Key Post: Transferring Files From PC to Laptop??

M

Marion

Guest
If I want to transfer files from a pc to a laptop then it's straightforward enough if I can simply save to a diskette and then easily transfer.

However if I want to transfer files which are too large to save to a diskette, how would I go about transferring from the pc to the laptop?

Anyone got any ideas? Thanks!
 
.

If both machines have a USB port, then get a USB memory stick/pen thing.

One of the handiest things I ever got for my PC. (Some of them double up as MP3 players as well)

Alternatively, if you have a digital camera, and USB cable, you can use the camera to transfer files.
 
.

Hi,

sorry, don't have a CD-Writer (I've got the regular CD-Drive), and no memory stick/pen or digital camera.

When I purchased the 2nd hand laptop a couple of years ago, I asked for a wire that could be used to transfer files from a pc to the laptop.

So I should have some sort of gray coloured wire around here somewhere (never got round to using it). Though from the sound of things I'll need some hardware too.

Maybe I'll have to invest in some extra hardware then...
 
Re: .

Memory sticks are cheap and work (unless you are using a machine with an early version of 98 or 95), so that is really the easiest way to do it.

z
 
Transferring Files

I assume you have also tried to Zip these files up and are still too large to fit on a floppy.
 
Re: Transferring Files

only alternative is if you have a network connection. Or even broadband.

You cna upload the files onto the net from pc and then download to laptop.

Not sure whether you have this facility.

Some sites like www.campus.ie offer 20MB of space for files.
 
Windows used to ...

Have a facility for linking two machines via the parallel port ( in the '95 / '98 era ) with a special cable.

Did this carry over into XP ?
 
Re: Windows used to ...

komplett.ie is doing good value on USB memory sticks at the moment - E20 for 128Mb, E36 for 256Mb etc (+E10 per order for postage) They're nice slim keyring size ones too.
 
copying files between windows

Back in the day, I used to copy files between windows based PCs via laplink.
Unless you have a burner, or a digi camera with USB, you should take ZAGs suggestion and get a memory stick.

May I recommend shop4mem where Ive bought 3 items in recent times and had next day delivery every time. You could do worse then, as suggested above, you get one that doubles as an mp3 player.
Ive just checked the price of the usb drives on shop 4 memory against komplett. while the drives are slightly more expensive, when you take delivery into account theyre cheaper. (no del. charge on shop4mem)
 
Transferring Files

Thanks for all the info. I'll check those sites for the memory sticks. Thanks for that!

Tony - no I haven't zipped files up on a floppy; to be honest I didn't know how to go about doing that...
 
zip

POD,
A floppy disk can take 1.44 megabytes of date. If the file youre transferring is bigger then that you can use a compression utility(winzip being most widely used) to try and reduce the size of it. Most pcs have a compression utility of some sort, right click on the file youre sending and you might see either "compress to file" or "winzip > add to zip file", choose one of these to see if the file will compress. Most Ms office docs will get good comression rates but things like video, jpgs wont as theyre pretty high density already.
If you dont have winzip you can get it here, I thought they used to have a free version but it looks like its only a free months trial now.
Alternatively you could try this free [broken link removed] which seems to be popular.
 
Transferring data between computers

How does zipping and/or memory-stick transfer actually work?

My existing P.C. is old and takes 10 minutes to boot, running Win 98SE as O.S. so I've just bought a second-hand Sony Pentium 4 running Windows XP Home. It also has a DVD rewriter and you can "burn CD's" (I don't actually understand how any of this works or how to do it as it's literally just arrived!)

I want to transfer MOST of the files from the original P.C. An IT-literate friend advises that I can (a) get a cable which connects both PC's and link them, accessing from the new Sony without having to transfer anything or (b) transfer the two memory sticks (I extended the memory with an additional 128 strip) to the Sony (c) take out the hard disk from the old PC and instal it in the Sony.

Now the advice in this thread is that the data can also be "zipped" with Winzip.

As I'm not very clever with IT and very short of time and dread spending days on this transfer I wonder what is the quickest and most idiot-proof way?
 
Transferring data between computers

Also how do I go about using Decbuck's idea of uploading data onto the internet and downloading to another PC (perhaps my work one) Does this space have to be "bought"?

LanceBoyle suggests the "cable" idea might not be applicable to Win XP Home......?
 
Re: Transferring data between computers

If I was you I would ask your friend in IT to do it for you.. Firstly you cannot take hard disk from old pc and put into a labtop.

So that is gone. I'm not sure about cable, nor usb. if your pc is that old it might not even have a usb port.

If your friend is in IT, they should have access to an external cd burner. This will enabel you to burn all the stuff from your old pc to cd.




one important question here is, how much do you need to copy over? Is it a couple of megabytes or hundreds?
 
Transferring data between computers

Hello Decbuck - My friend is actually a retired BBC Producer from the Home Service!!!.......but he has a wireless engineering background and is interested in IT and all things communicative!

Both my P.C.'s are tabletop (it was the original poster who had a laptop).

The original P.C. is crap! Part of a "Tiny" high-street package to the non-computer-literate like myself. Tiny went bust (good riddance, from the experience I had of them in terms of non-existent after-sales) after mis-selling loads of practically-obsolete P.C.'s. However it DOES
 
Re: Transferring data between computers

one important question here is, how much do you need to copy over? Is it a couple of megabytes or hundreds?
 
Transferring Files

.........that last one just slipped away!

The original P.C. does have 3 USB ports, DVD-Rom slot etc. This morning I tried using the CDPlayer but it seems to be malfunctioning. Always had massive problems with it.

If I just take out the 2 128 memory-strips from this and insert them into the Sony does THAT transfer all my data?
 
copying between machines

if usb thingys are not an option, the simplest and quickest way is to connect the 2 via 2 network cards and a crossover ethernet cable. ( a crossover cable is a patch lead with a couple of the wires swopped around . it bypasses the need for a network hub/switch)

you will need network cards installed in both machines
and the crossover cable which you can either make or buy from compustore etc

set both machines to the same workgroup and install tcp/ip (for the net cards) with the following settings

ip address 192.168.0.x (x = 1 to 255)
subnet mask 255.255.255.0
share the c drives on both machines and thats it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top