What is the best way to transfer all my data from my desktop to my new alienware m17x r3

Hi, I ordered an Alienware m17x r3 on Monday, the EDD is Friday, so i wondering if you guys could help me with moving all my data.

The Alienware will have 2x 750gb HDD in raid 0. What is the best way to go about transferring my all the data on my desktop to my Alienware?

Any help is much appreciated.

 

Wired networking?

 

Guess it depends on how much data you have to move. Personally I use one of three methods:

1)Large USB stick

2)External USB/Esata HDD

3)Wireless/wired network

Depending on the size of the data that you want to transfer, the amount, etc.

If it's large amounts then it's faster to use some sort of USB stick or USB external drive.


Smaller data can be transfered over the wired/wireless network

Or you can do it all over the network and just let it go for as long as it takes.

As far as specifics such as game data, docs, etc...there are plenty of resources online to assist with specific applications (Steam/Impulse for example).

 

I would be moving around 400gb, so i guess i could borrow a friends external.

How would i go about transferring the data though.

Again, thanks for the help

 

If you have access to an external HDD, it's just a matter of plugging it in to your desktop, copying the data over and then plugging it into your laptop.

Programs specifically will have to be re-installed (since they do things such as update the windows registry, etc). But things like saved games can be moved over to the new saved games folder (depending specifically on the game itself).

Things like music, documents, pictures, etc can simply be taken from their current directory and copies to the equivilent directory on the laptop (or any directory of your choosing).

If there are specific application you are interested in (for example if you have games from steam and are saving the games locally), you can do a google search on the application specifically for details on how to copy saved games, documents, etc.

Since you are going specifically from a desktop to a laptop, I wouldn't recommend a backup/restore software. Although there are applications that allow you to backup from one device and restore to another, the hardware is too different and you'd be asking for all sorts of issues.

So best thing to do, install the applications you need/want on your laptop, and then copy any data (pictures, saved games, documents, music, etc) to the appropriate directory on the laptop.

The external harddrive will simply be detected as another drive on your computer, so you can drag and drop whatever you want to the laptop from the drive after it's been copied from the desktop.

Good luck...hope that helps!

 

Thanks that helped alot

+rep

 

Yes. In my experience doing a windows backup often leaves out things. Just get an external drive and copy what you want to save. It is a little time consuming but worth it.

 

If your desktop has a gigabit nic, you can just hook them together, like that, then you get your hdd speeds for copying shouldnt need a gigabit crossover cable just use cat5E cable or above