Probably a simple computer question

[Derrick Townsend]

Ok I think its time to purchase a new desktop. My dell is just getting old and slow. One question though. How can I transfer all my file from this computer to the other?

Can I just buy a external hard drive and place everything on it?

or is there a simpler way to transfer all the files?

Thanks

Derrick



BTW Geaux Tigers!

 

[Todd Z]

I think you could just hook them together directly and do a data transfer...



Todd Z

 

[blert]

Network transfer (as Todd stated).

Burn CD's/DVD's.

eMail (gMail, or whatever, if the total size is very large).

USB stick.

Floppy (if available, yeah right who still has one if these).

etc...

etc...

etc...

 

[Guru Guy]

The easiest way for me is to copy files directly to a usb stick.



Plug in to new pc and transfer. Dont forget to copy your IE Favorite site bookmarks, etc.

 

[TomT]

Usually easiest to take out the old hard drive and mount it as a slave in the new computer. But it's probably a PATA drive and your new computer will no doubt be SATA and may or may not have PATA connections. If I was you I would go ahead and buy an external hard drive. They come in handy and you'll have it around for backups on your new computer.

 

[Dreman]

I like the external hard drive option. They are getting cheaper (I recently found a 320Gb for $119). And after you are done with the transfer, it makes a great monthly backup tool.

 

[EddieS'04]

I recently saw some 160gb usb external at office max clearance..$74

 

[Tom Schindler]

I have an adapter that will connect to a 2.5" Laptop drive/3.5" IDE and SATA drives by just connecting via a USB cable and on some drives, a power adaptor. It cost me around 10.00 for it and it works great!!!



Check the link below...





Tom

 

[Mark G]

When we bought the Dell we have now we purchased software and a USB cable from Dell to move files from the old to the new computer. It worked very well.





We use an external hard drive to back up files at home. It stays connected to the computer via a USB cable. The drive is only powered up when backing up files or when we need to access something on that drive. When we replace our aging Dell we will just copy files we need over to the new computer. You also have your files backed up on a separate drive in case something bad happens to your computer. Prices have dropped on external drives. Our 200 Gb external drive costs about half of what it did 3 years ago.



Also check out the info on the Microsoft web site, it looks helpful.

 

[kil roy]

i usually pull the hard drive out of the old system for my

customers and slave it to the new system.

this way they have extra storage and know that there is

no way anyone will get their personal information off of the old drive



its been my experience that just when you think you have everything you

need off of the old system you remember something else and it gets

tedious connecting/disconnecting the old computer every time you

remember something and need those files.