Transfering data

[Xenith]

Hi! guys i'm gonna get a new pc soon, and i was wondering if any of you know how to transfer files from one pc to another.

like maybe i could put the old harddrive into the other or maybe networking works? i'm not sure so i just wanted to ask you guys first.

[IsmAvatar]

If you put the old harddrive into the new computer, you'd have to do the master/slave thing with the harddrives. After that, you can either leave it in there (extra space in case you ever use up that rediculous terrabyte) or copy all the data over (fairly fast) and remove/reformat it (dual boot, anyone?)

Other option is to network. This requires less hardware work but more software work to make sure the network connects and you can share. It's fairly easy to set up with XP's networking wizard. After that, you can either leave them as is and treat it almost as an external hard drive, or you can copy the data over (slightly slower than other method; limited to IPX connection speed).

Either method works, so it's a question of if you want to do more hands-on stuff, or is the software your thing. Me, personally, I did the hardware method, and then did dual boot. Although it's barely dual boot since I rarely use Windows anymore other than for GM (and to tell it to stop hogging all the resources).

[Xenith]

thanks,

i'm afraid of damaging my computer by opening it so i guess i'll network my 2 computers instead, does networking need any special cord or can i just use the ethernet cord?

[IsmAvatar]

Networking requires a LAN network card for each computer (normally comes standard), 2 (not 1) cat5 ethernet cables (they normally appear either blue or white, and are about .6-.8cm thick) and a hub of some sort (hub, router, what have you). Sorry, but you can't just take a single wire and plug the two computers together, no matter how much I know you'd love to.
If you don't have a hub (etc) already, and you're not looking forward to buying one, you might want to consider the hardware way. As long as you work with the computer off and (preferably) unplugged, and make sure to keep grounding yourself*, and avoid touching any chips or the ends of any cables (it's not the end of the world if you do, it's just another precaution); you should be fine.

*To ground yourself, you simply touch an unpainted piece of metal - such as a piece of the computer case, the metal casing around the hard drive (careful not to touch the chips), a doorknob, the metal on your chair (if there is any), whatever. While it's no good to keep in contact at all times, just keep poking it every few seconds. If it pokes back, stop what you're doing and seek a psychologist's help immediately.
It's not all too many rules, and they're mainly just paranoid precautions. Like I said, it's not the end of the world if you touch a chip or the end of a wire. They just don't want you rubbing your feet on the carpet and then touching it.

[Xenith]

well i have everything except i'm not sure what a lan card is, and i'm already paying alot for this new computer so i'll probably just go the hardware way.

thanks again

[megamushroom]

if you have an mp3 player, just use that as a removable hard drive

[Xenith]

hey yeah that's a cool idea, i could probably get a memory stick or something,

[IsmAvatar]

Flash Drives, Floppys, CD's, DVD's, RHD's, and upload/download. All methods of transferring data from one computer to another without linking them in any direct way (such as LAN or shared HD). Of course, these methods aren't as fast as we would like them to be (it's 1000x faster to just directly link the two). But, if it's just a small amount of data, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I tried transferring all my mp3's over on a flash drive, and it was like 5 mp3's at a time. Out of 50(ish), that's not reasonable.