I just got a new laptop and am giving my old one to a friend. I am too lazy (or busy with two babies) to sit and transfer anything and everything that I might want. I already transferred the necessary items and don't want to bog down the new one with all the old unnecessary stuff, but as I am somewhat of a novice, and don't know what I actually will need down the lines. So, I would like to copy the entire thing so that I can access the info when and where I need it or want it. Would I be better off getting an extenal hard drive, a removeable flash drive, or (I would need help with this one) partitioning a portion of my desktop (which I only use to commect the printed and rounters to) and copying the entire c drive to it? Is that last one even possible????
DO they both have a network card in it? If yes then you just need a Cat 5e cable to join then. It will cost you very little and you can copy everything to your new computer very fast.
if you do connect them together with CAT5 cable make sure you get a crossover cable and NOT a CAT5 patch cable, leart that the hard way
I don't want to put everything on my new one, just want to be able to access it if necessary at a later date. BTW both are networked to the desktop.
Then put your folder on sharing in one laptop and map that folder from another laptop. copy all the stuff you want to!
I want to thank you for all your help. However, i don't think I explained my issue clearly enough. Here it is. I just got a new laptop and want to keep it as clean as possible for as long as possible. I normally would just keep my old one with all its programs and files on it in the closet and when I needed something off it I could just access and transfer it then. Unfortunatly, I offered it to a friend who wants it. So, here is my issue..........I would basically like to "keep" my hardrive somwhere so that when I need something off it I can get it without having to copy everything over to the new one and cluttering it up. The two/three options that I have come up with are 1/2) external hard drive/removeable flash drive or 3) somehow partitioning off a new drive on my desktop and copying it there (would that mess up my desktop?). I don't know which one is the best soloution or if there is a better solution out there that I don't know about. Sorry for the novel. Thanks
What are the things you want to copy from your old laptop? Music, Videos, General Doccuments? Or do you want to transfer your programs? Transfering programs is not a good thing to do because you will end up troubleshooting them. Its always best to install the programs again. You can also burn a DVD to copy your stuff, which is the cheapest way if you have a DVD writer. Depends how you arrange them but according to me "No it would not mess up your desktop". If you are talking about space then Zip them.
for me, i would prefer option 3, you may want to check out this their Disk Director has everything you could ever need (and it cheaper than Partition Magic) although if your using XP your better using dskmgmt (i think thats right) but dskmgmt can't change the size of a partition
