Computer data transfer

[Jim Young]

After many years I finally have a new computer. Now I need to get some of the data from the old one to the new one. One of my neighbors gave me this cable that has printer connectors on each end. he said all I have to do is hook it up and run some program that should already be installed. I don't know what program. doen anyone know what it its called?

[Peter Stahl]

I've never done it my self but this article on CNet ( http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6603_7-5113806-1.html ) sounds like it would be easy. The program is $60 though. Might be a shareware/freeware program out there that will do the same thing. If you have Network/ethernet cards in both then check out the article ( http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6603_7-5113806-1.html ) Hope this helps.

Pete

[Ian Barley]

Jim

If you are running widows your neighbour is probably talking about a "direct cable connection" , the software for which is part of the windows package but may not be installed. Its a long time since I have used it but it has worked pretty well in the past.

If you are running XP it can be found under "Advanced Connections" from the "Network Connections" option in control panel. It requires setup at both ends so you will also need to find it at the other end, which will vary depending on the operating system.

Also - while the cable may look like a printer cable it is wired differently. The one your neighbour has should be OK if he has used it previously for that purpose. Good luck

[Jason Roehl]

I've found one of the easiest ways to transfer data from an old computer is simply to pull the old hard drive and install it in the new one. If, however, you're not comfortable doing this, don't. You can seriously FUBAR a computer if you don't do it right. Depending on what you do with the old computer, you may just want to leave the old HD in the new computer--it never hurts to have a little extra storage space.

[Chuck Wintle]

I will second what Jason said about the hard drive. The easiest way is to remove the old drive, set it as a slave with the little jumper near the IDE connector and put it in your new computer. This way it is VERY easy to get all of your important data onto your new machine(new hard drive). By the way I usually partition the hard drive so I can have an area to store all files, data, etc that I may newed in the future. If you ever need to reinstall the OS then it will not affect the stored data on the other partition.

[Ian Barley]

I actually agree that the easiest and best way is to transfer the old HD to the new PC. I was kinda guessing that Jim would rather not open up the case on a new computer.

[Mike Cutler]

An additional metod that you may consider is to use an external hard drive enclosure ( 20-50 bucks). You remove the old hard drive, install it in the enclosure and then plug it into a USB2.0 connection on your new computer. Windows XP will recognize the old hard drive as a USB Mass Storage device and should let you get any info/ files you need. I wouldn't try to transfer programs. Nice thing about this method is that there is no boot conflict and the external hard drive can be installed and removed after the machine is up and running.
I've used them for data recovery on corrupted hard drives that wouldn't boot up. You can also swap files cross platform with one, Mac to Windows and Windows to Mac for data recovery and backup.

[John Miliunas]

Jim, if your old machine has a USB port, you might consider picking up one of those USB memory sticks. Even a 512MB one is pretty resonable nowadays. If you're just backing up data, you may only need to do a couple or three reps of copying from one machine to the other and then end up with the memory stick, which is real useful in transferring data between machines in the future.