Transfering photos from old PC to new PC

[stalling attitude]

Hi Folks

Just bought a new PC and am trying to transfer all my pics from old to new. i know pics take up a lot of memory so transfering via floppy is not an option and the old PC has no cd rewriter. Is there a simple way of doing it that a computer illiterate fool like me stands a chance with.

many thanks

S.A

[Mornington Crescent]

Hi SA,

Get a USB caddy (3.5 in HDD) from Maplins. Put your old Hard drive in that and then you can just copy the files to your new computer.

It will give you extra storage space for all your pictures and you may not need to transfer the files at all.

Cost about £30.

If you have XP on the new computer there is not installation required - Just plug it in and away you go.

MC

[stalling attitude]

Thanks for your advice. Apologies if this is a really stupid question but is there no way i can link my old tower to the new one, say by usb, and then transfer it across that way.

many thanks


S.A

[WeatherJinx]

You should be able to this easily, but I suspect (and I'm sure the Windows users will correct me on this if I'm wrong), you'll need a special 'bridging or file-transfer version of USB cable). Just do a search for a supplier on Google, or try someone like eBuyer.

Alternatively if your internet connection is via a router, you could connect the two using a network cable. HTH.

Jx

[Mornington Crescent]

You cannot connect directly between the USB ports but there is a solution like this:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=3853922

You could also use a USB hub.

Both solutions will leave you with hardware that you possibly will not use again.

The USB caddy solution leaves you with a continuing storage or backup facility

http://www.usbtech.co.uk/catalog/default.php/cPath/17

(M-U3572)

Hope this helps


MC

[419]

Another very simple and easy to use method, is to buy a USB memory stick.
You can get a 512MB one for about £23, which will hold an awful lot of photo's.
This has the advantage over using leads to join the 2 computers, in that you can keep it, and use it for transferring items to/from your pc in the future.

I've never used this particular store, it's just to give you an idea of the sort of thing I'm talking about.
http://www.directusbstore.co.uk/cnb/...dCategoryID=19

[WeatherJinx]

You cannot connect directly between the USB ports but there is a solution like this:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=3853922

er, wasn't that what I said?

[Memetic]

Plug the old drive in the new PC?

You could just plug the old hard drive into the new PC as a slave drive.

Would you be comfortable with opening both PC's and a bit of meccano style work?

If so I'm sure we could talk you through a permanent or temporary transplant, we'd need to know a bit about both machines.

[vapilot2004]

All good choices. I like the USB HD adaptor idea and of course the flash drives are great things to have around for anything - and they work virtually anywhere.

(under 1.00)
If the old computer has a CD burner - create a disk - and copy it onto the new machine.

(free if you have cable(s))
This one takes some minor OS/networking skills:
If both machines have a NIC (network interface card) all you need is either a crossover cable or with a router , 2 standard ethernet cables. Share the drive on the old PC and copy away via \\your old computer name in My Network Places address bar (or internet explorer's)

(Free - must have no fear of wires & screwdrivers & delicate electronics) - Memetic's got it:

You could just plug the old hard drive into the new PC as a slave drive.

[Troy McClure]

Assuming photos are from a digital camera, why not buy a new larger memory card for the camera - less than £15 for a 256Mb one, and it will always be useful in future when taking new photos. Then just copy the photos back on the camera to transfer. Most cameras just appear as a removable drive when you plug them into a USB port and you can copy files onto them in the same way as copying photos off them. If the old PC isn't running XP, you have the added advantage of not having to install any camera drivers, cos they should already have been installed. New PC will undoubtably have XP on it, so should be plug and play.

Or, expanding on what Memetic said:

When I upgraded to a new PC, I put the hard drive from the old PC in the new one as a second drive. I copied off it any files I wanted, reformatted it, and put the 'My Documents' folder on it (Windows 'Help' will tell you how to change the folder's location). If anything goes horribly wrong with the C drive, at least my documents are safe on a separate drive. I periodically backup 'My Documents' to a safe place on the C drive to be doubly safe.

To do the hardware bit, get the hard drive out of the old PC and set the jumper on the back to 'Slave'. Fix it into a spare 5 1/4 inch bay in the chassis of the new PC. Plug the connector half way down the data cable into it, and locate a spare lead from the power supply unit. When you restart the PC, you should find you've got hard drives as drives C and D.

If you're not happy opening up the PCs, sure you'll find someone you know that will help you out, or (God forbid), get a computer shop to do it, but it's not as complicated as it sounds.

[TIMTS]

I recently got a new pc, and moved my old harddrive into the new one to transfer some photos.

Some of them got moved ok, but a lot of them had a problem. I got a message saying they could not be transferred due to an I/O error??

What does that mean, and are my pictures gone for good???

[hobie]

what file sizes are we talking about (in total) for all these photo's

[Conan the Librarian]

With me, we are talking about 80GB of piccies at 6MB a pop, so the only way to go for me, is an external hard drive, so that all the hard work can be backed up (Not archived) and I can go to sleep at night.

Funnily enough, one of those shots isn't that bad...

Conan