computer upgrade question

[Chad Fitzgerald]

Im finally upgrading to a new computer with Windows 7. Here is my plan but would like opinions on if it makes sense.
Current computer is Win XP with corel x4. print driver for the laser will need upgrade for win 7 and in order to do that i need to update the bios and firmware.
I am getting a cnc therefore vcarve software for new computer which is why i am updated now.
Im going to leave corel x4 and print driver for laser on XP computer, network it with new computer using 1 moniter and a toggle to switch between the two. design in corel and send to laser like normal, import corel files from old computer to vcarve when designing for cnc. send cnc files to cnc computer and go.

Does this make sense. i am trying to avoid too much change at one time. also the upgrade cost to corel x7 to run on new computer, would rather not lay that out right now, figure i can do that down the road.
change makes me nervous, upgrading the print driver really make me nervous as i am very busy right now and can not afford for something to go wrong and have the laser down for any amount of time. want to wait until i have plenty of time to make sure everything is right.
FYI, i am very good at USING the computer and software. BUT Making changes to it and making it work scares the heck out of me.

Appreciate any thoughts, suggestions and opinions.
chad

[Jason Hilton]

If your machines are on the internet I'd suggest using Dropbox to keep your files synced. That way you can edit on you Coral machine, save, and not have to send or transfer the files before working on/importing them to your new machine to use on VCarve. Added benefit is they're backed up and synced automatically, so if you lose a machine or machines you don't lose your files.

[Keith Winter]

Ok I must admit I was slightly confused as to the question you are asking.

If the question is how to best secure your files, get a Nas drive I recommend synology they have a nice light program that runs on the pc at night and backups up everything to it. Easy and keeps your files secure. If you really want to secure them get a nas plus two external backups keep one at home and swap weekly or backup your Nas to amazon cloud.

If the question is where to get a new computer, newegg is where we buy all ours. A nice and powerful win 7 pc will run you about $500-$600

[Craig Matheny]

Ok on the computer upgrade you might want to read this article on win 7.... http://www.pcworld.com/article/20108...windows-7.html this is a support issue for win 7 (I know links are bad But this is important) Plus trying to find a good computer with win 7 might be a challenge also unless your getting it custom built. FYI mine are all win 7 and 1 vista (wife's doesn't want to change)

Back ups I have a Seagate 4 bay business NAS hot swap-able 4t bytes full duplication plus a Dropbox account and I back up weekly on to a thumb drive and goes off site. for cheap and easy Drop box does a great job. You can also use sugarsync if you need to sync files on different computers used that for 3 years when we had the store. The otther thing is change properties to read only on all finished files prevents the accidental overwrite

[Chris Parks]

Networking XP and WIN 7 is not straight forward and IIRC never 100%.

[Scott Shepherd]

Networking XP and WIN 7 is not straight forward and IIRC never 100%.

It seems to me that when we did it, it would not work with Windows 7 Home, which is what our computer at the time came with. We had to upgrade to Windows 7 Pro to get that to work. I think that's the case, but it's worth checking to make sure.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

Sorry bout the confusion:
I wasnt asking(or even thinking) about secure storage. currently everything is stored on the computer.

I will double check into the win7 and xp like scott mentioned.


I want to keep the old computer (xp with corel x4 and print driver) and
get a new computer(getting it from local computer place who will be setting it up) with win7 for internet, vcarve, etc.
I do not want two monitors, keyboards on the desk. i do not want to have to move files via a thumb drive, so
i want to link them with a toggle switch, use both computers but only one monitor, keyboard.
i want to network for ease of transferring files.

Does this make sense? Am i missing something?

Craig, thank for the link, will have to check on that as well.
Thanks Chad

[Mike Null]

I use a KVM switch with my XP pro and Win 7 Pro. I do not network them. I have a download folder on both desktops (my pc geek did it) and I save a file there and can access it from both pcs. My primary pc, the Win 7 Pro is backed up with Carbonite which I feel is a worthwhile service.

I need the XP Pro to run my old version of Engravlab--an upgrade is just too expensive.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

thanks Mike, KVM switch is what my computer guy said. I will ask him about the download folder, that seems perfect. not wanting to upgrade right now is why i want to keep the XP as well.
Thanks
Chad

[Curt Harms]

How much do you have to keep backed up and share? For modest needs I have a router with a USB port in the back that appears as another drive when there's an external drive or flash drive plugged into it. It shows up in Windows Explorer (not internet explorer) automagically. I can use a simple file syncing program to keep data folders on multiple machines synced and it also provides a local data backup if a hard drive gets corrupted or dies. I don't believe this requires enabling file and print sharing which is or at least has been a security issue.

[Ross Moshinsky]

I have a network of XP, Win 7, and Win 8. Store all our files on a Win XP computer as a shared folder. Map network drives on all the other computers. It's pretty painless and works as you'd expect. The main folder is made redundant on another computer through the same thought process using a free piece of software. There are LOTS of writeups on how to setup a basic Windows network. It's really not difficult.

Also Windows 8 gets a bad wrap in my opinion. The interface is awful for general computing but Classic Shell takes care of that and makes it look pretty much like a Windows 7 computer.

You should not make any change in computer systems until you have time to work through the bugs. Adding a system, getting all the drivers up to date, installing all the software, and everything linked together is normally, at minimum, a few hours for me. If you're not comfortable with it or doing it for the first time, expect it to take a few days.

[John Noell]

It's pretty easy to let up a shared folder, so as long as both computers are on, you can have a folder on one computer and a shortcut to it on the other computer. That said, there are a few issues in linking XP and Win7 boxes (e.g., you will want to turn off 'password protected sharing' on the win7 box). Someone who has the knowledge can save you a lot of trouble. The web has some good tutorials. MS also has some instructions.

[Mike Null]

I forgot to mention that when you use the KVM switch you must also use a USB mouse and keyboard. Cordless won't work with the KVM.

[Jason Hilton]

I know I've mentioned this, but the easiest way to save networking headaches is use a cloud service to sync. Dropbox or google drive sync through the internet and a local network, with the added benefit of cloud storage so you don't lose your work if your office burns down. My girlfriend is a photographer and video editor, I'm a UX designer. We are typically actively working with around 20gb of data (mostly her active photo work). We have the following setup:

On all machines:
-Dropbox and google drive (dropbox is free to 2gb of storage, Google Drive is 30gb for 50$ a year): Dropbox and Drive we use to keep all our active working files synced and backed up

Network:
-Synology 2413+ RAID NAS with Crashplan Cloud backup (Raid is currently configured with 4x3tb drives for 8tb of storage in modified Raid 5, Crashplan is 50$/year for unlimited backup): We use the raid to store and backup our completed work. Photos take up the majority, and everything is automatically backed up nightly to Crashplan. As needed we can add capacity to our RAID so we can have quick access to client files locally.

The goal is redundancy. There is no scenario short of global catastrophe that would cause us to lose any data, so our most important business asset is completely protected.

[Lee DeRaud]

Im going to leave corel x4 and print driver for laser on XP computer, network it with new computer using 1 moniter and a toggle to switch between the two. design in corel and send to laser like normal, import corel files from old computer to vcarve when designing for cnc. send cnc files to cnc computer and go.

Does this make sense. i am trying to avoid too much change at one time. also the upgrade cost to corel x7 to run on new computer, would rather not lay that out right now, figure i can do that down the road.
change makes me nervous, upgrading the print driver really make me nervous as i am very busy right now and can not afford for something to go wrong and have the laser down for any amount of time. want to wait until i have plenty of time to make sure everything is right.

You're making it harder than it needs to be, IMHO. I went through a similar evolution a year or so back: was running the laser off a 32-bit XP machine, wanted to bring that setup into line with the rest of my 64-bit Win7 stuff.

The key phrase in what you are doing is "new computer". Get it, set it up, and install Corel X4 and the new print drivers on it. Move the cables from the old machine to the new machine. Test the laser. Does it work? If yes, you're done...if not, you haven't touched the old machine yet, just move the cables back. I guarantee that process will be cleaner and simpler than working out the cabling and whatnot for the KVM setup. (And yes, X4 works fine under Win7 and the licensing for both X4 and Vcarve allow it to be installed on multiple machines.)

Full disclosure: I'm not a big fan of of KVM switches. Even if it works right, you end up either having two "computers" that behave differently or you find yourself getting confused about which one is active at the moment. DAMHIKT.