I’m buying my first notebook, and leaving Taiwan shortly thereafter.
What’s the easiest way to transfer all my music (700+ songs and mixes), and my pics, from the desktop to the new notebook?
Can I do it using WMP10? Or will the desktop recognise the notebook as a another drive if I plug it in using a USB cable?
Never done this before, I’m almost computer illiterate…
:help: needed
Thanks
the cheap way would be to get a firewire cable (if both of your computers do have a firewire connection) or better a crossover ethernet cable. simply setup a network connection with xp network wizard and you’re all set.
the easy way would be to use a hub and connect both computers to it. pretty useless to buy such a device if you dont need one. borrow one!
Ordinary USB cables don’t work, you need a “USB transfer cable” (preferably USB 2.0), and you’ll have to install a special software on both computers to see each other.
You can also remove the hard disk from your desktop computer, place it in a USB HDD case, and connect it to the laptop. HDD cases are cheap - a few hundred NT.
copy the music/photos to a DVD ad then copy onto your new laptop. Then delete from desktop and enjoy the new space available. (If you want to do this)
This also assumes that your desk top has a DVD copy feature.
It probably does.
Pro:
Simple. If you’re running a Windows prog its just drag ‘n’ drop. Then same to your new prog folders - (My Music & My Pictures - or where ever you want them)
Gives you back-ups of your stuff.
Con:
Takes time - but any other way does also.
Ya need a DVD(s) - (1 may be enough to do it)
[quote]copy the music/photos to a DVD ad then copy onto your new laptop. Then delete from desktop and enjoy the new space available. (If you want to do this)
This also assumes that your desk top has a DVD copy feature.
It probably does. [/quote]
Unfortunately no DVD burner on the old desktop dinosaur.
That should do the trick, but do I need to buy the software, or can I download it off the net?
That sounds the simplest. I think my desktop should have an ethernet port?
[quote=“Dirt Merchant”]
That should do the trick, but do I need to buy the software, or can I download it off the net? [/quote]
When you buy the cable (around NT550), it’ll come with the software. However, before you do that, do you have USB 2.0 on both computers?
[quote]
That sounds the simplest. I think my desktop should have an ethernet port?[/quote]
If you’ve never setup a network before, you can easily spend hours trying to figure out why the two computers aren’t seeing each other. I don’t particularly recommend this unless you have a knowledgeable friend help out…
[quote]
You can also remove the hard disk from your desktop computer, place it in a USB HDD case, and connect it to the laptop. HDD cases are cheap - a few hundred NT.[/quote]
THIS is the easiest. A 3.5" HDD external USB box costs between 700-900nt. If you want to go the cheap route, you can just get a USB to IDE cable for around 4-500.
Take your PC and notebook to a 3C shop, and ask the service guy to do it for you. Then give him 200 NT for his energy.
I’m actually in almost the same position right now (desktop to desktop though) and have pretty much decided to go the purchase of an external USB HDD which I can also use for backup. I only have USB 1.1 on the first PC but USB 2.0 on the new one. The old PC also only has a CD-RW drive, and that’s not even working now (the last straw). I have about 15 Gig worth of mostly video files to transfer.
One thing that confuses me is the difference between the different sizes of EHDD - something like 1.8", 2.5", 3.5"? Can anyone enlighten me on any pros and cons of the sizes?
Or any other/better ideas given the limitations of my old system? Sorry for hijacking the thread but I thought it was similar enough.
3.5 is for things the size of a big HD or a CD/DVD player. They are bigger 
2.5 is for smaller hard drives and things that were designed to go into a Laptop. 1.8 is even smaller and laptop only stuff.
You want a good 3.5 with USB 2.0 you probably don’t need to spend the extra 200nt for Firewire. This is by far the easiest thing to do this and when you are done you have a nice extra external HD to play with or fill.
However. Why transfer it at that point. Keep you old stuff on the external drive and keep the new HD to put all the new stuff that you just gota have now!
Ps. bearshare and Bittorent help if you PM me and ask nicely.
[quote=“Chicken”]3.5 is for things the size of a big HD or a CD/DVD player. They are bigger
2.5 is for smaller hard drives and things that were designed to go into a Laptop. 1.8 is even smaller and laptop only stuff.[/quote]
Well, yes, I meant since I was going to buy an external one it didn’t actually have to go into anything, so I was wondering why/what the difference in performance might be or whether it was just a matter of preference. I ended up buying a 2.5" anyway
Took me a good hour of fiddling before I worked out I had to partition it as a drive as well. Thank goodness for the net. Grrr.
Thanks for the tips and the torrent help also much appreciated, however I don’t actually do filesharing! I have other sources 
If your are looking at HDD external USB boxes in the shop for around NT$1000 bear in mind that this is only for the box, you will have to supply the HDD separately, either the one in the desktop or buy another one, expect to pay $3000+
If you are planning on taking the HDD from a desktop it is 99.99% certain to be 3.5"
A laptop will most likely be 2.5" or if it is an ultra thin/ultra portable or some other ultra that means you paid more for it because it was the super deluxe small version, it may be 1.8"
Using the HDD from you old system will obviously require using screwdrivers and involve taking things apart. This isn’t something that’s particularly hard to do but if you are going this route because the “Buy a crossover cable” suggestion sounded too hard, you probably need a friend to help.
Transferring 15GB with a USB 1.1 connection will take 3* hours under theoretical ideal conditions, you can expect it to take much** longer. If you are using a new HDD, you will have to do 2 transfer operations, one from the old PC HDD onto the USB HDD, and one from the USB HDD onto the new PC.
If either of the PCs is using Windows 98 you will need to install a driver for the USB box. Some boxes do not include the driver anymore.
The crossover cable suggestion is much cheaper and easier if you are only planning on a one off job. I’ve seen the cables in all the PC stores (3C, Fortress, etc.)
Things to look for:
UTP/CAT5/CAT5e/CAT6 (choose any of these. Note: Paying extra for a CAT6 over CAT5 would be a waste for this job)
and
crossover/ PC-PC/Hub-Hub
Things to avoid:
Patch cable, PC-Hub
Length of cable will not make a difference so select buy price. Expect to pay NT$150.
A thing that might be worth noting is, if one (or both) of the ports on the PCs says anything about “AutoMDIX” (check the manual) you can just buy any cable.
*15GB = 122900Mb
USB 1.1 transfer rate is 12Mbps
122900/12/60/60 = 2.8
USB 2.0 transfer rate is 480Mbps so will obviously be faster but for this to work you need both the port on the PC and the box to be 2.0, otherwise you have to use 1.1.
**I’m talking “leave it overnight”
Oh, that would explain the previous post - I didn’t realise they sold just the boxes since I’m not one to fiddle around with the innards of my PC. I bought an actual plug-in drive and it did cost almost exactly the equivalent of $3000 
It’s done almost 4 gig in about an hour, so not too bad so far, cross fingers. I did want the backup this time, but the cables might be a good idea for next time - I assume it’s a bit faster? However, yes, if it involves dismantling one or both PCs, I wouldn’t touch it! Although come to think of it the new PC has firewire and USB 2.0, so hopefully the low-tech solution will work relatively fast should it come to upgrading again…
ETA: looked up the crossover cable - hmm, that would probably have been a reasonable alternative. I’m not a huge techie, but reasonably competent with anything that doesn’t actually involve using a screwdriver
You’ll be amused to hear that I initially attempted to connect them via the serial ports (because that’s how they did it way back in the time of the dinosaurs and I had a cable already). Estimated transfer time: 375 hours. I figured I had time to go out, buy the HDD, transfer the files, and still have a week to spare :help:
[quote=“Rik”]The crossover cable suggestion is much cheaper and easier if you are only planning on a one off job. I’ve seen the cables in all the PC stores (3C, Fortress, etc.)
Things to look for:
UTP/CAT5/CAT5e/CAT6 (choose any of these. Note: Paying extra for a CAT6 over CAT5 would be a waste for this job)
and
crossover/ PC-PC/Hub-Hub[/quote]
If you’re going out to look for one, it’s also sometimes called a “X” cable. To make sure that you actually have a crossover and not just a normal network cable, put the two plugs next to each other, facing the same way. Look through the transparent part of the plug to see the colors of the 8 wires. If the colors on both plugs are all in the same order, you have the wrong cable.
Something to bear in mind…buying a crossover cable doesn’t magically allow you to transfer files between the two computers.
You then have to set them to the same workgroup, share the drive/contents that you want to transfer over, and copy the information over. And if they’re not both the same operating system…good luck trying to get them to find each other…
[quote]Dirt Merchant wrote:
Quote:
Ordinary USB cables don’t work, you need a “USB transfer cable” (preferably USB 2.0)
That should do the trick, but do I need to buy the software, or can I download it off the net?
When you buy the cable (around NT550), it’ll come with the software. However, before you do that, do you have USB 2.0 on both computers? [/quote]
I presume my desktop dinosaur has USB 2.0 ports. But due to my illiteracy I aint 100% sure of that.
How do I check?
It seems like the cheapest option. I only have about 5GB of music and pics.
Would it be easier to burn the tunes to CD, in MP3 format (using Nero), than do the whole cabling (plus installing software) thang?
i’d bet your comp doesnt have usb2.0 but only usb1.x.
again, he easiest and cheapest way is the crossover cable. that’s cost you 20~30nt. NO need to be a rocket scientist to get this working, you’ll be doing fine… anyways, you’ll get help from forumosa (again) :bravo:
If you only have 5 gig it would be better to bun to Cd or DVD if you have that option.
I’m glad and impressed that you figured out about the EHDD issue. If you can figure that out you would have no trouble taking out your old HD. Its pretty easy. We could probably walk you through it.