Transfer files to new laptop

Are there any easy and fast ways to transfer files (about 100GB) from one computer to another computer?? (without having to buy an external hard drive, i am broke now after i bought this laptop )

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

A USB 2.0 to SATA-IDE cable/adaptor

http://www.7store.net/usb-2.0-to-ide-sata-adapter-cable-p280-gbp.html

 

I was just about to say you could get an external hard drive, but that's out of the question. My next thought is to burn the files to DVDs(if you have a DVD burner and a whole lot of DVDs), but with 100gb that would take a long time and would use a a lot of DVDs. It actually might be good the have those DVDs though if your hard drive fails. Another possibility is to pop out the hard drive that has the files and put it into an external hard drive case so you can connect it to your new laptop via USB. I'm pretty sure you can get those cases pretty cheap. I think what Andy suggested would do the same thing as a hard drive case.
If you have a large capacity thumb drive you could use that, you just need to keep plugging in and unplugging it though.

Well, that's all I could think of. Good Luck!

 

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This is the one I need to get:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

Does 2.5, 3.5, 5.25 for both SATA & IDE. Only $2 more. Might as well have it all, right?

 

thanks guys, that is a great idea!

but i have a question, i've heard i can connect the two laptops up with a Cat5 cable and transfer files that way... is that true? if so, how do i do that?
or if theres any other way i can transfer files over the network or something like that?

 

DANG !! Linked the wrong cable, I intended to link the same cable as above ^

 

I've never been able to figure out how to do the cat5 thing (if it's even really possible). I'd guess you'd need to setup loopback network adapters maybe?

Haha well then I guess we'll all be buying that same one . It's a great deal. I've got tons of use out of my current adapter, but it doesn't have 2.5" IDE, which is aggravating.

 

I guess you would need a cross-over cable to connect the 2 NICs together and setup using the networking wizard.
Or you can connect both to the same router (with the simple straight-through), and if you can see the other computer on the network, it is as simple as putting the items into a "shared" folder (or making an existing one "shared'). I guess its the same with wireless too. (not sure !!)

If you know the interface of your current drive, you can buy a nice Rosewill enclosure, which are for about $20, and they do last longer.

 

It would take forever to transfer 100GB over a 10/100 though .

 

Yes. I've done this and transferred files that way.

Just get an ethernet cable and plug one end into each computer! If either adapter supports automatic crossover (which is likely), then it'll work. If not, you'll need to get a crossover cable instead. Anyway, once you plug in the cable, go into Control Panel, Network Connections, and set up a new Peer-to-Peer connection.

Of course, if you have a router or a switch, you can connect them that way and use your existing network setup and not worry about the crossover issue.

Either way, make sure the firewall on the remote machine is off or has an exception for Windows file and printer sharing. Also make sure the remote machine has file sharing is turned on, and that you have a folder that it has at least one shared folder. Then it should work.

I assume it's possible to set up a peer-to-peer network using wifi too, but I haven't ever done that or played around with it.

 

Do you think it would take a long time if i transfer 100GB of data that way?

 

Have Vista on the new laptop? If so you can use Windows Easy Transfer to easily move files, even entire user accounts and their settings. It's free (and almost always forgotten about ) with Vista.

Here are the methods you can use with Windows Easy Transfer:

Home Network (Wired or Wireless or Ad-Hoc)

CD's/DVD's

External Hard Disk

Windows Easy Transfer Cable-Not necessary but it uses USB to connect and transfer data between the two PC's.

I would at least give the network method a go. Esp. since it's free.

Here's more info on Windows Easy Transfer: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/96d5d811-6d52-4dff-b39b-76c64a131dfe1033.mspx

 

Thanks, but I tried that Windows Easy Transfer thing... I left my laptops on for a whole day... and it only got 25% done... it pissed me off... lol... and i dont want to tranfer the settings from my old laptops to the new one.

 

I think it will take along time using ethernet, but I may be wrong. I'm not very proficient with that stuff.

However I just wanted to mention that whatever method you use, you should use TeraCopy. The free version. It's much faster than Windows built in transfer thing and won't halt on errors. (That saves a lot of aggravation).

 

Well, it depends on your ethernet speed...

100 megabits per second = 12.5 megabytes per second = .0125 GB/s
So... 100 GB should take 100/.0125 = 8000 seconds = 133 minutes... but you won't get the theoretical speed because there'll be protocol overhead, hiccups, etc... so figure on 140-150 minutes I guess. But it could be drastically different if your ethernet speed is different.

Oh that's cool... for some reason I assumed that you had to use one of those stupid easy transfer usb cables... I'm glad to hear that you don't.

 

i put all my files on to 19 DVD's
it only took about about 3 hours to transfer all the new files to my new laptop

 

19 DVDs....DAM*

 

Well, at least you now also have a pretty comprehensive backup of those files as well - you'll be really glad for that if you ever have a catastrophic hdd failure (or even a typical one that you ignore - like I did - until it's too late).