HELP required, New Computer.

[jumar]

Hi, Ordered a new Toshiba with operating system Win 8, who knows the best way of transferring my photos, files and music from my existing Win 7 laptop? Loads to transfer away from a slowly dying Lenovo. Thanks.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

set up a home network between the 2 pc's and transfer that way

 

[GJH]

From the question I assume you don't do a regular backup to a separate hard drive so I would recommend that you kill two birds with one stone.

Buy a USB hard drive, copy all your files onto it and then from it onto the new machine. Then set up a system of regularly copying new and changed files daily/weekly. Keep the USB drive separately from your machine when it is not in use.

 

[BwB]

From the question I assume you don't do a regular backup to a separate hard drive so I would recommend that you kill two birds with one stone.

Buy a USB hard drive, copy all your files onto it and then from it onto the new machine. Then set up a system of regularly copying new and changed files daily/weekly. Keep the USB drive separately from your machine when it is not in use.

Very good advice!

 

[jumar]

Hi and thanks for the sound advice, I,ve just dusted off a box containing a external hard drive I used many moons ago when I had a needed to back up a previously owned Acer, that too was failing, so its back up time, and networking setting up when the new Laptop arrives, anything else I should be doing?

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[jumar]

.

 

[mjltigger]

An alternative to the hard drive is to use An online storage system that can actually back up your files automatically whenever you are connected to the internet. I use Google Drive which costs me $10 a year for 100gb storage and keeps everything synchronised between my laptops and phones as well.

 

[GJH]

I know others will disagree but, having spent a career in information systems, I wouldn't trust my data files to any cloud storage system. Give me networked and/or USB hard drives that I can control and trust myself every time

 

[mjltigger]

I know others will disagree but, having spent a career in information systems, I wouldn't trust my data files to any cloud storage system. Give me networked and/or USB hard drives that I can control and trust myself every time

There are two types of trust . Trust they won't lose it and trust they won't share it.

Knowing a little about Google's infrastructure I know the chance of them losing it is lower than the chance of me accidentally deleting it from a networked drive and the chance that they'll share it is not of concern.. my photos aren't interesting to any government organisation and certainly not helpful to any criminal mastermind that would want to steal them.

 

[GJH]

There are two types of trust . Trust they won't lose it and trust they won't share it.

I agree. I don't trust any cloud organisation in either case

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[mitzimad]

ok can one of you explain why you wouldnt trust an online storage my emails are already being scanned by google as is my every move online ,my photos dont include anything that i wouldnt let my mother see so wheres the problem i would assume their back up is a good deal more sophisticated than mine so plesae explain the problem im missing

 

[mitzimad]

actually if i was part of the security forces i would be starting with any one without a cloud presence

 

[mjltigger]

Mitzimad that's my point and why I'm happy to use online storage. Google already know where I am and what I'm doing all the time anyway so what difference does it make if they can see my docs and pics as well... There are some who believe that this is an invasion of their privacy and the fact that google mines this data for sales opportunities feels creepy. A bit big brother.. I don't see it that way and in fact I prefer Google to have that data rather than the UK government.

In terms of losing the data, there is a risk of course however as you say, there is significantly less risk than if I had it all on a disc in my house which I could / would lose or break. Google's network is geographically and electronically spread and replicated more than once so that an outage in one data centre will usually not result in any permanent loss of data.

 

[Neilfg]

I use Google email/drive and Amazon, but I do not trust them at all, not so much in terms of loosing the content or even privacy, but in terms of relying on them for access to my information and content.

They are private commercial organisations they can change their T&Cs tomorrow or just block my account for whatever reason (mistaken or otherwise). It does and has happened to people, Amazon (http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account)

For piece of mind a local backup that you can hold in your hand is always a good idea. Also as regards OP query, makes moving to a new machine alot easier, safer and quicker.

 

[hilldweller]

i would assume their back up is a good deal more sophisticated than mine so plesae explain the problem im missing

Normally I'm right behind Graham on this. But you are dead right, if an entity like Google can't keep files safe who can ?

You are limited to having internet access and internet speed, not good in the MH a lot of the time.

Google is certainly a big attractive target for any nasty people, as is the internet.

I might just give this a try purely as a backup but not as a main storage medium, internet access can go down anytime.

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[BwB]

ok can one of you explain why you wouldnt trust an online storage my emails are already being scanned by google as is my every move online ,my photos dont include anything that i wouldnt let my mother see so wheres the problem i would assume their back up is a good deal more sophisticated than mine so plesae explain the problem im missing

I don't mind them seeing what I've got stored (if they really want to) but I use cloud storage selectively and ONLY as an additional backup to what I've done locally. Over the years 2 on-line backup sites I've used have ceased trading and yet, in that time I've never had a local hard disk fail. Cloud storage has it's uses, but would suggest it's not your ONLY backup solution.

 

[GJH]

I don't use any Google tracking services so they aren't scanning my e-mails and every on-line move I make. Also, my comments were not restricted to Google.

As Brian said, Internet access can go down anytime. Companies can go bust and can change their Ts&Cs over what they do with customer data at any time (including preventing access unless increased fees are paid). Their security might be assumed to be good just because they are big but we've all seen the stories of big companies being hacked.

As I said earlier, I know others will disagree and that's fine. For me, though, it's an extra point of failure that's easily avoided.

 

[CherryPirate]

I would try looking at the following link for help with this topic

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/transfer-information-between-two-pcs-with-windows-.html

Colin

 

[jumar]

Thanks for all your replies. New computer arrives on Thursday. Might be back.

 

[PhilandMena]

I have two separate hard drives, one has all my pictures and films on (about 780 GB) and the other is a back up of the pictures from the first hard drive. This keeps my LapTop storage to a minimum and a quickly accessible separate storage location and essential files backed up.

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