Community poll forum: My favorite way to transfer large files between computers

... I just use my iAudio X5 - 30 Gigs of storage! Great for sharing stuff with your friends. It also shows up as an external Hard Drive. So no drivers required :-D

I also have two external hard drives (one 160GB and a 80GB Hard). This is also fast way to do it.

Well, almost never. But it also means you have been doing that for a short time. Those of us who still have "priceless" stuff on old 30 MB drives with no computer that will read it -- well, we're just S.O.L.

I am coming to think the external drive (so far I have but one 160G) is the way to go. They used to cost a fortune; now quite reasonable.

Good idea.

I transfer files using more than one of the options above depending on where I am, what's available, and the capabilities of the source and receiving computers. I just upgraded to a much larger external hdd on my laptop and used CD-Rs to back up and transfer many of the files (I had a reason for doing it this way). When I'm at school, I frequently transfer files between old and new Macs and my home PC running WinXP. I usually use a CD, Zip, USB flash/thumbdrive or LAN depending on where I start and where I'm going. :o)

You must be the only person in the civilized world who doesn't save stuff. Well, maybe we should ask, "Where in the world ARE you?" (just kidding).

You are right, of course; but few follow your example.

Mostly, if people would save the stuff they want to keep into folders that were easy to find, keep it well organized and not mix in things that shouldn't be saved, they'd be in pretty good shape to use any of the methods suggested.

I'm such a pack-rat! Even though I appreciate your answer, it won't work for me.

LOL

I Manually copy .dbx(outlook express)files, My Documents, My Adress Book, Works Calander, And Most Importantly all the launchers for the programs I'll have to reinstall. I copy them onto a second internal 300GB HDD. Right now the total size is about 148 GB of Data. I have found this to be the only way to humm after a clean install. File and transfer wizard is not bit-perfect. Everytime I have used it or, Windows XP Pro Backup Program I find many problems, especially my music files and the meta data attached to evey file and folder, just doesn't transfer well but it does copies poifectly.
For My setup it takes 15 Mins to format 250GB HDD, and about 7 hours of recopying to the origianl reformatted hard drive or new machine,freshley installing the programs to bring it to MY 'SPEC'

If the transfer is Mac to Mac you can use firewire target mode for the old computer. Apple then supplies a utility that copies files, settings and applications and sets everything up with the exact same structure as the old computer. I had a new Mac up and runnning with all of my old files in place in about 2 hours. Another reason for having a Mac.

I have to reply to the person who said a 2GB SD card was "cheap" at $120 U.S.
That is anything but cheap. I have a custom designed 500GB LaCie drive that comes with it's own built in file transfer software for Windows and MAC. That was about 30 something cents a Gigabyte (if you calculate)
So what's so cheap about 2BG for $120?

My U2 iPod (20GB) has served me well for transferring files. The nice high speed of USB 2.0 made things very easy when setting everything up on a new laptop. Every now and then, if I'm doing some relatively major work on the PC, I'll back up a copy to the Ipod just in case, so that's smooth.

I transfer data all time time on client computers. They have a hardware crash, but all the pics are on the old drive.

The fastest way I have found is to slave the old Hard Drive with the new one and transfer the data to a new folder on the new hard drive.

That also recovers the emails, folders and address books that are of equal concern to recover.

Typically it takes less time that waiting on slower USB or network transfers.

Be sure to scan the drive FIRST before putting old data on a new drive!

The slave the drive idea is great if you already need to crack the case anyway. I recently used this technique when my machine gave me warnings that a hard drive failure was imminent. Just be sure and factor in the physical labor time to actually open the case, hook up the new drive etc into the equation. I also recently transferred 14 gigs of mp3's over my wireless LAN to my new laptop which took an hour or so but I simply timed it out so I did it during a period when I didn't need my computers for a bit. If someone is buying an additional computer as opposed to a replacement the LAN idea looks pretty good compared to tearing everything apart and putting it back together just in the name of file transfers.

Just one redneck's opinion.

With one addition this is the method I have used without too many problems. That one addition is backing up everything in zip files on CD-ROM. I use CD-R's because of the price per MB. I also wrote a program to help identify system files that are new on the new system and can be deleted from the old.

You said,

"The only thing that you must remember when doing this is that all of your data that you coppied to the new computer will probably cary the "Read Only" attribute.
To correct this, you must sellect all in each directory, then do a right-click, find properties, and un-check read-only. Choose the "apply to all" option and click OK or apply."

Easy to forget that. Then, every time you try to open one of the transferred files, Winders will pop up and ask you if you want to open the "read-only file xyz" and you think, "how did that happen?" (we quickly forget, don't we!)

I recently purchased a new HP Windows XP Media Edition system. My 3 year old Dell was dying and I wanted to quickly and simply transfer my files from the old computer before it quit altogether. I ordered IntelliMover by Detto Technologies with some doubt, but it performed beautifully. I was able to pick and choose what I wanted to transfer and the whole process took under 3 hours to complete and I have a very large media collection. All my photos, music, email, files, folders, games etc. - everything I wanted and nothing I didn't - transferred over without a glitch. Instructions are easy to understand and even easier to implement. I highly recommend this product for people who havent the first clue how to transfer from one computer to another or for those who want the job done quickly and efficiently.