[NeilB]

I received several detailed answers to my first question, and I appreciate everyone's efforts.

Because I am working with an old (vintage 2004) desktop that I want to replace with a newer desktop, I need to extract data files - mainly from the "My Documents" and "My Pictures" folder - from the older one to the newer one.

As I had mentioned in my previous question, the older unit is a Dell Dimension 4600 running on XP and bought back in 2004. The newer (note: not brand-new) desktop is an HP Compaq running XP Professional.

Can you good folks give me some suggestions about what would be the best way to move those files? Less technical is better, since I am ........ well, less technical than you guys.

Neil

[tek101]

If they are just docs and pictures ....You can use USB flash drive to move them over ...: 16 GB drive should work for you ...."You will need it later on anyway"...

This is the only least tech that I know .......that you can easily do .....

Have fun.

[drmsucks]

Neil - Get an inexpensive USB hard drive (I like Western Digital's Passport) that is adequately sized for the files that you want to transfer. Copy files to the drive that you want to transfer/back up. Then plug the drive into the other computer and copy from the USB drive to the "new" computer.


Don't worry about USB 1.1 speeds, from what I gleaned from your previous thread, you don't have a lot of files and aren't concerned about the speed of the transfers. Even at 1.1 speeds, the copy operation will be plenty "speedy" for you.



When you are through transferring files, use the drive to backup important data files.



Best of luck!

[smax013]

As noted, the easiest solution would be an external USB drive. If you have a large amount of data, it might take a while with only USB 1.1 on the old computer...a long while if you REALLY have a lot of data (you still have not offered how much data we are talking about...10 GB? 100 GB?). But, once you have copied the files from the old computer, it will be much faster to copy to the new computer since it has USB 2.0. And once you are done with that, you can then use the USB drive with the new computer as a backup drive.

The faster way, but a bit more complicated, would be to pull the drive from the old computer and hook it up to the new computer as a data drive. This potentially could be done internally, but certainly could be done as an external drive with either a USB enclosure or a USB universal adapter. This process will be faster overall, but it requires opening up the old computer and "tinkering around" inside...which makes some people a bit squimish.

The other option would be a network transfer. If you have a wired router, then you could get two ethernet cables to connect the computers to the router (it not already done...I remember you mentioning wireless, however) and then setup the old computer to share the folder(s) that hold the data files and then copy away to the new computer. This potentially can be faster than the first option, but slower than the second option. It can be just a smidge tricky to setup sometimes, however, but is usually fairly straight forward.

If one of those options appeals to you, then we can go into more details for that option.

[NeilB]

Once again, thank you for the great answers.

I remembered that I had bought a 2.0 GB flash drive maybe a year ago, and never even opened the package.

I have been doing just what was suggested - using the flash drive (and what we used to call sneakernet in the old days) to transfer the files. Right now, I have finished moving my word processing and excel files, and I will start on my pictures tomorrow morning.

I am grateful for finding this forum, and grateful to the great people who offer their time here to help others who, like me, are technically challenged.

You guys rock!

[NeilB]

smax013 said:

you still have not offered how much data we are talking about...10 GB? 100 GB?

Definitely less than 1 GB in word processing and spreadsheets (combined), and probably no more than 1 GB or so of pictures.

As you can see, I am definitely not a true power user.

Neil

[rgreen4]

Ha, the old sneaker net does work.

[smax013]

NeilB said:

Definitely less than 1 GB in word processing and spreadsheets (combined), and probably no more than 1 GB or so of pictures.

As you can see, I am definitely not a true power user.

Neil

In that case, slower USB 1.1 speeds should be a complete non-issue...using a flash drive as you are, while not the fastest way, is certainly the easiest way for most people.