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Transfering files between Computers

Brian

Graduate Poster
Joined
Jul 27, 2001
Messages
1,776
How do I go about transfering files to a new comp. I guess basicly I'm asking how to network 2 comps and make all the files on one shared.
BTW- the old comp will have Win95 or 98. The new one may have 98 or 2000...
 
It depends.

Nowadays, most computers should have ethernet cards built-in. If both computers have one, then what you need is a "crossover cable," a special ethernet cable that lets you plug one computer straight into another.

If both computers have firewire, you can do the same thing with a firewire cable.

If both computers have USB, you can get a special USB cable that will allow you to do this. A regular USB cable won't work.

After that, you just go into Network Neighborhood or My Network Places and set up the connection. The best way is to tell it to use NetBIOS as there's no setup required.

Now, go to the computer that has the files you want to share, make sure "File and Print Sharing" is turned on in the Network properties, then right-click the directory containing the files and go to Sharing. Give it a share name and press OK.

You should now be able to go to the other computer, browse the network, and get the files.
 
Ultra high bandwidth solution:

Remove old drive from old computer, plug it into new computer. Voila.

Seriously, what Shanek says is correct. If you have high speed internet you may want to purchase a router. Then instead of a crossover cable you would just plug into this. If you don't want wires you can get wireless network cards and a wireless router.

Google for networking can usually find some helpful web pages too. Like this one.

Good Luck.
 
shanek said:
It depends.

Nowadays, most computers should have ethernet cards built-in. If both computers have one, then what you need is a "crossover cable," a special ethernet cable that lets you plug one computer straight into another.

You can also do the same thing with a cheap ethernet hub. Depending on the speed of your ethernet cards, you can probably get a relatively cheap one (and still have the hub for other uses).

Setting up the computer as Shanek described is probably the best solution... but there are others. One time, I used an FTP server (a free one I found on download.com) running on one computer, and an ftp client (Windows 95+ always has a default client, but you can also download something like ws_ftp). The advantages to using FTP is that you can use it between computers running different operating systems (windows and Linux, for example), and you can get away with just having TCP/IP installed (without all of the other Microsoft networking protocols.)
 
Thanks to both of you.
"set up the connection. The best way is to tell it to use NetBIOS as there's no setup required."
Is this as simple as it sounds?\


I thought about just installing the hard drive. What happens if each drive has a different windows on it. Or, I assume, the master/slave settings take care of this. Only the master will boot windows, right.
 
Brian said:
Thanks to both of you.
"set up the connection. The best way is to tell it to use NetBIOS as there's no setup required."
Is this as simple as it sounds?\


I thought about just installing the hard drive. What happens if each drive has a different windows on it. Or, I assume, the master/slave settings take care of this. Only the master will boot windows, right.


This comes down to a whole lot of "it depends".

Assuming you're putting a Windows 98 drive into a Windows 2000 machine, and Windows 2000 is your boot drive, you will strill be able to access the data on your Windows 98 drive. Windows 2000 recognizes FAT.

Edited to add: The drive with the active partition will boot. Usually it's the master, yes. But it doesn't have to be.

Since Windows 98 cannot recognize NTFS (without third party programs - don't go there), if Win98 is your boot system you will not be able to see your Win2K disk. Unless you've formatted your Win2K disk in FAT32.

The major problem you would run in to is that you will need to reinstall, modify or tweak your programs. At the very least they will be running from a different drive (D: instead of C: ) which will cause problems. And there are some Win98 programs that won't run on 2000 unless you use compatibility mode.

If you're using a desktop & can hook both disk drives up then you can just copy information from one to the other, without the need of crossover cables.
 
Brian said:
Thanks to both of you.
"set up the connection. The best way is to tell it to use NetBIOS as there's no setup required."
Is this as simple as it sounds?\


I thought about just installing the hard drive. What happens if each drive has a different windows on it. Or, I assume, the master/slave settings take care of this. Only the master will boot windows, right.

Sure.. just put the old drive in as ' slave '...

There are some considerations if there is more than one partition on your master.. ( new drive ) Is there?
 
Brian said:
Thanks to both of you.
"set up the connection. The best way is to tell it to use NetBIOS as there's no setup required."
Is this as simple as it sounds?\

Yes and no. No matter what, you're going to have to go through the connection setup. But if you choose NetBIOS, there isn't any additional configuration required like there is with TCP/IP.

I thought about just installing the hard drive. What happens if each drive has a different windows on it. Or, I assume, the master/slave settings take care of this. Only the master will boot windows, right.

Yes, the primary master is the one that boots. You can just transfer the files that way.
 
Wow, I feel dumb...

I was going to suggest burning the files to CDRW, then transferring the files like that (its what I always did).

Alternate solution: Find a storage server on the internet, put all your files there, then you can download them to your other computer.

Something about my lacks-any-kind-of-effort-or-ingenuity approach... yeah...
 
About 1,234,000 floppy disks should do the trick... :D


Cheapest and simplest Ethernet is STILL Thinwire (coaxial cable) - OK, it's old-hat and only 10 megabits, but it requires no router, no power and no special cross-over cables, AND you can put multiple computers on to build your own network power base (BWAAHHAHAHHA!!!). Just plug 'em in and run.


BUT...


I would be asking the question as to WHAT files you want to transfer.

Are they you application software? If so, it's way simpler and MUCH better to simply reinstall them off the original media (which you DO have, don't you...).

Are they your data files? The solution above about temporarily using the old HD as a slave (or secondary master) HD is by far the easiest and fastest way to make the files available for transfer. Much faster shifting data than by network, and no network setup required either.
 
You could also buy yourself a nice fast USB2/Firewire hard drive.

This will serve the initial purpose, and allow you to make quick backups that can be taken off-line.

Also handy for moving honkin' big files around from one computer to another.

Especially handy for the office machine that you can't network into, but will happily mount a hard disk to download everything from or upload everything to.
 
Thanks again everyone.
Here's how it went.
It was a friends brothers comp. That's why I didn't know what I was getting into.
Hit a problem early on. The old comp has no ethernet card. I was told it had a broadband connection and it did. Has this little widget that converted ethernet to USB. My modem has USB outs, his didn't.
So USB only. I ran the cross over from the new comps ethernet to the widget and into the old comps USB.
The Network setup had no option for this. In fact it only had connect by COM1 COM2 and parrallel I think...? I'm inexperienced, and this could likely be worked around, but I suspect I was dealing with Win98 1st edition and that didn't help.

So, I loaded a few apps from CD, set it up, updated win2000, got the new drivers, d/l'd AOL (at his request).
Tomorrow I will attach an external CD RW and burn 30 or 40 megs of data files and save them on the new comp.
The problem I forsee is if it is 98 1st, it doesn't like USB drives very much, like this particular drive won't work. I've had problems in the past and had windows online update screw up a comp with 1st before.
I doubt he has the serial to update to my copy of 2nd edition.
The thing has 56(?!) megs of RAM.
It's a Compaq.

He's a cool guy. Paid me $100 for this.
 
Run as far away from Win98, any versions, as your feet can paddle. If this is impossible, handle it with long barbeque tongs wearing leather gloves ONLY.

There be dragons! Arrrh!
 
Zep said:
Run as far away from Win98, any versions, as your feet can paddle. If this is impossible, handle it with long barbeque tongs wearing leather gloves ONLY.

There be dragons! Arrrh!

I have to disagree... There are a lot of problems with microSloth and their software; however, Win98 is not that bad, relatively speaking. It corrects the 'just new' bugs that Win95 had, and it lacks the bloat that Win2000/WinXP, or even WinME have (so it will run on lower powered computers). Yes, its buggy, but it does offer a substantial amount of hardware/software compatibility.
 

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