by myoldpostcards
Question by Kitty Katty: How do I transfer all my files from this computer to my new one?
This one was bought in 1999 (yes, I know, don’t laugh) and I’ve bought a new one yesterday. I thought it was an easy thing to transfer but my present one does not have a usb port or facilities to ‘burn’ a disc with all my files to download on my new system. To send the files by e-mail to myself is also a no-no. Help!
Best answer:
Answer by Heaven or Hell
Plug the other hard disc inside.
And move the files on it.
Or use by network
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
if ythey are small enough you can send via hotmail igf not use a usb or a pocket hard drive
If you have an ethernet cable, you can set up a local network. Make the files shareable, then transfer the files across. I did this from Win XP to Win Vista. Have a quick look on the internet, as there are a few tutorials showing how to do this. (If both are XP, just use the wizards, Vista needs a little more tweaking)
This allowed multiple GB of data to be transferred in about half an hour.
i’m sorry but u will have to get a cd burner in your old CPU
From your old computer you can save your data onto free online hard drives such as
http://www.esnips.com
And then you can download your data onto your new computer.
get an ethernet crossed cable [10quid or so] and connect the 2 pc’s. vista should be able to ‘see’ your old pc without any additional software.
Buy an external hard disk and transfer them like that. then you can have the files in the disk as a back up.
connect it Peer-to-Peer.
Use a cross cable(UTP Cable). Connect it to the LAN of your old PC, and to the LAN of your new.
assign static IP addresses.
HOPE THIS HELPS
My brother changed to an apple mac(yes I know) and he took his old one to a computer shop and they transferred everything for him .he said he wouldn’t have attempted it himself but i am sure the computer buffs on here will tell you different .it was just an idea
YOu can use a cable cross cable to transfer the files from one pc to another. Just configure it on your Local Area connection for the IP addresses.
Hi you did not tell us is it laptop or PC , however there few ways to be done
1- take the hard drive out from the old one,put that as the second hard drive for the new one , that become as ( E ) drive then copy from ( E ) any files over Paste them to the first drive ( C ) .
or
2-email them to your Friend and ask them to email you back to you one by one .
3- take the old one to computer shop there they will put them in parallel to the new one
Ma’am working inside ur pc may not be a walk in the park for you. Just tell it to ur friend who knows about pc and he will do it for you, dont attempt to do it urself coz more problems will arise if you will do something wrong.
Most modern computers allow you to import all your files and settings from your old to the new computer.
You just need a cross-over cable and follow the set up instructions.
job done.
put onto flopy disk, then get a usb external flopy disk drive and put onto new computor that will work.
Buy a floppy disk or a memory stick. Or a CD-RW.
Setting up a network just to transfer files is a waste of time unless you want to keep it as a network and have them always running.
best way is to remove the hard drive, normaly requires removing one screw. then place it into a 2.5 in Hard Disk External HDD case caddy USB 2.0, once your your hdd has been placed in this caddy you will be able to plug it into your new laptop with a USB cable.
then just copy and paste what you want
search on ebay for these case caddy’s they are quite cheap around £10-15
Don’t imagine anyone would want to email or copy an entire computer-full of files. No way. What you do is you go to a computer shop and get the software to load onto each computer. This doesn’t cost a fortune and you might get the stuff on eBay at a bargain price. Then attach the cable and highlight or drag and drop the files onto the new computer. It’s easy-peasy lemon squeezy. Good luck.
I assume your new computer has windows vista on it?
In which case the easiest and cheapest way to do it is to buy this connecting lead (see the link)I was in the same situation as you and i found this the easiest way to do it,very simple and takes no time at all.It comes with easy to follow instructions and a special disk,takes no time at all.Recommended,hope this helps.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-Link-Transfer-Cable-Adapter-For-Windows-XP-To-Vista_W0QQitemZ230210828433QQihZ013QQcategoryZ86697QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I would recommend the tool that comes with windows XP, both on the XP install CD and located in the start -> programs -> accessories -> system tools -> file and settings transfer wizard. this (as it says in the name) is a wizard that will walk you through backing up all your important date and settings so that you can keep working on a new PC, the wizard allows you to either direct connect to the other PC using a serial cable or by creating a file that contains all your settings and documents, one thing the program will not do is copy your programs.
I am surprised to hear that you do not have USB on a PC bought in 1999, as the technology was standardised and widespread by then. It is possible that your ports are hidden away on the back of the machine, near to where you plug in the keyboard and mouse. In which case the easiest method is to buy an External Hard-drive, which will also be useful for backing-up.
Failing that your new PC is likely to be running Windows Vista, which comes with a piece of software called Windows Easy Transfer (a free download from Microsoft). This can be used for copying files from PCs running Windows XP and 2000 – Do you know which version of Windows is on your old PC?
This will work with the Cross-over ethernet cable mentioned by many people above. This is not the same as a normal ethernet cable, it’s designed for a direct connection between two computers with network cards.
Both PCs will need to be in the same workgroup, with Similar IP addresses.
For example: 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2
You will need to turn off all firewall applications that may be running on both machines. Tutorials and help will be available from online searches.
With the two PCs connected by the crossover cable you can also use copying and pasting within Windows explorer. You will need to share the folders and then Map a network drive. For further help try a google search for the following topics:
Direct connection with cross over cable
Windows file and print sharing (windows Vista)
transfer files from old pc
It’s not easy but it is do-able. Good luck.
what u need to do is buy and external hard drive (around £20-£40) with a scart lead and plug it in to the back of your computer and transfer all the files you want by simply clicking and dragging you then plug it into your new computer and transfer the files
Take both computers back to where you purchased the new one. My small computer business copied everything on my old, (which had a virus and was 1 year older than yours), didn’t, of course have USB ports, mirrored them on to their system and installed them on my new rig. They also kept those on their system for a month after in case of any problems I might have. I’m not laughing at all – my old system was good. Only the gamers would laugh.
Lot of people above have made very good suggestions, but you would need a USB port on your old computer to use them.
get a hard drive put all your old files on it then put it to your new computer and that is a good way to do it
You can link the two computers together and transfer that way, But If your new computer runs Vista then you need a special cable, or just back every thing up on a disk and transfer that way.
Good luck
Does your old one have a floppy disk drive? It should do, if there is no CD drive. If so copy to Floppy disk and transfer to your new one, if your new one dosnt have a floppy drive, you can take your floppy disk and a blank cd to your local library and use thiers to transfer the files. Then just take the cd back and copy to your computer
there’re many way to do this job, but i’ll show you best way.
you have to connect old computer to the other by crossed cable.
setting your computer’s IP(example : old : 192.168.1.9, new :192.168.1.10). Ok now you should share your files on old computer and connect new computer to this files( use my network places)
you may can take it to a computer programer who then may be able to either perform the task or advise you of what you may could do . I hope this will help you some . GOOD LUCK!
transfer old pc files to new pc unknown, no usb or cd burner, must admit a new computer with no usb port, would have been good idea to let us known what model new and old pcs were, win98, mac, xp, linux, if both computers have ethernet ports, that may be one way to transfer files,
http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/wce/20/pict48.jpg
or if both have modems or wireless via router,
even could use parallel ports with correct cable though slow,
http://www.cablesdirect.com/search_result3.asp?txtKeyword=IEEE1284&txtName=High-Speed%20IEEE1284%20Parallel%20Cables
if macs, could use serial port with appletalk,
http://www.cable-trader.co.uk/category.php?cat=99
and there are converter cables to use for mutli ports like usb to serial to parallel to phone to ethernet,
check with local retailers,
also if both computers are of same format pc, could use old drive as spare/ second drive in new computer, change drive jumper to slave, and copy files over, if only documents they’ll be ok, but programs may not work if no longer compatible with new system,
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm
..
You can burn your files to CD, you can put them onto an external hard disk or use an ethernet crossover cable to connect them together.
NOT a bog standard ethernet, that will do nothing at all.
You could use your old hard disk as an exturnal hard drive with you new computer (if the new one has a usb port)
After reading this lot. Personally I would take both to your local computer shop ask them to do it! It wont cost that much and you don’t have to mess about .
I did this the other day, I purchased an external usb 2.0 hard drive case and placed my old hard drive inside.
I then attached the drive to my new pc and waited for Windows XP to find the new drive and then transfered the information to the new one.
What I also did was to partition the C drive in to two segments. C drive was then for the programs and windows and the D drive was all my work.
By partitioning my drive allows me to keep a backup on my external drive, so if windows crashes again all I have to do is install XP and my programs – all my work will still be ok.
Hope that helps.
I think you should be proud of yourself for hanging on to your PC for so long – much better ecologically to hang onto it rather than buy a new one every couple of years.
By the way, my communication skills leave a lot to be desired, so i’m really sorry if none of this makes sense.
Anyway, there are a couple of things you could try. The most hands-on thing unfortunately involves opening both PCs, though there are alternatives. If you take the case off the old PC, you should see a wide cable stretching from the circuit board to the hard drive. Carefully remove the connector from the hard drive, which is likely to be rather stiff and also quite cramped, then take hold of the drive gently and unscrew it. Slide it out and you might see a diagram on it showing you how to set things called jumper switches on it. Set these to “slave” if you can. If you don’t do this and you put it in the new computer, the new PC won’t boot normally until you take it out again or change the jumpers on its own hard drive. Do the reverse of what you just did with the old PC so that you end up with the old drive in the new PC. Your files should then be accessible to the new PC and you can transfer them to your new PC that way. To be honest, i’d be quite scared to try this, but maybe i’m too cautious.
If you don’t want to do that, and i wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, you can try something else. If your new PC has a parallel port and a floppy drive, you can try this. Get your old PC to make you two boot disks for its own operating system, which i assume is a version of Windows. When you’ve done that, look through the folders for programs called INTERSVR and INTERLNK. Copy both to the floppies. Then, turn the PCs off, connect them with the parallel cable, stick the floppies in the drives and turn them on again. They will boot to a C:> prompt. You will then have to use the help facility for the next bit because although i’ve done it, i can’t remember how, but basically you need to run INTERSVR on one and INTERLNK on the other, set them to use the parallel port to transfer files, then do that. It may be that the BIOS settings on one or both computers won’t allow you to boot from a floppy. In that case, the PC may tell you what to do to get into the BIOS settings when you turn it on and before the operating system starts loading. Do whatever it tells you to do and you should see some kind of menu including an option to change the order in which drives are looked at for booting. Change this to the floppy drive then save settings and exit. There may be a problem with the hard drive using a different file system. However, i tried this and it worked, though it took a lot of fiddling.
That probably sounds very elaborate. Here’s another option which is less so but which involves opening the old PC again. You can get cards with USBs on them for old computers. Buy one of these, maybe off a certain well-known auction site, then fit it to one of the slots inside the PC. You should then be able to use a flashdrive to transfer a lot of the files through the new USB on the old PC to the new one.
I think there are also portable CD and DVD burners which connect to the PC via the parallel port, but i may have imagined this.
Another option is to do it online using an instant messenger, i.e. not the same as email. Connect your old PC to the internet and start instant messenger programs such as Yahoo Instant Messenger on the old PC and another newer one. Get a program like Winzip, and use it to compress all the files you want to transfer into a single large one. Log on to the instant messenger service using both PCs (or get someone else to do it), using different accounts, then use the option on the instant messenger to transfer the compressed file. Once you have it on the newer computer, either burn it to disk or put it on a flashdrive like before, then decompress them when you get it on the new PC. If you’re on dial-up with the old PC, this could take a long time and be quite expensive.
Those are the most straightforward options i can think of right now. The others involve using alternative operating systems or networking.
connect both to an ethernet router or hub, and build a network
connect both direct by ethernet as an even smaller network
take the hard drive out of the old one and either install it in the new one or put it in an external casing and connect via USB
Fetch it round here and I’ll do it for fifty quid
EDIT: Just thought: Do NOT fiddle about inside your new PC before you read the guarantee that came with it. LOL