Connecting a PC and a Laptop

The Recliner

Hi

I have an old Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 98 and a PC running XP Pro.

I would like to connect the two so that I could move stuff off the hard drive of the laptop. I would like to see it like a network drive in explorer. I figure I can connect them by Firewire.

Any one know can I do this and will it work?

kenmc

dunno about firewire, but you can defo connect them with a cross over network cable.

quazzy

You can pick up one of these cables in Maplin or Peats.

The Recliner

I appreciate the help guys but the reason I was thinking of a firewire connection is that the laptop does not have a network card and I couldn't be arsed buying one for something I don't use that much.

Someone mentioned before about using firewire and some sort of process in XP which would create a network and I was wondering if anyone could tell me exactly how to do this.

Random

Take the HDD out of the laptop ?
USB 2.0... Maplin have a USB to IDE converter for E32 (I think) at the moment.
basically you connect your hard drive to one end and connect the other to your USB.
I've used one myself and it's pretty fast all things considered.


Or try a USB 2.0 Link cable ? I think they're about E35.. basically plug USB cable into each PC (this is a special cable) and voila... (I didn't think you could do it with Firewire, I'd say it was USB you were told about)

Random

Anything involving USB could be complicated by Windows 98 (are you running 98SE?) ... most things have drivers though

Zapho

I'm pretty sure you can just connect the two machines with a firewire lead. Then look at your connection settings for the firewire and it should say that its connected. Then just work away like a normal network. I've never done this myself so I've got no idea if it works or not but I presume it works. You can use usb if you want to as well, there's plenty of programs on the net that'll work with that. If all else fails you can use the serial port using a direct connection. This is painfully slow though!

The Recliner

Well I have a usb to usb cable so i might give than a shot before I try anything else

I am not in any rush with it just there is some stuff, music mostly, that I would like to move from the Laptop to the PC and I was looking for a handy way of doing this.

Thanks

dubdvd

yes usb to usb works just run them as an ad-hoc network and it should be fine ...

Standard Toaster

The Recliner wrote:

Well I have a usb to usb cable so i might give than a shot before I try anything else

Don't!
You could short the board and risk damage. You need a special usb to usb cable like ciaranfo suggested. Maplins/Peats will have them. Ask for a USB Bridge Cable.

Firewire is an option too.

ressem

Firewire can work, but earlier versions of Windows 98 don't have full support for USB or firewire.
You wouldn't hapen to have Windows 98 Second Edition?

-- edit --
Also you would need firewire networking drivers which you'd have to buy on the win98 machine, like unibrain.com stuff.

Standard Toaster

Looking at my Trust USB Bridge cable here it does indeed support Win98se only.....no joy if your Win98 first edition it seems.