moving data from desktop to laptop

[Steven Avery]

The laptop is a Dell Windows 7 Home Premium, picked up inexpensively.

The desktop is my home puter, but I am in between places, without the FIOS connection.

Is there a way to connect by USB or something (or the old Laplink cables) by just turning
on the desktop.  And then use a file manager to transfer?

Or do i have to haul the whole puter, with monitor, keyboard and mouse, and get it online.
And do all the Dells of the last few years have a built-in wireless?  So that the xfer is reasonably easy.

Thanks!

Steven

[Renegade]

I'm not sure what you mean there.

You will need to install all the software that you want on the laptop. I don't know of any **reliable** software that will do that for you. Perhaps someone else does.

As for migrating data, that's a simple copy. Just connect over your router and copy it.

I don't know if that helps, but perhaps this post may help to bump the topic up where someone else sees it and can give you a better answer.

And do all the Dells of the last few years have a built-in wireless?

As far as I know, yes - they all have wireless built in.

[skwire]

As for migrating data, that's a simple copy. Just connect over your router and copy it.

And, if you don't have a router or switch, you can set up a point-to-point network between your computers using a simple Ethernet crossover cable and copy files over that.

[Shades]

It might even be an idea to get a portable hard disk (roughly the same size as your internal; hard disk. Hook it up to the appropriate computer and start transferring data. This has the advantage that you have a (new) portable hard disk that can be very useful for other purposes (backup ?) after you are finished transferring data.

Although it shouldn't be difficult to get the crossover cable, setting up things always proved less than reliable when I went through that in the XP-era. Perhaps this has improved in the more modern versions of Windows. Never went through that anymore, because now I always have a spare switch (and some UTP cables) lying around for just this kind of problem. Always fast, always reliable and easy to setup.

Moving around a lot of data over wireless connections is never as fast as cables, so if you can get over that inconvenience, this whole ordeal is over in a (significantly) shorter amount of time.

[4wd]

If they're Gb ports, (or even if only one is), more than likely they'll be Auto-MDI/X in which case you can use x-over or non x-over cables.

[app103]

It might even be an idea to get a portable hard disk (roughly the same size as your internal; hard disk. Hook it up to the appropriate computer and start transferring data. This has the advantage that you have a (new) portable hard disk that can be very useful for other purposes (backup ?) after you are finished transferring data.

That's how I did it, with my 500G Passport drive. That has to be one of the handiest things I own, when it comes to easily transporting data between computers.

And you are going to need an easy way to copy the data on your laptop to somewhere else, on a regular basis, for backup purposes, so you might as well get yourself one.

If you shop around you can usually find a 500G one for a little under $60, but Amazon has a 1TB sized one right now, for about that, too (with free shipping): http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Ultra-Portable-External-Backup/dp/B00EAS8M0S/

And if you get it from there, do yourself a favor and spend the extra $5 for the hard shell carrying case to protect it: http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Hard-Carrying-Passport-Essential/dp/B003LSTD38/

[IainB]

I are confuzzled here. Sorry if I have misread something in the original post, but I do not see that there is anything preventing the user from removing the hard drive from the old PC, connecting said drive to a suitable drive carrier, and plugging the latter as a peripheral device, into (say) a USB port on the laptop.
(That's what I usually do, at any rate.)

[Ath]

I do not see that there is anything preventing the user from removing the hard drive from the old PC, connecting said drive to a suitable drive carrier, and plugging the latter as a peripheral device, into (say) a USB port on the laptop.

Lacking technical skills perhaps? Or maybe bravery

[IainB]

I do not see that there is anything preventing the user from removing the hard drive from the old PC, connecting said drive to a suitable drive carrier, and plugging the latter as a peripheral device, into (say) a USB port on the laptop.

Lacking technical skills perhaps? Or maybe bravery
________________________

Oh, I don't know that's right.
The only skills I needed to do that the first time involved the use of a screwdriver or two and the ability to disconnect/reconnect the appropriate bits and pieces, according to the instructions. It was surprisingly simple/easy.
Nowadays it's just a repeatable process, for me.

After plugging in the peripheral drive to my laptop, all that is involved is using Windows Explorer (or similar) to move software files and data files from A to B.
That would seem to be considerably simpler than some of the approaches being considered above - e.g., including LapLink.
I always used to use LapLink to migrate stuff before that.

[Steven Avery]

I'm in good shape now.  I lugged the home puter and terminal and keyboard and mouse into a hotel room and backed up a bunch of stuff to a Passport (it would have needed a USB or internal card for wireless).  Then from Passport to wireless.

Some other issues are floating around, but for now I'm ok.