jc
"Seems there's just no foolproof way"
on the contrary, there are numerous ways, as have been outlined for you, and they all have the potential for working quite well. foolproof, however, adds a whole new dimension. <g>
you began, i believe, by asking for a simple way to transfer files. you discovered that there are really none that are simple, and that individual preferences vary. things like budget constraints and/or skill level influence each person's method.
i have had very good success using removable storage method described to you in #reply-15182901 . unplugging my external jaz drive and moving it to the second pc and plugging it in is pretty minimal. i had to, of course, install a cable and added iomega power pack, and each pc has a scsi card installed. this set up allows me to transfer either the entire contents of a drive (spanned across multiple disks), or transfer just one file or folder. i also use it to make back ups and to produce norton rescue disks.
speaking of norton, their utility suite, systemworks, has a component called cleansweep that contains some wonderful tools. two of these tools, or programs, are move wizard and transport wizard. as their names imply, they enable you to either move a program to a different drive or folder, or to copy a program to a different computer. these wizards make it entirely possible to do exactly what a previously posted article recommends against doing when it states:
"We don't recommend ever directly copying programs from an old hard drive to a new one because you'll often leave key pieces of the program behind that reside somewhere in the system registry. Without these pieces, you'll find the programs you transfer won't run at all, or at least not as smoothly as they did before. For this reason, you should always reinstall all of the programs you plan to run on any new machine."
all of the suggestions that you have received so far from thread members have been variations of the 4 basic methods outlined in my post. i'll reiterate that in case you are feeling overwhelmed by the choices, rather than to try to learn everything, it may be wise to focus on one method and learn what has to be done to pull that off.
good luck
:)
mark |
