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...
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.
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)
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.
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?
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......?
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
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?
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