A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:33:41 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Can't he do other things while it's happening? Like read
alt.home.repair?

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

YOu can't do it that simply. At best-buy, staples or office-depot,
probalby best buy, maybe all 3, they had a device that is designed for
this. It was only about 20 dollars iirc, maybe 24. It might have had
teh orange geek guy on the label, but maybe not. If you look in the
USB cable area, I think that's where it is. It might have had some
little box in the middle.

When things like this were done with serial cables from one serial
port to the other (very slow, slower than printer ports) a regular
serial cable wouldn't work. A null modem was needed, one in which two
of the wires reversed on their way from one end to the other. (They
cost no more to make than a regular serial cable, but might have been
a little more expensive because there were 100 times as many of the
other ones made. This may not be the same issue USB cables face -- I
don't know -- but at least we hanven't gone backwards.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

No, not nearly, and in addition, there is no way it would get from the
USB port back to the power supply and from there to the harddrive to
power the harddrive. Even an exteranl harddrive, or a harddrive case
(used to turn a plain old harddrive into an external harddrive. Under
10 dollars) for which they would love to be able to use it like you
want, requires a wallwart to power it.

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:33:41 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

Not in my neighborhood.

Make the data hard drive a slave and just copy the data unto the
master drive. Or, burn on a DVD.

Then remove the slave drive.

Stormin Mormon wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

I don't think so. Even if he could, USB connection speed is terribly slow
for that sort of thing.


The better way is to network the two computers. Each PROBABLY has a network
port built in, so it's merely a matter of a cat-5 cable connecting them and
following the steps outlined in the networking wizard.

Of course the instructions are in geekeze, so he'll need the help of a
12-year-old male.

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he has a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte storage offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one machine while
retrieving them with the other machine.

On Tue 28 Jul 2009 06:06:39p, mm told us...

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:33:41 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump them onto
the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Can't he do other things while it's happening? Like read
alt.home.repair?

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send the data
through the USB cable.

YOu can't do it that simply. At best-buy, staples or office-depot,
probalby best buy, maybe all 3, they had a device that is designed for
this. It was only about 20 dollars iirc, maybe 24. It might have had
teh orange geek guy on the label, but maybe not. If you look in the
USB cable area, I think that's where it is. It might have had some
little box in the middle.

When things like this were done with serial cables from one serial
port to the other (very slow, slower than printer ports) a regular
serial cable wouldn't work. A null modem was needed, one in which two
of the wires reversed on their way from one end to the other. (They
cost no more to make than a regular serial cable, but might have been
a little more expensive because there were 100 times as many of the
other ones made. This may not be the same issue USB cables face -- I
don't know -- but at least we hanven't gone backwards.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and allow the
data transfer?

No, not nearly, and in addition, there is no way it would get from the
USB port back to the power supply and from there to the harddrive to
power the harddrive. Even an exteranl harddrive, or a harddrive case
(used to turn a plain old harddrive into an external harddrive. Under
10 dollars) for which they would love to be able to use it like you
want, requires a wallwart to power it.


We have two desktop PCs and a laptop at home, all connected to a home
network via a router. Configured correctly, any of the three machines has
total access to either of the other two. Transferring files between them
is very fast.

--
Wayne Boatwright
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget that the flavors of wine and cheese depend upon the
types of infecting microörganisms. Martin H. Fischer

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:25:39 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Stormin Mormon wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

I don't think so. Even if he could, USB connection speed is terribly slow
for that sort of thing.


The better way is to network the two computers. Each PROBABLY has a network
port built in, so it's merely a matter of a cat-5 cable connecting them and
following the steps outlined in the networking wizard.

Yes, I hadn't though of that or the router (EVen though just tonight
for the first time it occurred to me if I want to have a second
computer, I should network them.

Of course the instructions are in geekeze, so he'll need the help of a
12-year-old male.

LOL, but true.

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he has a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte storage offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one machine while
retrieving them with the other machine.

Isn't that still slow because the email protocol is slow, including
for attachments. I was always told not to email programs for example,
because they are long, but to ftp them to webspace, and then have the
other guy ftp them back down. File Transfer Protocol. There are free
ftp programs if this comes up a lot. (Sometimes urls use FTP without
you're asking them too, especially those heirarchical libraries I used
to see. Browsers seem to have what they need to handle ftp for the
last 15 years or so. But you still need a separate program to access
private webspace with no webpage or software surrounding it. Like
what your ISP offers you. It's like you can put up bookshelves and a
card catalog, to help people get what they want, or you can just put a
book there with an address named after your book, your file. I don't
do any of this. )

In addition, you remind me, it surprised me to find out there are real
issues in emailing attachments. A friend has a Mac and I would sent
to him two files every week or so, one .rtf and one .htm . Each file
had a standard font and a fairly rare one. It turned out, he coould
read the .rtf pretty well, but not the .htm files. And it turned out
his file length was a few hundred bytes shorter than what I sent him.
I think maybe the missing bytes had held the second font information.
I think maybe some special character in the file was treated as an end
of file marker, but I never found out. The problem seemed to get bad
when I switched from win98SE to XP, even though my email program was
the same, exactly the same, still running from the C: partition
(Because Eudora doesn't really get installed in windows. It just has
to sit there)

During testing, I decided to try Outlook Express to send the files.
When I sent the same files to him, and the opposite was true. The
..rtf file was bad and the .htm file was good. Even when I sent the
files to ME and read them with Eudora, that was true.

I thought attachments were always exactly what one sent when they got
to the receving end, but it seems to be much more complicated.

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org

Is he using USB-1 or USB-2.

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a USB-2 card and the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it is close to the
speed of my hard drive.

Freckles

On Jul 28, 8:33*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

From what you've said, the dude has a bigger problem. He is not
making backups. If he were, you could backup one machine and restore
to another. The solution with to get an external hard drive and copy
everything to it. The pick and choose what you want to move between
computers after everything is on the external drive.

However, putting in a small (cheap) network is a better idea in the
long run but doesn't address the backup issue.

If both computers have network cards, use what's called a crossover cable.
this will eliminate the need for the router someone mentioned
Be sure both computers are set to the same workgroup and both have file
sharing enabled

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:27:30 -0500, "Big Bob" wrote:

If both computers have network cards, use what's called a crossover cable.
this will eliminate the need for the router someone mentioned
Be sure both computers are set to the same workgroup and both have file
sharing enabled

Do files to be shared have to be in a certain folder, or maybe the
folder has to be listed somewhere? I've never done this, but I think
I read that somewhere?

As to USB2, wouldn't having a faster USB port also speed up the
flashdrive? Even if it doesn't, I don't assume he's moving the whole
system and I don't see a problem using the flash drive. When I had
dial up, while webpages downloaded, I read my email and my newsgroups.

He can get an 8 gig flashdrive, or a 4 or 2 but the big one isn't that
much more money. They may have 16 by now, or greater. Soon 8 will be
the smallest and they'll be giving 4 away as premiums. Ilike my sanza
flashdrive with U2, I think it is, because data and qualified programs
can both reside on it, and all I have to do is plug it into any XP or
higher USB port and I can run my programs with my flashdrive without
bothering their hard drive. Plus there is plenty room for other
storage.

In article , mm wrote:

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he has a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte storage offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one machine while
retrieving them with the other machine.

Isn't that still slow because the email protocol is slow, including
for attachments.

Email is a silly idea for lots of reasons:

1. DSL and Cable Internet services will download data pretty
fast but they are VERY slow to upload. It will kill you on
GByte data volumes.

2. As you say the protocols associated with email and attachments
carry a significant overhead.

3. Few mail systems accept very large attachments. Gmail is more
generous that most but the limit is somewhere around 10-15MB.

Much better to network the computers:

1. Point-to-point with a cross-over cable. This is the cheapest
option.

2. In a star network with a relatively inexpensive hub.

3. A full network so that both computers can share your
internet connection as well as each others storage,
and maybe a printer or two.

Option #3 is pretty inexpensive these days and offers so
much utility that it's simply not worth messing around
with options #2 or #3.

You can buy a good quality router/firewall and a bunch of
good quality cable for less than $100 and both computers
can share anything. Just do it.

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stormin Mormon wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?


Most folks used to us Lap-Link for the purpose but
it's so easy now with what's already there. Small
network switch or cross over cable will do the
trick. Google "how to share files on win computers",
there is so much available on The Internet now
that I can't get most folks to pay me to set it
up for them, DARN!

TDD

In article ,
"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.


Tell him to buy a flash drive that isn't an antique. 2 gb is nothing
these days. Hell, even Costco has 16 gb flash drives.

On Jul 28, 8:33*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Spring for a bigger flash drive... or something.

Your task should take only a few minutes.

A DVD burns in just a few minutes.
-----

- gpsman

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:33:41 -0400, against all advice, something
compelled "Stormin Mormon" ,
to say:

A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.


He wants a crossover cable plugged into the network ports, and
the hard drives set up for sharing.


So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.


No.


And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?


Not only no, but hell no.





--

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will
have to ram it down their throats.
- Howard Aiken

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:33:41 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

Temporarily install the "source" drive into the computer he is moving
the files TO.

In article , "Freckles" wrote:

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a USB-2 card and the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it is close to the
speed of my hard drive.

You would guess wrong...

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "Freckles"
wrote:

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a USB-2 card and
the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it is close to
the
speed of my hard drive.

You would guess wrong...

Wow! Sight unseen and you know more about my system than I do? Amazing!

Freckles wrote:
"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Freckles" wrote:

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a USB-2 card
and the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it is
close to the
speed of my hard drive.

You would guess wrong...

Wow! Sight unseen and you know more about my system than I do?
Amazing!

He doesn't have to know more about your system if he knows more about
transfer rates.

USB-2 theoretical maximum bandwidth is 480Mbit/s. In the real world,
counting system overhead, packet information, and the like, the actual
transfer rate is about 25-60MByte/s for USB-2.

Your ordinary SATA hard drive (bandwidth of 3Gbit/s) will move data at
around 300MByte/s - about 50 times faster.

Here's a comparison chart (scroll down):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

Stormin Mormon wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Did he buy the flash drive at harbor freight? I know lots of folks think
if it looks the same it must be the same but there is a huge difference
in speeds of flash drives. It becomes very, very evident when you are
dealing with lots of data.


Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

mm wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:27:30 -0500, "Big Bob" wrote:

If both computers have network cards, use what's called a crossover
cable. this will eliminate the need for the router someone mentioned
Be sure both computers are set to the same workgroup and both have
file sharing enabled

Do files to be shared have to be in a certain folder, or maybe the
folder has to be listed somewhere? I've never done this, but I think
I read that somewhere?


On a machine containing stuff you want others to use, you announce to the
network what "resource" you will share with others. You give that resource a
name by which it will be known to the network. That resource could be a
printer or a disk folder (directory).

For example, if you want others to be able to view your
"C:\BadFarmGirlsAndGoats" folder, you right-click the "BadFarmGirlsAndGoats"
folder name, pick the "Properties" option, then select the "Sharing" tab.
This allows you to assign a network name (i.e., "DailyPrayers") to this
folder and set a couple of other options.

Thereafter, other users on the network have the capability of adding access
to this shared resource to their own machines. On these other machines,
you'll use the "Map Network Drive" function.

In article , "Freckles" wrote:

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "Freckles"
wrote:

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a USB-2 card and
the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it is close to
the
speed of my hard drive.

You would guess wrong...

Wow! Sight unseen and you know more about my system than I do? Amazing!

I don't have to see your system to know that the hard drive is faster than the
USB interface.

In article , wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:46:49 -0500, "Freckles"
wrote:


"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "Freckles"
wrote:

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a USB-2 card and the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it is close to the
speed of my hard drive.

You would guess wrong...

Wow! Sight unseen and you know more about my system than I do? Amazing!


He's right. Unless of course, your computer was built in 1982 and the
hard drive is an MFM or RLL type.

But if that's the case, it won't have any USB interfaces...

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:22:42 GMT, (Malcolm Hoar)
wrote:

In article , mm wrote:

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he has a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte storage offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one machine while
retrieving them with the other machine.

Isn't that still slow because the email protocol is slow, including
for attachments.

Email is a silly idea for lots of reasons:

1. DSL and Cable Internet services will download data pretty
fast but they are VERY slow to upload. It will kill you on
GByte data volumes.

2. As you say the protocols associated with email and attachments
carry a significant overhead.

3. Few mail systems accept very large attachments. Gmail is more
generous that most but the limit is somewhere around 10-15MB.

Much better to network the computers:

1. Point-to-point with a cross-over cable. This is the cheapest
option.

2. In a star network with a relatively inexpensive hub.

3. A full network so that both computers can share your
internet connection as well as each others storage,
and maybe a printer or two.

Option #3 is pretty inexpensive these days and offers so
much utility that it's simply not worth messing around
with options #2 or #3.

You can buy a good quality router/firewall and a bunch of
good quality cable for less than $100 and both computers
can share anything. Just do it.

I don't know if it is good quality or not, but OPtimized Cable Company
had Cat5E 100 feet with no-snag covers for 25 dollars, no charge for
shipping, when BestBuys had 50 feet for 38 dollars.

Opt has lots of lengths and lots of colors and doesn't charge much
more for Cat6 either.

I haven't used it yet, to go from the second floor to the basement,
but my needs are small and if it is low-quality, I probably won't be
able to tell.

"mm" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:22:42 GMT, (Malcolm Hoar)
wrote:

In article , mm
wrote:

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he has a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte storage
offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one machine
while
retrieving them with the other machine.

Isn't that still slow because the email protocol is slow, including
for attachments.

Email is a silly idea for lots of reasons:

1. DSL and Cable Internet services will download data pretty
fast but they are VERY slow to upload. It will kill you on
GByte data volumes.

2. As you say the protocols associated with email and attachments
carry a significant overhead.

3. Few mail systems accept very large attachments. Gmail is more
generous that most but the limit is somewhere around 10-15MB.

Much better to network the computers:

1. Point-to-point with a cross-over cable. This is the cheapest
option.

2. In a star network with a relatively inexpensive hub.

3. A full network so that both computers can share your
internet connection as well as each others storage,
and maybe a printer or two.

Option #3 is pretty inexpensive these days and offers so
much utility that it's simply not worth messing around
with options #2 or #3.

You can buy a good quality router/firewall and a bunch of
good quality cable for less than $100 and both computers
can share anything. Just do it.

I don't know if it is good quality or not, but OPtimized Cable
Company
had Cat5E 100 feet with no-snag covers for 25 dollars, no charge for
shipping, when BestBuys had 50 feet for 38 dollars.

Opt has lots of lengths and lots of colors and doesn't charge much
more for Cat6 either.

I haven't used it yet, to go from the second floor to the basement,
but my needs are small and if it is low-quality, I probably won't be
able to tell.

An architect/homebuilder by the name of Tom Tynon writes a column in
the Houston Chronicle. You could probably find the one of this past
week in which he advocates a "booster" tank to go along with a tanked
(in my college days that meant something else) water heater. The
picture showed what looked like a small tankless unit. Said it
provided instant, constant hot water as it somehow signaled the tank
to heat up more water. ??????

Damn, I guess I'm tanked. How this got onto this thread baffles me.


"JC" wrote in message
...

"mm" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:22:42 GMT, (Malcolm Hoar)
wrote:

In article , mm
wrote:

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he has
a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte storage
offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one machine
while
retrieving them with the other machine.

Isn't that still slow because the email protocol is slow,
including
for attachments.

Email is a silly idea for lots of reasons:

1. DSL and Cable Internet services will download data pretty
fast but they are VERY slow to upload. It will kill you on
GByte data volumes.

2. As you say the protocols associated with email and attachments
carry a significant overhead.

3. Few mail systems accept very large attachments. Gmail is more
generous that most but the limit is somewhere around 10-15MB.

Much better to network the computers:

1. Point-to-point with a cross-over cable. This is the cheapest
option.

2. In a star network with a relatively inexpensive hub.

3. A full network so that both computers can share your
internet connection as well as each others storage,
and maybe a printer or two.

Option #3 is pretty inexpensive these days and offers so
much utility that it's simply not worth messing around
with options #2 or #3.

You can buy a good quality router/firewall and a bunch of
good quality cable for less than $100 and both computers
can share anything. Just do it.

I don't know if it is good quality or not, but OPtimized Cable
Company
had Cat5E 100 feet with no-snag covers for 25 dollars, no charge
for
shipping, when BestBuys had 50 feet for 38 dollars.

Opt has lots of lengths and lots of colors and doesn't charge much
more for Cat6 either.

I haven't used it yet, to go from the second floor to the basement,
but my needs are small and if it is low-quality, I probably won't
be
able to tell.

An architect/homebuilder by the name of Tom Tynon writes a column in
the Houston Chronicle. You could probably find the one of this past
week in which he advocates a "booster" tank to go along with a
tanked (in my college days that meant something else) water heater.
The picture showed what looked like a small tankless unit. Said it
provided instant, constant hot water as it somehow signaled the tank
to heat up more water. ??????

One's laptop, other is desk. The old fart is in the nursing
home, doubt he's got any tools.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Oren" wrote in message
...

Not in my neighborhood.

Make the data hard drive a slave and just copy the data unto
the
master drive. Or, burn on a DVD.

Then remove the slave drive.

Good ideas, thanks.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"HeyBub" wrote in message
m...

I don't think so. Even if he could, USB connection speed is
terribly slow
for that sort of thing.


The better way is to network the two computers. Each
PROBABLY has a network
port built in, so it's merely a matter of a cat-5 cable
connecting them and
following the steps outlined in the networking wizard.

Of course the instructions are in geekeze, so he'll need the
help of a
12-year-old male.

An alternative, assuming both can access the internet and he
has a
high-speed connection, is to use the 8-or-so Gigabyte
storage offering of
Google Mail and send the files as attachements from one
machine while
retrieving them with the other machine.

Simply no clue. The drives, he got off the internet, I'm
guessing.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Freckles" wrote in message
...


Is he using USB-1 or USB-2.

I have an XP system and I replaced the USB-1 card with a
USB-2 card and the
speed of the USB drive is very much faster. I would guess it
is close to the
speed of my hard drive.

Freckles

Oh, that opens up a heck of an idea. I wonder if he could
get a free trial Carbonite account. Load everything up. And
then load it to the other computer. Send me the log and
pass. I can then load up to the Carbonite a lot of stuff,
and then make a backup of his stuff.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"PatM" wrote in message
...

From what you've said, the dude has a bigger problem. He is
not
making backups. If he were, you could backup one machine
and restore
to another. The solution with to get an external hard drive
and copy
everything to it. The pick and choose what you want to move
between
computers after everything is on the external drive.

However, putting in a small (cheap) network is a better idea
in the
long run but doesn't address the backup issue.

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:33:41 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?


A hub will do the job. It can be Ethernet or USB. Both machines need
to set up a shared folder and Vista has some security options you may
need to change for it to be visible on the local LAN. If there only a
couple files, a flash drive is the way to go. There may be a
crossover cable that can be used for two computers, instead of a hub.
A USB cable can supply a few watts of power, not enough to power a
typical PC.

On Jul 29, 7:03*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
Oh, that opens up a heck of an idea. I wonder if he could
get a free trial Carbonite account. Load everything up. And
then load it to the other computer. Send me the log and
pass. I can then load up to the Carbonite a lot of stuff,
and then make a backup of his stuff.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

"PatM" wrote in message

...

From what you've said, the dude has a bigger problem. *He is
not
making backups. *If he were, you could backup one machine
and restore
to another. *The solution with to get an external hard drive
and copy
everything to it. *The pick and choose what you want to move
between
computers after everything is on the external drive.

However, putting in a small (cheap) network is a better idea
in the
long run but doesn't address the backup issue.

Or better yet, use the paid carbonite. Upload all of his stuff. Get
his id and pass. Then use it yourself with his payment to you for
helping him being that he just paid for a year of carbonite. if I
refer you I get a free month or something like that.

It's a little slow on the upload, so a small network and a NAS might
be a better solution for him as primary backup.

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:00:40 -0400, against all advice, something
compelled "Stormin Mormon" ,
to say:

One's laptop, other is desk. The old fart is in the nursing
home, doubt he's got any tools.


He needs, maybe, a Phillips screwdriver.


'Course, then there's knowin' how . . .




--

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will
have to ram it down their throats.
- Howard Aiken

On Jul 28, 8:33*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

if they both have ethernet, you can just run a cable from one to the
other. don't need a router or anything. windows has basic networking
built in.

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:31:42 -0700 (PDT), against all advice,
something compelled z , to say:

On Jul 28, 8:33*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
A fellow I know, but never met. He's got two computers.
Desktop running XP, and laptop running Vista. He wants to
copy a couple gb of files, from one to the other.

So far, he's been copying some with a flash drive, and dump
them onto the other computer. It's taking a long time.

Suppose he takes a USB cable, from one computer to the
other. Would each computer show up as another drive, to the
other? Use windows explorer to click and drag and drop? Send
the data through the USB cable.

And what if one of the computers was turned off? Would the
USB cable provide enough power to spin the other drive, and
allow the data transfer?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

if they both have ethernet, you can just run a cable from one to the
other. don't need a router or anything. windows has basic networking
built in.


Thou needest a crossover cable. NIC speakeh not to NIC.





--

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will
have to ram it down their throats.
- Howard Aiken

In article , "Stormin Mormon" wrote:
Oh, that opens up a heck of an idea. I wonder if he could
get a free trial Carbonite account. Load everything up. And
then load it to the other computer. Send me the log and
pass. I can then load up to the Carbonite a lot of stuff,
and then make a backup of his stuff.

You run into the same problem there as trying to email it: ISPs provide *much*
slower upload speeds. Just network the two machines together and be done with
it.

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:57:22 -0500, "JC" wrote:


I don't know if it is good quality or not, but OPtimized Cable
Company
had Cat5E 100 feet with no-snag covers for 25 dollars, no charge for
shipping, when BestBuys had 50 feet for 38 dollars.

Opt has lots of lengths and lots of colors and doesn't charge much
more for Cat6 either.

I haven't used it yet, to go from the second floor to the basement,
but my needs are small and if it is low-quality, I probably won't be
able to tell.

An architect/homebuilder by the name of Tom Tynon writes a column in
the Houston Chronicle. You could probably find the one of this past
week in which he advocates a "booster" tank to go along with a tanked
(in my college days that meant something else) water heater. The
picture showed what looked like a small tankless unit. Said it
provided instant, constant hot water as it somehow signaled the tank
to heat up more water. ??????

Thanks for the idea. This might work for data too. ....OKay, I
googled "data tank" and they come from 1 quart/1 kilobyte, all the
way up to 40,000 gallons/3 terrabytes. I guess I won't know what
size I need until I've started using the cable.

I saw your second post too.