Transfer data from Desktop to Laptop

Brum Man · 28 Jan 2007 at 13:53

My friend is about to get a new laptop, but currently has all his data on his desktop, what would be the easiest way to transfer all the data across?

I know it would be possible to get an external drive and use that as an Intermediary disk but it just seems an expensive way of doing it! He also doesn't have a DVD burner on his current computer. He only has about 40 gig to transfer across.

Is there an eaiser way of doing it

split · 28 Jan 2007 at 14:07

USB key?
If you don't want to network it, and he has a router you could use 2 MSN accounts. The data goes through the router, so its pretty fast.
Zipp files on desktop, and send them over.

Just time consumming.

Dingleberry88 · 28 Jan 2007 at 14:12

Could get a cheap external hard drive caddy.

Put HDD from desktop in, plug into laptop, drag files across.

skanky · 28 Jan 2007 at 18:42

for that much data, network it across. if you dont have a network set up, a cross over cable should work?

Growlingfish · 28 Jan 2007 at 20:49

One of these

You don't need anything else in between, just one of these from the Ethernet port on the laptop to the Ethernet port on the desktop.

manoz · 28 Jan 2007 at 20:56

You could get one of them USB to USB cables which are specifcally designed for this thing. The other computer shows up as a drive on the other computer. These cables are kinda hard to come by though.

Brum Man · 28 Jan 2007 at 21:11

Growlingfish said:
One of these

You don't need anything else in between, just one of these from the Ethernet port on the laptop to the Ethernet port on the desktop.

This sounds the best option, although he used to have a network in his house but if he doens't still I'll just get him to buy one of those.

Does each computer appear as another hard drive on the computer meaning you can just drag the files over?

Trigger · 28 Jan 2007 at 21:16

Brum Man said:
This sounds the best option, although he used to have a network in his house but if he doens't still I'll just get him to buy one of those.

Does each computer appear as another hard drive on the computer meaning you can just drag the files over?

Yeah, doing it over the network is easily the best way. All you do is browse to \\machinename\c$ and find the directory where you want to locate the files on the laptop then simply copy and paste the files over

Brum Man · 28 Jan 2007 at 22:50

I'm assuming it is the same doing it via a patch cable?

Trigger · 28 Jan 2007 at 23:06

A patch cable IS a network- admittedly (sp?) a very small one but it is. You just need to ensure that the machines are in the same workgroup and same IP range- for example give the desktop 192.168.1.1 and the laptop 192.168.1.2 both with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

Brum Man · 28 Jan 2007 at 23:10

Ah ok, I've always wondered what the point of a patch cable was!

Where do I set what the IP ranges are? (sorry for being dense, I'm rubbish with networking!)

Trigger · 28 Jan 2007 at 23:21

Brum Man said:
Ah ok, I've always wondered what the point of a patch cable was!

Where do I set what the IP ranges are? (sorry for being dense, I'm rubbish with networking!)

You just need to assign each computer an IP address- start > network connections > lan connection > properties > click on Internet Protocol then properties and it's in there. The most common addresses for home use are the 192.168.x.x addresses but if you wanted to you could also use 172.16-31.x.x and 10.0.x.x

Also, make sure you don't give each machine the same address as they will conflict and not see each other :cool:

Brum Man · 29 Jan 2007 at 14:13

Excellent, cheers for your help

TheVoice · 29 Jan 2007 at 14:17

If both machines have Firewire, it's a good alternative. Works in much the same way as a crossover cable between the two machines would, only much faster.