I’m about to get a new laptop, and I’m looking for a (free) way to transfer my files - music, pictures, and Word documents - to this new computer. I don’t have an external hard drive (though I do have an MP3 player (a 30GB Creative Zen) that holds data files).
The thing I’m concerned about is maintaining file folder hierarchies (for example I have my school papers sorted by year, quarter, and class).
Could I do something like hook them up with a LAN cable? I have no idea how these things work (obviously).
Not sure if this is more of an IMHO … mods, feel free to move, of course!
According to Creative, you can use the Zen as HD, so rather than using routers, switches or crossover cables (and the minor headache involved in setting it up for the first time), I’d use it.
In XP (you’re using it, yes?) I’d assume it shows up as a removable HD you can read and write to.
Where in CA are you, I run a computer repair shop, if you’re near me I can drop by and help you out real quick with a file transfer. I have several large external drives for just this type of task. Only takes a few min.
Putting the two on a network would probably be the easiest. But barring that (you said you have no idea how to do that, so rather then go out, spend all the money on a networking gear, setup the network, pray it works in one try and then do it) it’ll probably be easiest to either burn a CD and move the files that way or copy them to a CF card and do it that way (Actually using your MP3 player will work just fine as well). Doing this will maintain your folder hierarchy. For example if you have a folder called ‘school’ and in that folder you have four folders, freshman, sophmore, jr, sr, and in each of those you have a folder for quarter etc… you would just drag the main folder ‘school’ to whatever media your going to use, put the media (CD, CF card, MP3 player) in the new computer and draw that main folder to wherever you want it. It’s pretty straightfoward. And if ALL the files you want to copy just happen to be in My Documents, you can just grab the whole folder and move that. Just make sure the stuff you want to copy (or rather the stuff that you want to maintain directory structure) doesn’t max out the whatever you want to use to move the files. For example (not that this example is likely) if your school folder is larger then 30GB you’ll have to move smaller sections at a time. In that case you would copy ‘freshman’ onto the MP3 player, hook it up to the new computer, create a folder called ‘school’ and copy it into that. Then go back and get the ‘sophmore’ file…
Thanks for the help! I’m in the Bay area, drachillix - not sure if that’s anywhere near central CA (I suspect not). I’ll try out what Joey P suggests with my MP3 player - everything I need actually is in “My Documents” … so it seems to be almost foolproof (famous last words, of course)…
I just bought a new computer that I set up over the holidays. I transferred my documents and settings from my old computer – over five years’ worth – using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, which appears in the Start menu in Windows XP. I connected the computers using a serial PC-to-PC data-transfer cable, manufactured by Belkin and available at just about any computer-supply shop for about $20. The transfer was a bit slow, but the Wizard walked me through the process with minimal hassle.
shimmery, I have a portable USB Flash Drive, and I’m going to be on the Stanford campus either this Thursday or Friday afternoon (I won’t know which until later today). If you don’t have it all worked out by then, let me know via this thread and I’d be happy to help. It should only take about 10 minutes.
You can buy USB to USB cables for data transfer, search Google for ‘usb to usb cable’ throws up loads. Don’t know how reliable/easy to use they are though.
They work pretty well, and are fairly easy to use, though they usually come with a transfer program like PCLink which you have to fire up on both machines, rather than just having something appear as a drive. Transfer rates are on the order of 6-15 mbps, which is tolerable for a one-time transfer. With USB external drives being so common, they aren’t as useful as they once were, but if you don’t have anything else, they should retail for about $20.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I actually do have a keychain drive, but it’s pretty small - definitely not big enough to easily transfer my music. Antonius, thanks for the offer - sorry I didn’t let you know in a timely manner, but I just got back to campus myself yesterday and I haven’t gotten the new computer yet.
I think I’ll be sticking with the mp3 player… since I already own it, it’s the closest thing to free!
