Cedar

I have this dinosaur of a laptop. It's a four year old Vaio with seven keys that don't work, a six GB hard drive, 192 MB of RAM (that's as far as it can go) CD/DVD ROM, etc. Although it does have 2 USB ports, which was pretty advanced for the time. Still runs Windows 98, Pentium III processor.

Stop that laughing. I'm broke.

I picked up another job this summer and am putting the money toward a new laptop. I've already decided I'm getting an iBook. I use my computer mainly for internet and writing, and I'll be downloading music, and the iBook will do that just fine. Don't need all the bells and whistles on the PowerBook. But that's not the point.

Point is: Does anyone have suggestions for efficient ways of transferring my information? I looked at Apple's guide on how to transfer your files over from a PC, but they all require a CD burner, which I don't have built into my laptop. My laptop is my only computer. I was thinking of a USB key, but if worst came to worst, I could email all my files to my Gmail account and store them there (they don't even take up a GB of space) and then download them to my new Mac. I have files in Word and Excel, plus a few MP3s (or they might be .wav files...not sure), and some photos in jpg format. I already have MS Office for the Mac, and yes I know Word can be evil, but I have to use it because of my work.

Thanks!

__________________
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
I am large. I contain multitudes.

-Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Church

I don't really know, but would a crossover cable work? I'm not sure if the mac or the pc would recognize one another though.

__________________
Through counter-intelligence, it should be possible to pinpoint potential trouble makers, and neutralize them.

crony

I'd say networking the two is the way to go.

Redlemon

If your Vaio has an ethernet port, this looks like a good article:
MacDevCenter.com: Connecting Mac OS X to Windows PCs

Or get the USB key. Those are very handy to have around anyway.

__________________
I can't read your signature. Sorry.

quadro2000

Cynthetiq just helped me with this not two weeks ago. I connected a four-year old Gateway running win98 to an OS X PowerBook. I'll alert him to this thread, and see if he has anything to add.

(this assumes that both computers have ethernet ports. And you don't need ethernet crossover cables, just two regular ones.)

First, I used a hub - any hub will do, I used one similar to this one but I'm sure someone else around here could direct you towards a reliable/cheap one.

I took my ethernet line to the internet and plugged that into the uplink port of the hub (to give both internet access - I don't think this is absolutely necessary), then I plugged both the win98 machine and the PB into the hub as well.

Then, I followed these instructions, and they worked perfectly.

Good luck....post and let us know how it goes...

__________________
You have to laugh at yourself...because you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't. - Emily Saliers

PulpMind

I recently did this too... getting all the files off of various friends' computers' I'd been using and getting them all onto my iBook. I tried all of the above/below, so here's my suggestions:

- If you have the desire to get a USB key or external HD (which might be good if you plan on downloading alot of music), then this would be the ideal time to get one, and the easiest way to do it (plug things in, and they should auto detect, wam bam, you're done)
- - Your local computer store may even be able to rent you a CDR or external HD for this purpose..?

- Networking will be fast and easy if you're knowledgable in networking and want to configure all of that... buuut... that ended up being alot of hassle for me (though two Macs is REALLY easy)

- If you can't get an external HD, then, imho, the easiest thing will be to email it all to yourself. Since you have a Gmail account this shouldn't be a problem.. except that Gmail only does one file at a time afaik.. so open a Zipping program on your PC (you can download a "full free trial" if need be), and create a zip with all your files. Zips can be easily opened by the Stuffit program on your new Mac =)

good luck!

Cynthetiq

nice. I don't have anything more to add than what has already been added...

good luck!

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

beejay

I'd go for the networking approach, although everybody that can utilize USB should have a thumb drive.

You don't even have to buy a hub if you have a friend that has a broadband router with a switch built in (it will have five ethernet ports in back of the router).

The router will handle issuing IP addresses to both your old laptop and the Mac. You then just have to share out the c:\ drive from your old computer and mount in on your Mac. Then it's just drag and drop to your new computer!

This may sound difficult, but it's really not. Even if you're not quite sure what you're doing, fumble around a little. You'll learn a lot about how both computers work doing this.

And, of course, you always have us to fall back on!

__________________
Pimps and Ho's - it's this generation's cowboys and indians