rob

[Saintsman]

You could also download to a memory stick and transfer it that way too.

[oldbeefer]

Start, Programmes, Accessories, System Tools, Files and Settings transfer Wizard?

[JamesT73J]

If both have a network card, just buy a crossover RJ45 cable, and create a simple workgroup (make sure the laptop and desktop share the same workgroup name).
Then on the laptop set the appropriate shares and you should be able to access these from the desktop.
James

[bringiton]

Thanks everyone for the ideas, and thanks BOAC for the pm.
Reckon it's either a special cable or transfer via a extra hard drive.

[Lost_luggage34]

I'd go with the external drive solution personally.

It can be used afterwards for backups etc.

[Keef]

USB-to-USB doesn't work these days unless you buy a clever cable and some clever software. The cheapest route, if both machines have a network card, is a Cat5 crossover cable.

A USB hard drive has longer-term potential.

If you're going to keep the old machine and use it for something else (eg a fileserver), then a modem/router and two Cat5 non-crossover cables may be the way to go.

BOAC's PMed advice, whatever it was, will be AOK.

[BOAC]

Keef - flattery will get you everywhere! The advice was exactly USB-to-USB doesn't work these days unless you buy a clever cable and some clever software. at a very reasonable price (and just a tad cheaper than ASFKAP's:ok:)

We have awarded you 10 PPRune 'Towers' points for being kind to mods:)

[P.Pilcher]

There is another solution and this happened to me recently when my laptop failed as a motherboard fault was diagnosed. The hard drive was removed and fitted into a hard drive caddy (£5 inc carriage on eBay) Connect to desktop with supplied USB cable and your new all singing all dancing backup hard drive is ready for use, complete with all the files you need (and a load of redundant ones that you can delete).

P.P.

[IO540]

You can join two PCs together using an ethernet cable, but you cannot then use the "get IP address automatically" option - because there is no DHCP server to get the IP from.

You have to set both PCs to the same subnet e.g.

10.10.10.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
10.10.10.2 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

and then "it should just work" :)

The DNS address doesn't matter.

Windoze networking should (within some minutes) discover the other PC and - subject to having a share set up on the root of each hard drive - you can browse it. It helps if both have the same WORKGROUP name set up e.g. "WORKGROUP" but this is not essential AFAIK.

Just remember that when you are done with the trabsfer, you have to reset the IP config to the usual "obtain IP address automatically" otherwise it won't work with the normal internet access setup, where there is a DHCP server which dishes out the IP.

[Saab Dastard]

IO, thanks, you are spot on.

One clarification - you have to use a crossover ethernet cable to directly connect the PCs.

Standard ethernet cable if connecting both to a hub or switch.

I believe that 2 wifi clients set to peer-to-peer mode could work similarly to a direct ethernet connection - using the static IP addressing above.

SD

[BOAC]

To bring this back to earth wrt the original question:)

Unless 'bringiton' HAS a wifi connection, OR already has an ethernet card/connection OR wants to have a back-up extrernal USB drive by far the cheapest and easiest option is the connection cable I and others have mentioned. Once installed, just connect and run the installed programme on BOTH machines, no fiddling with sharing, IPs or anything else. It really does work a treat.:ok:

[IO540]

One clarification - you have to use a crossover ethernet cable to directly connect the PCs.
Standard ethernet cable if connecting both to a hub or switch

Quite right, sorry ;)

Would add though that most new ethernet switches are auto-MDIX which means they will auto configure their port(s) regardless of what ethernet cable you stick in there.

I also don't think anybody sells ethernet hubs anymore - do they?

Whatever happened to good ole laplink? I spent many happy hours (or days) transferring data between PCs with that.

As an aside, a great interview question for a "real programmer" would have been: how does Laplink auto-install itself to the remote end? The answer is that they wrote the code stub (which was received on the remote end using the MODE=COM or some such console-com port redirection command) in assembler (of course) using opcodes which were all printable characters...

[BOAC]

Whatever happened to good ole laplink? - I saw a USB Belkin Laplink cable in a Staples store in Newfi a couple of months ago, so it is still around. I still have a Win95 version somewhere!

[Keef]

I've got a Laplink cable in the drawer here somewhere, too.

As I recall, the Win 95 (or was it Win 3.1?) software won't work with XP.

It was brilliant in its day, though.

[Feline]

Laplink are still (surprise surprise!) in business - www.laplink.com - and offer PC-to-PC transfer software and a special cable for USB to USB transfer ...

The old Laplink software won't work with XP because it was (is) restricted to the old DOS naming convention (8 character filename + 3 character extension) (there's a name for that which I can't remember ...)

There's also a German company that offers a USB to USB cable: www.vivanco.com

[Warmtoast]

I'm buying a new desktop and would like to transfer most of the files on my old laptop onto this new computer.

Coming in a little late but here's my tuppence-worth.

On the assumption that your new desktop has MS Vista as its OS, then Vista has the necessary application in the form of "Windows Easy Transfer" to to migrate your existing files and settings to the new computer [I think read somewher that Vista Basic doesn't offer this facility so check]. All you need is an Easy Transfer Cable available from various manufacturers. FWIW I used Belkin's version (recommended by Microsoft) and available from DABs for example for £19.99. Other cables have been mentioned in this thread so take your choice. The Belkin version worked fine with me with no problems.
More details of Windows Easy Transfer here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/easytransfer.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/easytransfer.mspx)

"Windows Easy Transfer" doesn't transfer your installed programs and applications such as Word etc. MS have however, recently posted a free program for download that does this in the form of "Windows Easy Transfer Companion (Beta)".
Details of this can be found here [it says that this is only for the US market, but it can in fact be downloded - 3.9Mb]:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=39f724eb-4e37-4be0-adfc-786786e73e50&DisplayLang=en
Be aware that although Windows Easy Transfer can copy your Outlook Express address book sucessfully to the new computer, it can't copy your saved messages. This is to do with Vista having replaced Outlook Express with a new mail program called "Windows Mail", this means that when you try to import your Outlook Express messages from your old computer with Windows XP to a new computer running Vista, you can run into problems. There is a work-around and if interested PM me and I'll pass on the details.
The "Windows Easy Transfer Companion (Beta)" came out after I'd installed Vista Ultimate in early February and had so to re-install my main applications like Office etc, but this was done sucessfully, even the Office activation worked OK. I am very happy with Vista - I'm not going back!
Tony

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

:confused: bringiton.....

"You could also download to a memory stick and transfer it that way too."

Further to the copy/paste option, I found recently - if nothing else is available - that a largeish memory card plus USB reader makes a very satisfactory 'emergency' alternative on the data transfer front. Don't be put off by the usual (relatively slow) data transfer speeds of cards to camera (or whatever) to PC. Just use in Drive to Drive mode (card to reader to PC) and data will shift at a similar rate to USB flash drives.