Need to transfer files from old pc to new

My mom has a old pc,and recently bought a Dell.She has alot of personal files and some older programs that she wants to transfer to her new pc.Here is the problem.Here old pc has a cd rom and a floppy.She needs to transfer about 1 gig of stuff to her new pc.I was thinking of adding a 2nd harddrive to her old pc,and transfer all her stuff on to the storage drive.Then switch it to the dell,and retrieve all her programs and files.

Is this the best method based on her configuration?

I would have to buy a cheap hard drive to get this done.Do I just need to create a partition and format,and then add the the transfer drive to the old pc?

There is always the option of a crosswired UTP cable. (wonder if that is the right word crosswired)
Or depending on how old the computer is Laplink5 and a parallellcable.

//Christian

Crossover cable is the best and easiest way. Much better than "accidentally" voiding some warranties on your new computer

If you have broadband you can use www.yousendit.com/ to upload a zip file then get it back on the other computer, i've used it with files as big a 700mb.

Have a suggestion, but need something cleared up first.

Can you open a Dell box without voiding the warranty?

If not, ignore this post entirely.

If so, take the hard drive out of the old pc without changing any data on it. Look at the hard drive, on it there should be a jumper to change it from "Master" or "Cable Select" to "Slave". Change it to "Slave."

Put it in the new box, on the middle connector of an ide cable (just so the computer doesn't get confused).

Power on the new box. It'll boot from your master drive, as it normally would. Then go through the old drive that you have set as a slave, and get the info you need from that drive, and save the copies on the new drive.

When you are done, power down the new computer, remove the old drive. Reposition the jumper on the old drive to whatever it was in the first place, and put it back in the old computer. Use that computer just as you were intending to.

I've done this before, without issue, when a part of my windows install became corrupt. If, however, this seems like a bad idea to anyone, please speak up.

~N.

I was going to suggest the same thing, why not just move the old drive into the new PC and grab what you need from it?

I've done what the last two posts have suggested several times. You don't have to mess with the master/slave jumpers if you disconnect the data cable from the CD-ROM/DVD and use the master IDE connector (end connector) on the secondary channel. If it's hard to reach up in the case to disconnect cables, just use the cable from the old PC and disconnect the new computer's secondary IDE cable from the mobo. You do know the red stripe indicates pin #1, right? Make sure you connect the optical drive(s) back up afterwards.

Alternatively, if you have or if a buddy has one of those USB flash drives (assuming the old computer has a working USB port) you could transfer files over that way without having to open either case up. It might take 3 or 4 transfers depending on how many files there are and how big the flash drive is. Mine is a 512 MB, so it holds a lot of files (over 350 floppy disks worth).

If the old PC has USB, look for a cheap USB stick, I've seen them at various stores for as little as $20 for 256MB. Use it, copy what you need, transfer it to the new PC. Repeat if the total files to be moved exceeds 256MB.

Thanks for all the information.The old pc is really old.LOL(pentium 200Mhz)I dont think I could even hook up a cable modem to the old pc.I'm glad I can take the drive out of the old pc,and put it in the new,to transfer files.I did not think I could put the old harddrive on the new pc because it has Windows (me) installed.

So basically,there are several ways to accomplish this task.If I hook up the old harddrive to the new pc,I would just need to hook it up as master on the secondary channel.I wont need to change the jumper setting ,as it is already set as master.


PS-I am building a pc.First build.I'm excited.The new Dell is for my mom.I would build that too,but it's hard to build a pc for 400 dollars that includes a copy of xp and a 17" monitor.I have no problem opening the dell box.There warrenty and customer service suck anyway.

Don't worry about Win ME, any OSes on the old drive will be ignored by the new PC unless you put it on as primary master drive. Even then I doubt the OS will want to run at all when it tries to load files and drivers for older CPU and mobo and bombs out on the new PC.

While you can build a decent PC for under $400, don't skim on monitor. Cheap monitor is sure to blow up one day after warranty expires. Same with the power supply, it can melt the whole PC and the warranty only covers failed PSU and not blown mobo or CPU.