OT Transferring info from old to new computer

[BobT-47P15]

I'm sure there's a better way to take pictures and info off the old

computer and put onto the new one.

I've been using a 3 1/2" floppy disc - insert into old machine, copy the

item to the disc...then insert the disc in an add-on reader on the new

computer. The "new" computer is a Dell, now two or three years old.

It did not contain a built-in floppy reader/writer......but you can get a

plug in item.

Most of what I'm transferring is pictures, which I'm putting in the online

PhotoBucket album. You can only get 4 or 5 pics on a disc at one time

because the photos eat up so much space.

I know there are migration programs out there, but I didn't want to spend

the $100 or so they cost. Or, I probably could have gone to a computer

shop and they could do it. At the same time, I'm sorta picking and choosing

which pics to use, then putting them in the categories I want in the album.

Not the worst system in the world perhaps, but takes time.

Just posting this in case anyone has an older computer sitting there

with stuff on it that you'd like to move to the new unit.

I expect some other ideas will be presented by those who know a lot

more than me.

[Young Ed]

Bob pick up either a flash drive or an external harddrive. Assuming your old PC has a USB port you'll be able to transfer gigs of info at a time. The flash drive is the cheaper way to go and a 4gig one isnt that much.

[Jim Saraceno]

I plan on doing the same thing soon. I bought an external "Book" drive and just copied my entire hard drive to it. I figure once I get the new computer, it will be easy to transfer the files plus I'll use the book drive as a backup in case something goes awry.

[TodFitch]

The USB memory stick and the external hard drive mentioned earlier are both good ideas.

If both machines have an Ethernet interface (looks like an oversize phone plug) then you could plug a cheap cable in (assuming one or both machines have auto-switching ports--if not then a cheap Ethernet switch would be needed between them too). Turn on file sharing on the old machine then on the new machine, connect to the old machine and drag and drop your files over.

You could do the same with wireless instead of Ethernet if both machines support it.

[Don Coatney]

I simply removed the hard drive from my old computor and installed it as a slave in my new computor.

[BobT-47P15]

On one of my two older H P computers, I tried to add a second hard drive,

but it didn't work for some reason.

I have a thumb or flash drive sitting on the desk, but have not tried to use it

yet. It's 8 gig.

However, going thru my stored pics the way I'm doing it gives me the chance to review

the pics, then place them into the album where I want them. Not the worst thing in

the world.

[Jim Saraceno]

I simply removed the hard drive from my old computor and installed it as a slave in my new computer.

I had thought of doing that but with Windows being installed on the current drive, I figured it would present a problem. I thought I had tried that before and the computer got confused as to where it should be reading the operating system files:confused:

Don; When you installed the old drive into the new computer, did it have Windows installed on it?

[Don Coatney]

I had thought of doing that but with Windows being installed on the current drive, I figured it would present a problem. I thought I had tried that before and the computer got confused as to where it should be reading the operating system files:confused:

Don; When you installed the old drive into the new computer, did it have Windows installed on it?

My old puter had Windows 98, new one has XP PRO. I can access all my old files and pictures with no problems. A couple of the programs I was running on the old puter will not open but I have not completely researched this yet as I have not had a need to use the old programs.

[Norm's Coupe]

When it comes to this kind of stuff, I'm really lost. My son takes care of upgrading our computers. So far I have never lost anything I had on the old computer, except the first time. That's only because the first computer back in the early 90's was a PS1 and did not use Windows. So.........I did lose some things in the transfer. Haven't lost anything since then. I've changed computers 4 times since then, and upgraded a couple of times in between. What he does is download everything on the old system onto an external hard drive. Then he reloads it onto the new computer using the external hard drive. I keep all my old programs that way, with all the information still on there. Doesn't require me to save anything on a disk or flash drive. Within a few hours, I have my new computer up and running just like before, except it's upgraded.

External hard drives are great. A couple of years ago I crashed it and couldn't even open windows. My son was able to download all the information onto his external hard drive, then wipe the old computer hard drive clean and reinstall all the information and programs I had before the crash, without losing anything.

[PatS....]

I had thought of doing that but with Windows being installed on the current drive, I figured it would present a problem. I thought I had tried that before and the computer got confused as to where it should be reading the operating system files:confused:

Don; When you installed the old drive into the new computer, did it have Windows installed on it?

You have to move the jumper pins on the back of the old hard drive to make it into a slave.

I did the same with mine and it works fine.

If it's marked as a slave, the OS on the slave is ignored.

I'll have to do something with the slave soon though, it's about 9 yrs old...likely to calf at any time. The external HD seems like a good option.