PC to PC via USB?

[crazynico]

i'm having a new machine arrive tomorrow. my current machine uses 2 IDE drives. the new machine uses a SATA II drive. i'm under the impression that the connections for Serial ATA and IDE are different. i'm afraid i might have a hard time hooking up my old IDE drive to this new machine to transfer data.

is it even possible to take a USB cable and connect one computer to the other and transfer data? sounds almost too easy to be true, but i can connect a USB cable to any other thing (iPod, cell phone, Palm Pilot etc.) and it transfers.

any advice?

[Sterling_Aug]

Spend $40 or so and buy an external USB hard drive enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...SubCategory=92

Then you can format the old hard drive after you are sure you copied all the data. Then you can use the drive as a data backup solution.

[Rocketmech]

Yea its possible , I do it often enough with a USB2 to IDE cable adapter . Your new system will still have an IDE connection for the optical drive , so you can slave the drives that way . Of coarse , SA's advice has great merit as well .

[Sterling_Aug]

But I think nico meant to plug USB port to USB port from one PC to the other PC.

[crazynico]

Serial ATA is superior to IDE right? as long as there is an IDE connection, then i'll try to slave it that way to transfer the data.

quick question. i've read that if you have 2 drives, that it's better to put your swap file on the drive that is not the primary drive, except in the case where your slave is a lot slower than the other.

in this case with primary beind a Serial ATA and my Slave being an IDE, what advice do you have on this?

[Comage]

Well, put the swap file on the SATA drive then.

There is such a cable for USB-USB transfers, but it can get pretty expensive.

I suggest using a cross cable. You should already have network cards in both machines, no?

[parikrama]

Well, put the swap file on the SATA drive then.

There is such a cable for USB-USB transfers, but it can get pretty expensive.

I suggest using a cross cable. You should already have network cards in both machines, no?

I agree by what comage says. I think it is a lot easier to connect using a crossover cable. I brought one of those USB-USB datat transfer cable, and I still figuring out how to use it. APparently I thought it would be something like plug and play..Well, I have to play around with this USB-USB Data cable...

Thx

[crazynico]

can you elaborate on the cross cable? never tried that before.

[RamonGTP]

It's a network cable used to connect two computers directly to one another. If you've got a router/switch than you don't need a cross over cable, you can use a standard ethernet cable to connect both computers to the router.

[Sterling_Aug]

Why is everyone trying to confuse poor nico even more than he already is?

Let him get an external USB drive enclosure, put the old drive in the new enclosure, then copy over his fle, format the old IDE hard drive, then use it as a backup unit.

NO ONE was talking about an ethernet cross over cable anywhere in this thread, nor did nico mention that he even wanted to set up a network.

[RamonGTP]

Why is everyone trying to confuse poor nico even more than he already is?

Let him get an external USB drive enclosure, put the old drive in the new enclosure, then copy over his fle, format the old IDE hard drive, then use it as a backup unit.

NO ONE was talking about an ethernet cross over cable anywhere in this thread, nor did nico mention that he even wanted to set up a network.

No he didn't, but it seems like he didn't really know what or how to do it, hence the suggestions. Just because he wasn't aware of crossover cables doesn't mean we shouldn't suggest it. NO ONE brought up USB enclosures either until YOU brought it up. If it were possible to simply connect a standard USB cable from one computer to another, he'd be effectively creating a network. At any rate, he is now aware of more than one way to transfer his data and he can chose which ever method. Both will work.

[Sterling_Aug]

And if he doesn't know how USB works then the odds that he will understand how to set up a 2 PC network is also nil.

[mireland]

I'll go with sterling on this one. put the old drive in an external usb box, connect the usb box to the new computer, copy the files off that "usb"drive to his other drive and be done with it...

[RamonGTP]

That may be true, but there have been plenty of people asking if it is possible to use a USB cable to connect directly to another computer who do know how to network. I myself at one point wondered the same thing before I kenw the limitations of USB. Afterall, networking has been around far longer than USB has.

At any rate, my point is that there is nothing worng with suggesting alternative methods to accomplish the same goal. It'll give the OP options and he may even learn a thing or two.

[Sterling_Aug]

Fine, let him learn a thing or two AFTER he has his only copy of his important data files copied onto the new drive.

If he screws up setting up the network and deletes the files thinking they are copied when they aren't, then he will be upset at all of us.

Keep it simple stupid. Then learn.