Stu/ igorveni if you can think of a better title… go for it
I am about to buy a new desktop computer in the next 10 days or so, but I’m wondering what to do about this problem.
The computer I am using at the moment does not recognize USBs for some reason and I have a load of photos and stuff that I want to put on to the new computer. Whats the best way round this?
How much data do you need to transfer?
First option that comes to my mind would be shared folders over a local network, if you have a router or hub.
Is the computer you’re using now a laptop or a desktop?
I’d say 2.5 GB of stuff (just to be on the safe side) needs to be transferred.
I’m currently at work though, so I’m not on my home computer. its a desktop btw.
Does it have a DVD burner?
If you have a network connection there are many ways to do it… as mentioned network shares, if not that just find a online storage site, even FTP them to your webserver if you have one… even email them to yourself using something like yousendit.com (of course you would want to zip the files first, and this would also help preserve the folder structure).
Best thing would be the direct transfer… and if you dont have a network, once you get the new PC you can setup a shared folder on that machine with both connected to your ADSL router that will form a network. If not that, even a corssover network connection directly between the 2 PCs and fixed IP addresses will work.
I suppose borrowing an external USB DVD-R/W drive will not help 
If you are not afraid of opening up your computer, another easy way is to simply remove the hdd and then install it (temporarily or not) in your new computer. Then you can copy the files over or even just leave them in place and access them on the old hdd. If you don’t want to install the old hdd inside the new computer, you can also find some fairly inexpensive IDE -> USB adapters online. They usually run between $10-$20 and allow you to hook up an IDE hard drive via USB.
cheers y’all… I do have a laptop that I could network up now… problem is my wireless connection has been farked for months and months and I have no understanding of how I can fix it… tried everything i can think of.
Use a LAN cable then. Faster that way too.
You could try Dropbox. dropbox.com/
It’s 2.5GB (I think) of secure online storage for free. I use it to swap files with clients all the time and works as long as you have a net connection.
It sounds like you need someone to come over and fix all your stuff for you 
The easiest way, as long as you know what you’re doing, is to take the hard drive out of the old system and put it in the new system.
It really is just a matter of removing two connectors and four screws.
If the old computer has a DVD writer, then all the pictures would fit on a single DVD and that way you’d also get a backup of all your pictures.
yeah the only dvd burner I have is external.
Me and that Iris are currently working on a few ways that may get the USB ports working again.
Bloody wife’s computer in Chinese. Who’d a thunk it eh? Taiwanese people using Chinese Windows! Honestly! The cheek!
OK. Upload to a website or spare folder that you have on your website. 2.5GB on a fast upload won’t take that long.
Download when you are ready. No fuss, no wires, no frustration.
I’ve down the HD trick and removed. It was surprisingly simple to remove.
Kenneth