20 GBs worth of data files... Can't i just use a USB cable... won't Win XP on my Desktop think it's just seeing some more drives out there when I plug in my Laptop??? And then I can just do a Drive to Drive File transfer from one machine to the next?
Best Way To Get Files From Desktop to Laptop
- Thread starter Caveman
- Start date
Thanks! That looks just like what I need... I'll check it out. Seem like there would be a way to just go from machine to machine a little easier... I'm surprised there's not an "easier" way...
Thanks! That looks just like what I need... I'll check it out. Seem like there would be a way to just go from machine to machine a little easier... I'm surprised there's not an "easier" way...
another method costing less than $10 & which would be much quicker than an usb connection, would be to get a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE hdd adapter then slave your laptop hdd temporarily to your desktop & copy over the files.
replace you laptop hdd when done!
replace you laptop hdd when done!
buy a switch or router ??? and use ethernet cables It ussually works pretty good for me... and then share the drive you can find cheap switches for less than 10 bucks ussually.
You can also do an even easier and Faster way. However, this requires that both laptop and desktop have firewire connectors. Simply connect firewire cable between the two machines and you're in business. All you have to do is share folders on the two computers. Any files will then transfer through your firewire cable. Much faster than USB
1 Gbit ethernet>Firewire>USB2.0>100 ethernet
1 Gbit ethernet>Firewire>USB2.0>100 ethernet
Yay! My Desktop has a Audigy X gamer with Firewire and according to my laptop description, it comes with firewire as well... I'll runout and buy a firwire cable...
As for both machines having a NIC... I know that the desktop machine does... But I'm unsure about the laptop... It's a Compaq X1050 with the new Centrino CPU and built in Wifi (which I haven't tried to make work yet...)
As for both machines having a NIC... I know that the desktop machine does... But I'm unsure about the laptop... It's a Compaq X1050 with the new Centrino CPU and built in Wifi (which I haven't tried to make work yet...)
lol yeah you laptop not only has a nic card it probably is a Gig E nic. Though I doubt your PC has a gigE nic so it dosn't really matter.
caveman, this would be a good opportunity to get into networking....
I'd recommend getting at least a small switch, and 2 cat5 cables, plug both into switch....with this configuration you'd have to put cable/dsl router into a 2nd nic on your desktop and do ICS....
or get a cable/dsl router that has a small switch build into it, and then connect both desktop/notebook into that. this is the beginning of a nice little home network. make sure both pc's have the same user name and password and that sharing is enabled, and transferring files couldn't really be any simpler.....and you can do this transfer anytime you'd like, as opposed to some of the reply solutions provided.
I'd recommend getting at least a small switch, and 2 cat5 cables, plug both into switch....with this configuration you'd have to put cable/dsl router into a 2nd nic on your desktop and do ICS....
or get a cable/dsl router that has a small switch build into it, and then connect both desktop/notebook into that. this is the beginning of a nice little home network. make sure both pc's have the same user name and password and that sharing is enabled, and transferring files couldn't really be any simpler.....and you can do this transfer anytime you'd like, as opposed to some of the reply solutions provided.
It seems like the firewire is the easiest/fastest way to get there from here... What am I missing?
Since both PC's have ethernet jacks, buy a crossover CAT5 cable, enable sharing and zap the files from the lappy to the desktop.
Blue tooth.
Little bitty dongle.
Easy to set up.
Had filesharing BUILT into the bluetooth software.
but it is very slow.
Little bitty dongle.
Easy to set up.
Had filesharing BUILT into the bluetooth software.
but it is very slow.
That's not a good way to transfer files of that size by any means...
The dongle alone is going to cost more than 2 NIC's + Crossover Cable.
Still, Why is a Cat 5 Crossover Cable (where do I get one of these?) better than a firewire connection?
you can buy a crossover cable almost anywhere. jsut go into a computer store and ask for one, it will be no hassel whatsoever. this is great if you need a temp solution. and it allows you to be able to grab it from ANY laptop pretty easily.
The crossover cable is he cheapest option and probably easier to setup. Having one handy is always useful as most computers have nics (but not firewire). The firewire may be faster (at least in theory, 400Mbps >100 MBps, but in reality the transfer speed of the HDD in your laptop will probably be the limiting factor (unless your desktop also has a slow hdd). Either way should work for you. If you go firewire make sure you get the cable with the correct ends for both yoour devices.
A 100mbps network would allow 12.5MB/s, I would guess even a laptop HDD coul dmanage more than that (I have a desktop that gets 40mb/s, that's my slowest desktop HDD). A laptop would probably easily surpass 20MB/s.
Firewire at 50MB/s excluding overheads would probably be better, if it's not too much more expensive. No idea how much Firewire cables are.
I transferred a few gigs of stuff over a 100mbps network of two desktops, took quite a while.
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