Just got a new computer & want to find the easiest (and cheapest) way to transfer data from one box to the other.

Both boxes have a firewire port, USB, and eithernet.
Both OS's are WinXP Pro

I'm sure there is an easy way to do this (network connection?), never had to do it, so I don't have a clue. I have Multi gigabytes of files I need to x-fer and I don't want to burn CD's!

Can someone please help me out? No need to be detailed if the solution is contained in the OS. Just point me in the right direction and I'll do the homework.

Cheers!

 

pull out the old HD and put it in the new one as a slave

or....

buy yourself a nice little NAS and keep all your files on that and just your apps on your local. this works great for filesharing among multiple computers(mp3 filesharing)

 

 

Direct connect the 2 computer together using a crossover cable.

 

Oops, I should have mentioned that all the hard drive bays are full (all 4 of them!). I have a Raid 0 set up w/ 2 SATA's, a system drive, and a applications drive.

Could I attach the old data drive to an unplugged CD/DVD ribbon cable to transfer everything?

 

I searched direct connection in the help index and came up w/ zippo. Is a crossover cable a firewire, USB, or cat 5 cable?

 

Cat 5 with 2 sets connected differently (Forget how off the top of my head).
Go into the conect to area and set up a local connection, you will have to set up the shares on both computers.

http://www.makeitsimple.com/how-to/dyi_crossover.htm

 

This is just like being on a normal network, except there's only one other computer. The cable will look similiar to the standard networking cable but it should be orange or another bright color. Crossover cables will only work from computer to computer. If you try to plug both computers into a hub using crossover cables it will not work. You should be able to just plug them both in and the OS will pick it up if you have the right networking stuff installed. If it pops up a message saying that your LAN is connected in the bottom right then you should just be able to go into network places and see the other computer. Then you can share out the hard drives and you should be good to go. I like the idea of using one computer as a file server. I do this (when I'm not stuck across the world lol) and it works great. I have all my music and movies on one computer and I can access them quickly with shortcuts from the other computer.

If you don't want to mess with all that then you can always just get a 1GB or larger thumbstick. I love them we use them a lot. It will be slower and you will be limited on size, but it's damn sure easy and faster than burning CDs. If you run into problems feel free to PM me but I can only use the net once every 2 days or so. Good luck.

skitz

 

If you have a home network set up you can use the Windows XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. It should be under the System Tools menu. I used that when I got my notebook and it actually worked pretty well. It also supports USB I believe, but I've only used the network method.

 

If both of these computers are already on a LAN, then share a hard disk on the old computer, navigate to that drive via Network Neighborhood on the new computer, then drag whatever you want over to the new computer.

If these computers are not on a LAN, then the crossover cable is the best option. They're under $10 for a short one and look just like a regular network cable (it's basically the same thing with some of the wires switched). Plug the ends of the crossover cable into the network cards on both computers, and they should auto-detect. Then just go into "My Network Places" to view the other computer. Share your hard disk and you can drag over whatever you want.

Btw, if this is just a few GB of data, and it's not confidential, I have a FTP site that you can upload to and then download from. There's plenty of storage space so a few GB would be fine. If you want to do this, send me a PM and I'll give you the details.