Getting pics/vids from old pc to new one

JMSE · 08-01-2010 11:49PM #1

My old pc is about 11 years old running on win98, last August I bought a new HP from Harvey and so far, its been well worth it. It came with a 'pocket media drive' which I only noticed yesterday so the thought came to me that its time to get the family jewels off the old CPU.

Now in 1993 when I finished my 4 year stint working on computers with 286 speed, the best way to transfer large amounts of files direct from one PC to another was with Norton Utilities and a cable running between the parallel ports. Not poss on my new HP as theres no parallel port at all nor a serial one. Lots of USB ports obviously, and on the old PC there are 2 USB ports. I tried to hook the pocket drive straight into the old PC but it couldnt find a driver and didnt seem to want to look in the pocket drive itself.

Anyway, whats the latest option, itll be like getting a 1 year old with mensa membership to talk to an 11 year old with demensia.

Thanks, Jim.

RolandIRL · 08-01-2010 11:54PM

if you have a ethernet cable, you could always try setting up a network and transfering data from old pc to new pc that way tho setting up might take a while. you could try burning the driver onto a cd and putting into the old comp.

slowlydownwards · 09-01-2010 01:14AM

First of all kudos for mentioning words 286, win98, parallel port and serial port in one post... been a while

.

whiteman19 wrote: »

if you have a ethernet cable, you could always try setting up a network and transfering data from old pc to new pc.

You can network pc-s directly (without router/switch/hub) using a crossover utp ethernet cable. If networking over router/switch/hub then normal ethernet cable... both of these are cheap to get.

whiteman19 wrote: »

you could try burning the driver onto a cd and putting into the old comp.

+1 on this one, if you can hunt down win98 driver.

If your old pc will boot from cd (likely), you could download linux live cd (ie xubuntu), boot into it, plug in your pocket drive and transfer the stuff over.

If all else fails, try and get hd enclosure (probably 3.5 IDE). This will allow you plug in your old hard drive into your new laptop and copy stuff over.

Nearly forgot... the simplest option... If you have broadband and your old pc is connected, you could back up the personal stuff online (even just send it to yourself to gmail) and retrieve it back to laptop.

RolandIRL · 09-01-2010 01:30AM

Originally Posted by slowlydownwards
Nearly forgot... the simplest option... If you have broadband and your old pc is connected, you could back up the personal stuff online (even just send it to yourself to gmail) and retrieve it back to laptop.

+1 on this idea, though a different website might be better. i tried downloading a few big files from gmail but it took too long. best bet is to use a file-hosting site like megaupload.com or rapidshare.com and archive the files into 200MB rar files and upload them to the site. would be much faster than gmail.
actually the best file-hosting site is gigaup.fr though it's in french, but should be able to figure out the buttons. i think it has a download speed of 1MB/sec for files though not sure of what size file you can upload. don't quote me on this.:D

the_syco · 09-01-2010 01:48AM

Get a cross over cable. Get one for a tenner in Peats, but I'd be surprised if you didn't already have one. Cross-over cable or croos-wire, they're called. Works like hooking up two machine via parrell cable and a null modem box (used it to play Command & Conquer once upon a time), except it's more hassle free. Then you just copy and paste. I know you ca do it with Windows 98, as I did it.

If you have a eircom router (or any sort or router, really), it's even more simpler. Plug both mcahines into the same router, and make the entire drive a shared drive in Windows 98, and access it from the new machine.

dotsman · 09-01-2010 05:39PM

Plenty of feasible options above. Another 1 worth trying is actually take the HD from your old machine and add it to your new machine (assuming there's an available slot). When transferring from my old computer to my new computer a few months ago, that's what I did.

JMSE · 10-01-2010 12:51AM

Bit overwhelmed with all that but am gonna pick my way thru it, if I understood half of it at this minute I could post an intelligent response but i'm not there yet.

I went to Maplins today and the chap there sold me a device for reading removed hard disk drives and connecting to a PC via USB, its a Sohousb Easy IDE thing. So I :eek: took out the hard drive and now theres no going back.

Problem now is that the EasyIDE device came with a 3" cd which has the driver program and user manual on it, but my new PC wont play this cd. So now that I've gone this far down the track, most of the above advice is out the door isnt it. When I go hook the new PC up to the old drive via this new thing, the 'computer' menu in windows doesnt show this drive up anywhere so I cant view the files on it.

Any new counsel????

(slowlydownwards how about these for a few more words from my past, dbase, copy con *.*, inkeystring) control yourself

Nollog · 10-01-2010 01:27AM

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management.change the letter for it to like X or something, and you should see it in My Computer.

Also make sure it's not connected to a usb hub, and directly into the pc sometimes drives won't get enough power form a hub.

JMSE · 10-01-2010 02:18AM

Ok Ive tried that and in disk management as I scroll down thru the disks its there as 'disk 7, unknown, not initialized' so right click, initialize, select MBR, and the result from the Logical Disk Manager is 'incorrect function'.

:mad:

corkproducers · 10-01-2010 02:45AM

Im not sure how you can get it to recognise the drive with that problem,
im just going to offer an alternate solution....

If you can get your hands on an IDE CD/DVD burner, you could install that to the old computer, put the hard drive back in.

Put some burning software thats compatible with win98 on a blank cd, (by using the new computer),
install it, and burn the videos on the old computer using the software.

fuelinjection · 10-01-2010 03:16AM

Forget all the complicated stuff and join the USB revolution.

You can buy a 32gigs (32G) USB memory stick. I bought mine in Poland for 20 euro.
Your old laptop cannot have much more than 32 gigabyte of data to move ?

And if the laptop has no USB ports then you can get adapters from www.amazon.ie

JMSE · 10-01-2010 03:50AM

fuelinjection wrote: »

Forget all the complicated stuff and join the USB revolution.

You can buy a 32gigs (32G) USB memory stick. I bought mine in Poland for 20 euro.
Your old laptop cannot have much more than 32 gigabyte of data to move ?

And if the laptop has no USB ports then you can get adapters from www.amazon.ie

thats a runner alright......if i hadnt taken the hard drive out

no but I tried a USB stick earlier, plugged it in and nothing, neither from me nor the computer

fuelinjection · 10-01-2010 04:06AM

JMSE wrote: »

thats a runner alright......if i hadnt taken the hard drive out
no but I tried a USB stick earlier, plugged it in and nothing, neither from me nor the computer

Ok I had the same problem with me old Toshiba Windows 2000 laptop. Booted up with Unix from the CD-drive and am able to copy files onto the USB but I think I was lucky in what was still working on Dos. Do you know anybody thats good at computers - they might get it working at Dos level so you can copy files onto the USB memory stick ?

fuelinjection · 10-01-2010 04:09AM

JMSE wrote: »

thats a runner alright......if i hadnt taken the hard drive out

sorry just read your quote about you already taking the hard drive out.
My brother bought something in Maplins (SATA hard drive interface) and was able to insert his old hard drive into his new laptop's spare hard drive slot. Again someone thats done this before will be more help.

Bob Z · 10-01-2010 11:44AM

dotsman wrote: »

Plenty of feasible options above. Another 1 worth trying is actually take the HD from your old machine and add it to your new machine (assuming there's an available slot). When transferring from my old computer to my new computer a few months ago, that's what I did.

But would his new computer 'see' it if wasnt formatted

JMSE · 10-01-2010 01:27PM

finally found the manual online in pdf, it says

This Easy IDE is driver-free for Windowsâ ME? Windowsâ2000? WindowsâXP and Mac OS,
you don’t have to install any driver or jumper setting just connect a device directly. Windows will
automatically detect and install all related programs in system’s driver database, then a "Local
Disk " icon will appear on “My Computer” windows.

The driver is loading ok when i plug into my usb port, device ready to use, its not showing though in 'my computer'.
In 'disk management' the drive shows up as.............
Disk 7
Unknown
2044.00 GB
Not initialized
2044.00 GB unallocated

Reminder, this is a 10 year old 30GB hard disk full of files, no need to format this.

slowlydownwards · 10-01-2010 02:10PM

ok, few stabs in the dark:

- try a different usb port.
- try relocating or even removing jumper at the back of the old hd.
- that hd needs to be powered from the mains, via adapter. No way that usb can power it (the way some 2.5 disks can be powered).
- could you try the whole thing on a different pc? (where there is a good neighbour, there is a way) :P

General precaution: Since the drive is that old go about very gently with it. A mild knock may kill it. Also try and not make contact with circuitry under the hd, especially when it's powered (but you knew all this already

).

<edit> And DON'T format it!!!

dotsman · 10-01-2010 02:13PM

Bob Z wrote: »

But would his new computer 'see' it if wasnt formatted

The drive will have been already formatted (as it was in use)...

JMSE wrote: »

finally found the manual online in pdf, it says

This Easy IDE is driver-free for Windowsâ ME? Windowsâ2000? WindowsâXP and Mac OS,
you don’t have to install any driver or jumper setting just connect a device directly. Windows will
automatically detect and install all related programs in system’s driver database, then a "Local
Disk " icon will appear on “My Computer” windows.

The driver is loading ok when i plug into my usb port, device ready to use, its not showing though in 'my computer'.
In 'disk management' the drive shows up as.............
Disk 7
Unknown
2044.00 GB
Not initialized
2044.00 GB unallocated

Reminder, this is a 10 year old 30GB hard disk full of files, no need to format this.

...However, the question is "what format is that drive?". That seems to be the issue here. Not quite sure what the 2044.00 GB (2 Terabyte) error is about, are you sure that it does not read 2044 MB? If so, that would possibly indicate a FAT16 format. Do you know if this drive has been compressed in anyway on the old machine?

You have not mentioned what operating system you have on your new machine. Is it XP, Vista or 7? I'm assuming NTFS, but you will need to confirm (The Properties tab when you right-click on a drive will tell you).

P.S. You can easily slot the drive back in the old machine at any time.

JMSE · 10-01-2010 03:12PM

Definitely giving 2044.00 GB and not MB. I dont know about the FAT16 format. I've been using the drive since '02 and wasnt compressing files in those years if thats any help, only using it to store the family pics and vids.

The new pc is using Vista.

Thanks for indulging me this far.

Bob Z · 10-01-2010 03:46PM

dotsman wrote: »

The drive will have been already formatted (as it was in use)....

On my pc the hard drive has to formatted again

JMSE · 10-01-2010 07:01PM

Dang, a full day wasted on that drive. Gave up in the end and hooked the reader into THE OTHER hdd that was in the old machine.

Bingo, windows picked it up straight away automatically, assigned it a drive letter, and there the whole lot was for me to get busy with.

Just for info the drive that did nothing was a Seagate 30Gb, the good one was a Quantum Fireball. The pc was second hand so the previous owner might have used the second one for backing up stuff, cant say for sure.

Thanks for the digouts.

corkproducers · 10-01-2010 09:25PM

JMSE wrote: »

Dang, a full day wasted on that drive. Gave up in the end and hooked the reader into THE OTHER hdd that was in the old machine.

Bingo, windows picked it up straight away automatically, assigned it a drive letter, and there the whole lot was for me to get busy with.

Just for info the drive that did nothing was a Seagate 30Gb, the good one was a Quantum Fireball. The pc was second hand so the previous owner might have used the second one for backing up stuff, cant say for sure.

Thanks for the digouts.

Is there a clicking sound when the PC is trying to access the dodgy drive?
A different click to the usual sound you hear when its reading files.

Its a repetitive sound, with the same time gap in between each click, repeated over and over.

If so, then there may still be hope to recover the files, by placing it in a Ziploc bag, and throwing it into the freezer for 24 hours.

If you google recover broken hard drive freezer, you'll find instructions how to do it, they say if it still clicks while its thawing, try hitting the drive off the table gently, or with a screwdriver or something.

If the files are really important, you could always pay a data recovery company to recover it, but it is fairly expensive.

Nollog · 11-01-2010 12:27AM

Oh, nevermind.
I must have skipped a few posts. :z

xp can have issues reading a master fat16 drive, which might explain why the other drive worked.

Getting pics/vids from old pc to new one

Comments