how to transfer data? advice needed urgently!

Kiya

Hi Guys,

Due to problems in the job, with muppets misusing their work laptops, everyones been told to hand over the work laptop first thing monday morning to a dodgy IT crowd for a complete review. (no offence intended towards IT people, i love my IT guys, but this crowd are external eejits)

now theres nothing on the laptop that i need rid of, but i need to keep a record of everything on it. (reports, meetings ive attended etc)

so basically I want to transfer all the data, (emails, docs, everything) from my laptop before monday morning,
just in case it gets "accidentally deleted" like my colleagues did the other day... :eek:

i have a decent sized pc at home that i want to transfer everything onto, with the aim of putting all the data onto an external harddrive (soon as i buy one).

so the question is...

how do i transfer the info onto my home pcs harddrive?
what cables would i need to buy to hook it up etc?
(ive read on the forum that you can take hd out of laptop, but as its a work one, they'll want it intact!!)

and what is the best external harddrive to buy (will be buying it tonight) so all help is appreciated.

Thanks everyone

Sherifu

You can get a crossover cable or buy a 2.5" caddy and put the drive from the lappie into it.

You'll get all that pron off in no time.

RedXIV

Ummm just reading over that, do you NEED to put stuff on your desktop? Just trying to understand but you seem to want all your info from laptop to external hardrive right? well ignore the home pc and buy any external hardrive with a USB connection and just transfer the files? Easiest way i can think of anyway. If i've got this wrong i apologise!

Thrill

Why not just download everything from your laptop straight to the external harddrive when you buy it tonight?

Kiya

thanks for the advice so far..

just to clarify..
I need advice on which type of external hard drive to buy, as im a complete novice

i do want to buy one tonight, but will prob end up buying it online, so wont get delivered til tues probably...

but if you know where theyre selling a decent one, tell me, im near blanchardstown shopping centre.

also i really dont want to go opening the laptop up in case i kill it!

irlrobins

Go to Argos, PC World or Peats in the Blanch S.C. Buy the Western Digital MyBook (the smallest size should be more than enough to backup your entire laptop HD). Info

Connect it to your laptop, then copy your "My Documents" folder across, export your Outlook pst, bookmarks, etc. No messing around with other PC's, etc.

RedXIV

Get one with plenty of memory. they are cheap enough these days. should be able to get 100GB for under €100 or if you plan on using it for anything other than just data, go for maybe 400GB or 500GB. If you're transferring by USB, make sure it has USB 2.0 or it'll take forever to transfer data.

As for makes. all i can say is my Maxtor one went on fire when i plugged it in one day so i'd stay clear of that brand. Western Digital one i have now is brilliant. part of the "My Book" series.

Also, make sure it's compatable with the laptops Operating System. If is says only compatable with Vista and you have XP on the laptop, not going to work.

(don't mean to be dumbing everything down, i'm sure you probably know this, just covering everything in case )

Kiya

brilliant,
thanks a million for your help guys & the recommendations, am gonna leg it to blanch now

and RedXIV you can nevert go wrong by dumbing it down. appreciate it.

i'l owe you guys a pint at the next drinks, cheers

but in case i get stuck later, il have to pick ur brains again

RedXIV

free pint! deadly!

I'm here all night, you need anything, just holla!

(or post, thats probably more practical)

SeanW

If you still want to copy everything to your home PC, you could always use Flash drives (compatible with everything after Win 98 SE), or CD/DVD R/RWs if your lappy has a optical writing drive. Both are cheap as chips.

mudz

What can you do if you're trying to transfer files from a new pc to a pre 98 SE model? I tried to do it today and the old pc wouldnt recognise a usb stick. Any help appreciated.

quaidox

windows 98 doesn't automatically recognise usb flash drives, you need to install the 98 drivers for the drive first.