Sooner or later, most small to micro-sized companies will find themselves with the task of moving files from one computer to another for a variety of reasons. What are the options and their pros and cons?
CDs – The most popular way of doing things. You can cram 700MB of files onto a CD and then have a back up as well as a means to transfer the information onto multiple computers. Burning the CD and then copying from it can be a bit time-consuming depending on the speed of the CD-RW drive. Newer machines with DVD-RW drives allow up to 4.7GB of data storage on one disk – more than enough for most people’s top priority files.
NT Backup, which is usually built-in to Windows, will let you create compressed back ups directly onto CDs.
Network – The fastest file transfer method by far, though, is across the network via Ethernet. Both the sending and receiving computers will need Ethernet network interface cards (NIC) (preferably 10/100 cards) and an Ethernet crossover cable to connect the two computers. Creating this type of mini-network with Windows XP machines is a breeze, likewise with two Apple Macs.
Once both computers can ‘see’ each other, the transfer is drag’n’drop simple. It can occasionally be a pain to set up, but once cracked the transfer of files is reasonably fast.
If you wish to transfer files from an older machine, it is normally possible to link up to a newer computer via serial or parallel cable. This enables one of the computers to see the other as an external drive and pull in the information from there.
Windows File and Settings Transfer Wizard - If you’re not sure about networks or don’t wish to dabble as above, try Windows XP’s File and Settings Transfer Wizard. This is a step-by-step guide that takes you through the whole process and automatically detects which other computers are accessible.
Hard drive transfer - Sometimes the data transfer is required because a new bigger, faster drive is being fitted. Ask whoever is doing the work to transfer your files from the old drive onto the new one.
External back ups – It’s also possible to transfer files from an external back up device such as a Zip or Jaz Drive or from an automated web-based back up service such as BT Datasure. Both machines must support whichever back up device or service you intend to use.
When copying files to a new machine, it’s simplest just to create a new folder and dump everything in there and sort out later when all the files are on that hard disk.
