Tranfer photos & files from one computer to another

Alan_Hepburn wrote:
External drives can bite you as easily as internal drives. Several years ago I bought a 500GB external drive and used it to hold a lot of photographs, music libraries, and old documents. It worked great for about 3 years, then one day when I booted up my laptop, the light on the external drive just kept flashing, like it was starting up, but it never came online. I cannot get ANY computer to boot that hard drive now - it's sitting on my desk waiting for me to get enough ambition to try and get all those files off of it - it's not a complete loss because I also have most of the files on my laptop, and on some flash drives, but it is annoying...

Some of those earlier external drives were notorious for losing the USB controller. Try taking the drive out of the case and connecting it directly to the motherboard. The drive itself may be just fine.

I carry my work horse DELL M90 laptop from the house to the RV's on trips. It all plugs into a DELL Docking station at both locations... I also carry three or four stand alone USB large capacity GB hard drives for all my different use and storage of the various thing I use my M90 laptop computer for. Drawings, photo, etc... Having access to all of the hard drives will allow you to move any "MY DOCUMENETS" files you need to. I also have several thumb DRIVES available to be used.

Kinda neat bringing my regular home computer setup with me everywhere we go. Both locations are usually setup almost the same with dual monitors and all of the normal hookups. I very seldom open the lid on the LAPTOP... I also have my radio comms interfaces to be concerned with. Just plop the laptop computer into the docking station and all works the same. Only difference is speed of the Internet hookup between what my house uses and my bring along Verizon MIFI unit. I am able to log into my home email accounts anywhere we go...

I purchased my M90 LAPTOP from ebay off lease sales many years back and of course it is now getting old and the operating system needs upgraded from the XP PRO. Looks like I need to do something similar and will look for the replacement for DELL M90 line of laptop work computers being the M6000 series. They are available from ebay off lease places in the $600-$800 range and some still show DELL Warranty left on them.. Probably will look for the DELL Precision M6500-M6700 workstation replacement units using Windows 7.

Food for thought
Roy Ken

There are a couple of ways to directly transfer your files from an old notebook to a new one. You can also use an Easy Transfer USB cable connected to both notebooks similar to this one. Windows will recognize the cable and should start the Easy Transfer program automatically. These cable are relatively inexpensive. I've picked up two of these cables from Goodwill included with Laplink PC Mover for $2. each. You "don't" need the PC Mover software as Windows has its own app built-in. Otherwise, the Easy Transfer cables are available on Amazon for less than $10.

Another method if you have a WiFi router at home is just connect both notebooks using Ethernet cables. Dollar Tree stores sometime carries $1. CAT5 cables. You can then transfer(share) the files between the two. This would likely be the fastest method of transferring files.

Or if your old notebook has WIN XP/Vista/7, you can create an ad hoc network with just a few clicks. Use your new notebook to connect to the old one via WiFi similar to a hotspot, and transfer the files via wireless network. However, this method will likely be the slowest in terms of speed of transfer.

You can create a similar wireless connection in WIN 8, but need to use a built in command line function. Using a front end app such as the Free WiFi HotSpot Creator will let you do so directly in WIN 8/7.

If you are using Windows 7, click Start then click All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

K Charles wrote:
Connect both to the same network and then use the windows easy transfer program.
It will put your mail, address book, pictures and documents (mostly) in the right place. It isn't perfect but it is easy and does a fairly good job.

Where can I locate the Windows Easy Transfer program? Is it online (free) or do you purchase the software? Thank you

Thanks for all the great info.

I removed the hard drive from my old laptop and bought an HD enclosure for it. Plugged the enclosure into the new laptop and transferred everything I wanted. Occasionally I am looking for a file I had and didn't transfer, so I just plug in the old drive and find the old file.

I like the stand alone drive, be it a flash drive or a full size hard drive. .Copy to the "external" drive, copy from it.. and do not erase the files from it.

That way. WHEN, not if, the computer goes crash.. You have not lost any.

Fact... My daughter brought her netbook to me "It's yours if you can get it to work" I ask her if there was anything she wanted. "yes, My photos"

30 minutes later I handed her a CD with her photos on it.

Oh, the computer was working. (Ok I'm not really that good but the virus that killed it was not that good either.. A 30 year old DOS command fixed it just fine)

External drives can bite you as easily as internal drives. Several years ago I bought a 500GB external drive and used it to hold a lot of photographs, music libraries, and old documents. It worked great for about 3 years, then one day when I booted up my laptop, the light on the external drive just kept flashing, like it was starting up, but it never came online. I cannot get ANY computer to boot that hard drive now - it's sitting on my desk waiting for me to get enough ambition to try and get all those files off of it - it's not a complete loss because I also have most of the files on my laptop, and on some flash drives, but it is annoying...

Here's a good opportunity to buy an external hard drive. My son took an old hard drive out of a laptop several years ago, put it in a hard shell to protect it, and I've been using it for backing up everything ever since. I've got virtually every thing I've ever created, done, and needed on that one hard drive, that goes all the way back to the old 8088 processor 5 1/4 floppy disk, green screen days. (Some of those old files ... I don't even have the application program any more). The drive still has unbelievable space left.