A8Jm on the way, file transfer question?

So my very first laptop is on it's way, should have it later this week.

First, thank you to everyone here for creating a HUGE database of some really great information. After I narrowed down my decision, I went with the A8Jm over the A8Js for price reasons (graduating college in Dec, unpaid internship in the spring, and I just couldn't spend a penny more than I could part out my current computer for).

So on to my question. I have about 20 gigs worth of files (music, videos, papers, everything) I will need to transfer to the laptop. As I said, this is my first laptop (and actually the first time I'll have 2 computers, with the last few computers I've built I just move the HD over to my new PC and copy the files to my new HD). What's the easiest way to transfer the files? I've never needed to do it before

Thanks!

 

an external hard drive case.

either 2.5" or 3.5"

actually I would buy a 2.5 inch sata one because it might come in handy later if you upgrade the hd.

Just plug it into your old computer and drag and drop the files onto it.

Ok a free way would be to transfer the files via the wireless connection.
set the old drive as a shared resource.

overall not that complicated but too complicated for me to write out. this would take a while to transfer 20 gb this way but not even that long however a few hours maybe.

 

Ah we used to do that all the time when I lived with my college buddies. We would share drives on the network and transfer files around...doh

I still have a router and everything!

Thanks

 

There are a few options:

• New separate external HD (3.5")

Good for making backups of your important stuff once you have your new computer​

• Remove your old laptops HD and put it in an enclosure (2.5")

Same as above but you lose the ability to use the old laptop​

• Copy files over a network connection

Perhaps the easiest way since it's essentially a drag and drop operation but it can be quite slow when wireless ​

• Burn important files to a CD/DVD

If you have the hardware you can burn the data to a CD or DVD. It would take about five DVDs to burn 20 gigs worth of data​

• Ethernet Crossover Cable

A cable which connects two computers directly to each other - no router necessary - fairly cheap and probably the best option​

Thats' all I can think of at the moment, though there are probably more. I'm about to do the same thing but need to leave the old laptop operational and want to make backups in the future so I'm going with the first option.

~ Brett

 

well you didnt list what im going to do nberelex, although i already did,
which is buy a external case for the new laptops hd, because thats the one youre going to upgrade someday so the extra external case will come in handy someday

i thought about getting an ide one but what thats going to force me to do is own 2 different external hd cases down the road and small chance im going to carry them both around.

so someday im going to put this 100 gb in the case and have maybe a 400 gb one in the machine.

By then im not going to even want to sneeze at the 40gb one in an ide case that case would barely be a one shot use item

 

Assuming you're getting rid of the old notebook:

Wipe the info off of the old computer. Something like Norton's WipeInfo program (which can erase both the used and unused portions of the HDD) are very useful for this purpose.

 

Once I finish transferring my files I will burn a DVD of my important stuff (resumes, papers, backups of other things). A large portion of the 20gigs is stuff I wouldn't lose sleep over if it disappeared, I'm just a pack rat (when I download something, I keep it forever).

It's actually more like 125gigs, but there are dozens of game demos I would never bother to save.

Thanks again everyone!

 

I use one of these for all my file transfer between different drives/PCs:



Plugs right into the back of any HD, 3.5", 2.5", or SATA, and lets you connect it via USB. Includes power brick as well. It may not be pretty, but it's been a life saver several times now. You can even hook a full-size DVD-RW up to your laptop with it an burn stuff.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156102

 

I forgot to mention - perhaps the best option is an Ethernet crossover cable. In fact, it's probably the cheapest and easiest option.

~ Brett

 

None of you guys seems to realize that you can use a plain old 1394 firewire cable to hook the computers up. If you have one on your desktop you just need to hook it to the 1394 4-pin port on the A8Jm.

That's exactly what I did with mine. It's a 400mbit connection so your laptop hard drive will probably go slower than it can, and it's a plug and play network connection. Just remember to enable file sharing and share the folders you need to transfer.

If you don't have firewire or a firewire cable on the desktop then the crossover ethernet connection in the post above me works well too-you do need the special crossover cable (took me 10h of trying with a normal one to realize something was up)

 

Got everything working great with an old router and cat5 cables I had laying around.

Thanks fellas.