Transfering files from one PC to another

FairyNormal · 21-01-2007, 21:54

What is the easiest way to do this please?

I'll explain. (bear with me please)

My old PC died ages ago, apparently the motherboard had snuffed it but the hard drive was ok. I have loads of photos on it that I want to transfer to my current pc without messing about with the hard drive etc in the new one. I have another redundant but working PC. The plan is to transfer the hard drive from the dead pc into this one. The current PC has cd/dvd rewriter but no floppy drive. The one we will put the hard drive into has a floppy and cd drive but no rewriter.

Is there anyway of connecting the two together to transfer files between the two but not using some kind of wireless connection? The only way I can think of getting the pics off is to buy a cheap usb flashdrive, put them onto that bit by bit and then put them onto the new PC. Is there another simple way to do this please? Nothing too technical that takes a lot of know how lol!

Thanks in advance

donky7 · 21-01-2007, 22:03

you could network yer 2 pc's together using a cable.......... but if theyre diff opp systems, in not as simple.......

the best and quickest, if you have 1 is dongle them.......
but it depends onhow many you have. can you not just take the h/d out the old pc and add to new,, ??????

scarby · 21-01-2007, 22:14

I backed up all my music and photos to my 20gb iPod, I don't use it much nowadays, so I'm using it as a portable HDD.
I want a nano though, but the novelty will soon wear off that too.

SimpyTimpy · 22-01-2007, 00:07

Using a flash drive seems the easiest option if you don't want to remove the hard drive and install it on your new computer. You could use an MP3 Player, Flash Drive etc to do it.

Another, but not easy option, would be to move the CD Writer to the old computer, write the files to a CD, then take them to your new computer...

7hills · 22-01-2007, 10:14

Ive got a similar problem - my old PC has problems loading up and i had loads of stuff on my old Hard drive that i need. How do i get this stuff off my old HDD to my new PC? I tried installing the old hard drive as an additional on my new one - but this didnt work and caused many problems when booting. Could i put my old HDD in a external HDD case and use it like that??

hitchhiker · 22-01-2007, 10:23

I use Skype a lot these days to transfer files between computers.

Very simple to do if you have skype installed on both computers - just right click the file(s) you want to send and select send to... Skype then pick the other computer from the list.

Incredibly quick when the two computers are on the same network.

7hills · 22-01-2007, 10:41

what happens if that other computer doesnt work?

hitchhiker · 22-01-2007, 10:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7hills

what happens if that other computer doesnt work?

You could by a Hard Drive Caddy (from around £25). Take the hard drive out of the dead computer and put into the caddy. You then connect the caddy to the new computer with a USB lead.

The External Hard Drive can be found from My Computer as a new drive letter the same was as your computer hard drive is usually c:, floppy drive is usually A: etc.

To transfer using a network cable or Flash drive etc. bith computers need to be on.

If you do decide to buy an external Hard Drive Caddy, I'd recommend not getting the cheapest one you can find as the cheap ones don;t seem to last long.

7hills · 22-01-2007, 11:00

good stuff, i might try that out. Thanks

hitchhiker · 22-01-2007, 11:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7hills

Ive got a similar problem - my old PC has problems loading up and i had loads of stuff on my old Hard drive that i need. How do i get this stuff off my old HDD to my new PC? I tried installing the old hard drive as an additional on my new one - but this didnt work and caused many problems when booting. Could i put my old HDD in a external HDD case and use it like that??

Did you change the jumper settings? It sounds like your computer didn't know which hard drive to boot from.

If your not familiar with Jumper setting it works like this:

On the front of hard drives usually between the IDE and the power ports there is normally a little port with about 9 pins (here). This is where you configure the Hard Drive as either a Slave or a Main drive. Instructions are also normally on the hard drive as to how to set the jumpers.

This is impoirtant as you need to tell the computer which hartd drive to boot from. Set the second hard drive as the slave and the first hard drive should already be set as master and this should allow the computer to boot normally.

This example shows what the jumpers and the instructions on a Hard Drive look like

7hills · 22-01-2007, 11:28

ill try that - thanks for the advice

alchresearch · 22-01-2007, 11:37

This is an alternative to a hard drive caddy, particularly useful if you access bare drives frequently:

http://www.directusbstore.co.uk/cnb/...duct_info-null

SimpyTimpy · 23-01-2007, 00:57

When installing a new hard drive to a computer, remember that it should be connected via the 'slave' part of the cable connecting it to the motherboard. Also on the back of the harddrive there is often a set of 'jumpers' which have to be placed in a specific pattern to make clear to the HDD that it will be a secondary hard drive.

The pattern will be made clear on the HDD itself, once you've done that it should work fine on a computer.