Connecting Computers Question
 

My roommate and I are on the school network together, and he's trying to transfer his hard drive to my computer so that he can re-install Windows XP (Downgrading from Vista). What's the easiest way to do this? To be able to transfer files between our two computers? A program like Soulseek or something? I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing this. We unfortunately don't have a cross over cable long enough to manage that way, so any help aside from that is appreciated. :)

yank drive, mount in the other computer, boot, copy, shut down, replace.

wash rinse.

What Dilbert said, just make sure to change the jumpers if it becomes a slave drive. You could also compress and burn the stuff he wants to a dvd, or send through something like MSN Live Messenger (my shared files). Could be time consuming depending on how much stuff he has. Could also be a good opportunity to get rid of stuff he doesn't really need. You can download free some software like "DBAN- Darrick's Boot And Nuke" to wipe the drive as though new after you save his stuff. I like to do this because it takes out everything, including the old boot sector, so there is less chance of virii if you have a good XP disk.

Mounting it in the computer and transferring through IDE or SATA will be orders of magnitude faster than shooting it across the network. Do as above.

If you're really set on the network route, the simplest is simply right clicking the drive from "My Computer" and selecting Properties, then Sharing. Share it as a directory, and it should be visible to you, if you're in the same domain or work group. Unfortunately, I imagine you're NAT'd with everyone at the University, and you won't be the only one to see it. Everyone will. Could password protect it, but it's just another reason to yank the drive. :)

To make sure no one else on the network can see the drive I would make a cross-over cable. Plug the computers in directly, and set your IPs to a 10.10.10.x (one computer set to 1, the other set to 2). That will prevent having to remove harddrives from either computer, and will prevent the computer from being shared out over a public network for however long the transfer takes, and if the cable is made right it is the fastest way to transfer data over a network.

Time to move a hard drive between cases: maybe 2 to 5 minutes, not counting any desk clutter. Copies fly without the network.

Time to copy each 10GB across 100Mb/s link: ~15-20min. Bleah.

yeah, the fastest way is to move the drive. i prefer a USB to IDE/SATA converter, much simpler if you have USB 2.0 on your system.

Ok, to dissent with above:

Moving the hard drive is a BAD idea, unless your two computers are exactly identical. Everything in your computer is going to be different than his computer, so everything that Windows installs to make the drive work will be right on your computer and wrong for his. Plus, there's no reason that he wouldn't be able to install Windows on his own computer, so it doesn't make any sense to take it out and put it in a new computer. FYI.

Not as the boot drive. As a slave.

you dont boot from the moved hard drive silly. you boot from the original hard drive, then copy the files from the second drive to the first.:icare:

If you are looking to transfer data only, I'd take this as an opportunity to get a backup USB/Firewire drive. Buy a 120GB external drive (100 bucks). Backup all the data to the new drive, use Dariks Boot n nuke (sourceforge.net) on the original drive to do a good format, install XP, put all the data back and then use the external drive for regular backups.
2 birds. 1 stone.

there is no need to destroy everything on the drive, unless you are going to get rid of the drive, then its a good idea.

While I agree with Dilbert that there is no need to destroy all the info on a hard drive before a reinstall, I would assert that there certainly is no harm. Also, depending on the size of the hard drive in question, you could use a program like Partition Magic, or Acronis Partition Manager (or even plain old fdisc) to create a partition on the hard drive, move the stuff he wants to keep there. Resize the C: partition to about 15 gigs, and wipe that with DBAN. Then reinstall Windows on the C: drive. Reinstall the programs you need. This also protects a lot of stuff if you have a Windows meltdown. I have over 400 gigs of hard disk space on two hard drives, and the C: drive is 25 gigs. I have never lost any data, and can regularly wipe and reinstall if I choose, which I do about every 4-6 months.

I rarely use large fonts, but this definitely needs it

NEVER USE PARTITION MAGIC OR ANY OTHER PARTITION RESIZING PROGRAM WITH OUT FIRST BACKING UP YOUR DATA!

It’s just common sense.

And I recommend more then 15 gigs for your primary drive, there are some lame software’s that use the system drive for cache, and some times it’s a massive cache (like burning a DVD) I’d say no less then 30 gigs.

Why again are we moving the drive just so that he can reinstall windows?

so we can copy files quickly and easily with out a network solution.

Truer words have never been said. I speak from experience.

That being said, the absolute fastest way is to mount the hard drive in your computer and put the small jumper as Slave on the HD. You can transfer gigs of data in less than an hour. Very, very fast. I'd just do that. Make sure none of the documents being transfered are in My Documents or Documents and Settings on his computer. Else some rights issues comes into play after the transfer.

Sorry for the quote party, but ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO. DO NOT attempt to copy files from My Documents or Documents and Settings off of a hard drive unless you want to go through HELL to get it to work. Most users won't EVER get it to work due to the extremely complex path of making it work. Move the data to a folder in another directory if there is data you want moved in those locations.

By now a small band of monkeys could have recreated the entire drive's content. :)

So, Gatorade, how's it going?

(tip-toes over to beer fridge while the battle rages...)

i never had problems moving data in my documents! what are you talking about!??? even my computer illiterate family can get that to work. my document is the place where we keep all our stuff. on all our computers. i don't see the problem here.

first off, dont drag drive to drive, place the old drive into a folder on the new drive. second dont use the same IDE chain for each drive, it will be slower that way. use a seporate chain for each drive, it wont double your speed, but it will improve it.

Everything stated above is really true, but honestly, backing up your important data/programs/whatever is common sense whether you use partition software or not. As I suggested earlier, throw it all on a DVD (or CD, as we don't have any info about the system in question). That makes it impossible to lose, and these disks are a hell of a lot cheaper than an external hard drive. The recommendation for 15 gigs on a C: partition is an absolute minimum, as again we don't know anything about the size of the drive in question. If someone is using partition software, has backed up their data (and, I must add, made the rescue disks the partition software prompts), and reinstalled windows on a small C: partition, once they verify the installation, it is a simple matter to change the size of the partitions as needed. Also, there are a few things you want to dig out of Docs and Settings, such as bookmarks for whatever browser you use, and address lists from your e-mail program.

All this being said, I am no computer expert, but through trial and error, I have learned these lessons. My .02 is that if you can do it without opening the case, it's a solution worth examining.

not everyone can easily back up to CD or DVD, personally, it would take 679 dvd’s or 4558 cd’s to completely back myself up.

you can do it with out opening the case, but it takes a long time, moving a drive takes about 5 minutes, and overall will be much quicker then doing it over the network or by burning, further more, cd's and dvd's scratch easily

Whoah! Dilbert! You are obviously a guru and a computer whiz, and I would (and have) take your advice on matters relating to a lot of things. I was simply thinking of the OP, who gave us no info about the systems involved or his level of competence/ comfort with moving drives, resetting jumpers, and such. I have a feeling that the OP is probably not running a server farm that needs to be backed up, but rather a home desktop in a dorm room somewhere. I would guess that a lot of the HD is music and videos, along with a bunch of programs (if he was messing with Vista) that he is trying out. It sounds like there is a bunch of stuff he wants to preserve while taking out the trash, and if it would take 679 DVDs to do it, then the OP's system may not have enough space to help anyway.

Yes, DVDs and CDs scratch easily, that's why they sell a variety of media to put them in for protection. I have all my music backed up, but I don't run from the DVDs, I run music from the HD. The backup is a backup. Same with my programs. I don't run Office from the DVD, it is just a backup. I don't know how you back yourself up, but you obviously have a lot more stuff and capacity than the average Joe.

If you have never moved a HD from one computer to another, or built a system, it can be intimidating. I don't think anyone that has built a system has just intuitively felt the force telling them that this is a jumper, and this needs to be set here. It takes some trial and error. If the OP doesn't have that experience, and I'm guessing maybe he doesn't since the original post was requesting help with a solution that did not involve opening the box (if he had your experience, he wouldn't have been asking in the first place), I was trying to offer some suggestions that were along the lines of not opening the case, regardless of time.

You and I and every other poster's personal preference is not the issue here. Offering solutions is. Let the OP decide which path is best for him in his situation. It could be that opening the case will void a warranty or god knows why else he may not want to do that. I think everyone here totally respects your computer savvy and knowledge, but not everyone is at the same level as you. While it may not be germaine to your situation, please think of those of us that have to look at the "X for Dummies" books when it comes to their systems.

ratman, you are right, after the OP, the poster has not replied to any of the post, at this point, we are all speculating. I expect the OP to ask questions if they don’t understand what I suggest.

and because you asked, I don’t back up most things, only my work, and school work I mirror them across several drives on several systems, everything else I rely on my years of data recovery to recover when my drives die (>95% success ratio)... eventually I’ll go t a RAID solution.