How to transfer files from 1 compu to another ?

Do I need a USB to USB cable ?

Will 1 computer recognize the C and D drive of the other ?

How fast MB/s will the transfer be ?

 

Some options:
1. Crossover ethernet cable
2. Regular ethernet cable, if at least one of the ethernet adapters supports automatic crossover, which is likely.
3. Two ethernet cables plus switch, hub, or router.
4. Using wifi (set up an ad-hoc wifi network)
5. usb easy-transfer cable
6. using storage media (DVD, flash drive, external hard drive, etc.)
7. internet-based file sharing service such as dropbox

 

A USB to USB cable will work. It typically requires propriety software as Windows does not recognize a USB to USB connection by default.

If a flash drive doesn't cut it, a crossover ethernet cable will work.

 

Ethernet - if you have 1GBit/s Ethernet will be faster at roughly 125MB/s - USB, depending on the HDD - to my External WD I can get about 22MB/s maximum.

I'd really suggest going via a USB HDD/USB Flash dive as its the easiest way.

 

Whatever you'd choose, I'd highly advise against copying the files over a wireless network,that will just take forever, assuming you have a large amount of data. A crossover-cable will work, but you'll probably have to give each PC a static IP address, so they'll recognize each other as there will be no DHCP server to assign IP's in that scenario.

As DetlevCM mentioned, a USB drive would be the easiest. If you can't afford it, and are OK with the moral gray area, you can always purchase a USB drive, use it, then return it.

 

More than probably. Definitely. APIP isn't the most reliable method and it is a good thing you brought this up.

 

Not cool, Brandon! I don't want to spend my hard earned money for, what I believe is a new product, only to have it been used by someone before me.

 

That or a $10 crossover ethernet cable.

Your call. Buy a flashdrive/external drive or a piece of cable.

 

Chances are good that you won't even need the crossover cable. Many adapters support automatic crossover these days, so if that's supported on at least one of the computers, then you can just use a regular ethernet cable.

Either way though, you will have to set up the IP addresses, as someone mentioned earlier. You can search the net if you need instructions on that.

 

Take a look at http://www.teamviewer.com/download/index.aspx. It's free for non-commercial use.

 

USB external HDD's are cheap these days and well worth the investment for backing up etc.

 

How would that help?
The file transfer ability?

That's going to be limited by your upload speed and rather slow.

 

Good point... you should have one for backup anyways...

 

I agree the speed is limited, but if both computers are connected to the same router you'll get 1Mb/s which means it'll transfer a 1 Gb file in about 12 minutes which is not bad, regarding you don't need additional hardware. It works great for small files.

 

Such complicated alternatives to a crossover cable.

I think if you take the old laptop, hand it over to a touch typist and have them retype the data onto the new laptop would be an option too........

 

http://www.laplink.com/pcmover

Albeit not free, but it can work over a standard ethernet network (without the need for crossover cables). It will additionally transfer your programs as well from the old system to the new system. I used it very recently to transfer some old files and programs from an XP system to a Windows 7 System. It took ~30 minutes to transfer everything over my 10/100 network.

 

After using external hard drives to transfer files for years, I finally started using a USB crosslink cable which was given to me as a Christmas present. It saves so much more time and can do much more than just transferring files.

THIS is the one I'm currently using.

 

This cable goes from a USB port to another USB port on the other computer ?

How will the computer that wants to download the files from the other , "see" that computer ?

 

just use a network.. i'm with surfasb here, why all the complications. each pc has networking in, and networking is made for, guess what? transfering files from one system to another.

you have internet access so you most likely have some form of router and cables. just plug both in, and copy the stuff over.