transfer to new comp.

[colly]

Any hints on the best way to transfer documents/music/pictures/settings from one rapidly decaying computer to a replacement?

I began to write stuff onto a disc only to find I had to transfer 23Gb of stuff and my disc would only take 700mb

Could I couple the two together via a usb cable or some such, and do it that way?

 

[jay clock]

You need an external hard drive. These are very cheap now. Something like this would do http://www.dabs.com/products/best-v...refs=47610000-47210000&q=External Hard Drives but have a search under external hard drive. PC World or similar will have them if very pushed for time. That one is 400GB (ie about 15 time more than you need for the 23GB but the disk is ideal for backing stuff up etc. Many are 500GB, or even 1TB (a terabyte is 1000GB)

In terms of copying the stuff over, you can either just copy all the things you want onto the drive then plug it into the new pc, or with WIndows you can use a thing called files and settings transfer wizard http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/crawford_november12.mspx - took a long time, but it copies all the email settings, desktop settings etc too

 

[Danny]

I have just ordered the an Iomega Prestige Desktop Hard Drive. It is a Which magazine best buy, and holds 1000 gigabytes of data (i.e. 1 terabyte).

Cheapest place I found was Dixons where it is being sold for £65.

There is a also cheaper version which holds 500gb of data.

 

[marinyork]

Could I couple the two together via a usb cable or some such, and do it that way?

Have they both got network cards? Get a spare ethernet cable and transfer.

All these expensive solutions other people are suggesting are fine in the long term.

How is the data broken up? You could easily fit it on DVDs/larger SD cards/dongles.

 

[colly]

Thanks for your replies.


I have the other computer and it has connections for the lead from the cable modem.

Does that mean it will have a network card in ?

As for how the data is broken up......well I have collected all the music/photos/word documents I need into a few folders so it is pretty much self contained now but what do I do about different programs and things like drivers for the printer and so on?

Do I need to re-install the programs and drivers?

The new replacement already has XP installed and various MS Office things.

I read through the MS Transfer Wizard stuff.
Easy for some to do !! Maybe not so easy for me though.


Sorry to be so dim but other than the basics and pushing the buttons I don't know much about the workings.

 

[marinyork]

Don't panic. Just write down what programmes and drivers you have - unless you have a dedicated folder with the zips/exes to install the drivers from already there?

I meant also on how the data is broken up for example how much.

e.g.

7Mb of documents mostly kb in size
9Gb of photos, mostly 3Mb in size each.
7Gb of music, mostly 10Mb in size etc.

What I meant was some of them might be easily wacked onto a SD card or usb dongle you borrow off someone else and done and dusted.

 

[woohoo]

I have just ordered the an Iomega Prestige Desktop Hard Drive. It is a Which magazine best buy, and holds 1000 gigabytes of data (i.e. 1 terabyte).

Cheapest place I found was Dixons where it is being sold for £65.

There is a also cheaper version which holds 500gb of data.

Currys (same group) are doing it for £60 and in the shop where I bought it they were doing the 500GB version for £65.

 

[colly]

Thanks for your help and advice chaps. I think I have cracked it now.

A device called ''Thedaughtersboyfriend'' seems to be just the thing I need.
It comes in a tidy package complete with cables, gizmo's etc, ready assembled and programed. It delivers itself to the door and once installed it works unaided without any fuss.

Technology is wonderful ain't it??

All for the price of a couple of pints.

 

[amnesia]

Just restore the back ups you regularly make to the new computer.


You do make back ups of your PC, don't you ???

 

[colly]

Well my computer has all the files and stuff transfered ok (without help from 'Thedaughtesboyfriend' I might add) and it is up and running just fine.

A couple of issues though:

First is that web pages are completely different to what they used to be, for example :

Cyclechat looks like this

BBC page looks like this

Sort of all there but in the wrong place and with colours and some graphics missing.Any suggestions as to what I can do?
Another odd thing, which might well be related, is that while Firefox works just fine Internet Explorer won't work and using the diagnose tool it just refers me to some mythical person in charge, or some such.

Also Yahoo Messenger won't work..................although it did yesterday.