Transfering from one laptop to another

[lostboy87]

Can you buy a double ended USB or some thing to be able to transfer my songs and vids to my new laptop.I know you can buy memory sticks for this but can you do it any other way? cheers.

[spacechimp]

This should work: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=2 5600&doy=24m2&C=SO&U=strat15

Whatever you do, don't just connect a normal USB cable from one computer to another: it can short the motherboard.

You could also try a crossover network cable, but that's apt to be slower and is also more complicated.

Personally, I would use a memory stick or I'd take the hard drive out of one and connect it to the other, but I suspect that's not something you fancy.

Do you have CDRW drive, perchance?

[lostboy87]

i do have one of those drives yes!

[spacechimp]

Is it on the old laptop? (If it is then just buy a rewritable CD and get copying) (If it's not, then I'd recommend the cable, setting up a network connection or transferring your files to a memory stick. If you don't have a vast number of files you could upload them to the internet from one computer and download them again on the other.)

[lostboy87]

Yeah its a few years old,this one is a all singing all dancing vista.How do i put the video files onto a cd??

[rojash]

Surely tiy have network ports on both machines? Just get a crossover network cable and hook them together.

[rojash]

Just re-read spacechimp's reply and noticed he mentioned a crossover cable, too. Not sure why he thinks that will be slower - most network cards run at either 100Mb or 1Gb per second as opposed to the 12Mb offered by the Maplins gadget. I notice also that the Maplins device doesn't mention Vista compatibility.

Whatever, the slowest and most laborious method has got to be by writing to CD or DVD!

[spacechimp]

Actually, that was a stupid thing for me to say. I was assuming the old laptop would have a 10Mbps network card, and thinking it a bit slow. But yes, a crossover cable would achieve pretty much the same as the USB device and be much cheaper; it's just that a crossover cable requires more technical knowledge than the USB cable likely does because you have to set up a network on -Windows-.

I suggested a CD, because if it's not a great number of files then a single disc would be the cheapest option and not too slow.

Lostboy, if you're going to use a CD, just get some writing software like Nero and make a data disc.

[lostboy87]

thanks all,managed to get a USB link cable for 99p from ebay!

[matt1e]

if both laptops are wireless enabled you could just set up an ad hoc (computer to computer) network