Suggestions on how to transfer data?

Anyone have any suggestions on how to easily transfer my files/apps from my old HP to my new Dell? (Going from XP to Vista, if that matters)

I've seen software that supposedly allows easy tranfer from one laptop to another. Has anyone used one of these, and if so, would you recommend it?

Otherwise, I guess I"m looking at having to reenter registration codes, transfer folders and files one at a time.

Seems like a royal pain!

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

The best way is to pop in your cd's and install them. As for data (music/documents/pictures) i would use a portable hard drive for that, but burned cd's or dvd's work good too.

 

Take your old HDD and put it in a 2.5" external enclosure. You can get one at newegg.com for ~$15-20.

Transfer old files from the external onto the new laptop drive.

 

for $15-$20 you could also get a crossover ethernet cable which is the fastest way to transfer data.. also a useful thing to have.

you could also share the files on a wireless network between the two computers... but it's really slow.

 

I have a 150 GB external drive.

Should I just clone my HP's hard drive to the external? I'll still have to register all software, but I guess there's no getting around that.

 

For software, you need to reinstall from the original disc.
For files and photos etc, I would recommend an external HDD. Not only is it easy to move the files across, its also an excellent backup.

 

Create an add-hoc wireless network.. Its slower than harddisk- harddisk transfer.. but its not that much slow that you are been temtated to buy an external harddisk.. and of cource its free..(assuming that you have wi fi card in both of the laptops) If you dont know how to create an add-hoc you can ask here or pm me..

 

I'm not tech savvy so sorry if these questions show it. I want to transfer data from my xp notebook to my new XPS. I have an external hard drive. I also was reading about Dell's transfer cable.

Which is easier to use?

These are the things I want to transfer: all my documents, my outlook express email, my pictures and my aol mail. I have aol software on my old computer and do NOT want to d'load it to this one. Can I copy my personal filing cabinets to my new computer and open them when I'm on aol through IE?

Thanks for your help.

 

Just buy a crossover ethernet (unless both computers have a gigabit ethernet connection, in which case a standard cat5 ethernet will work). You can get transfer rates of up to 1Gbps (on gigabit) or 100Mbps on, obviously, 100Mbps connections.

 

Does a transfer via ethernet cable mean that I'm literally moving stuff from one computer to the other? Or am I copying it? I want to leave a copy of everything on my old computer in case I have to use it.

 

Whenever you just drag and drop files from one location to another location on a different drive, windows automatically makes copies, rather than moving. If this isn't enough for you, simply select what you want, right click, select copy, and paste the files where you want them to end up.