Transferring Files from One Machine to Another

[Guerri Stevens]

I have a sister who has an old computer that she wants to donate to someone, but first she wants to remove anything that might contain personal information. I am not sure I fully understood her query because it sounded to me as though she wanted to back up those files. So there are two parts to her problem, one of which is copying (or moving) the files and the other of which is to wipe out all that information from the older machine so that it cannot ever be recovered. My question here addresses part one: moving the files.

There are some obvious options such as copying them to CDs or to an external drive. But while mulling this over, I wondered about simply copying from the older machine directly to her current machine. And I remembered an old piece of software that I think was called Lap Link. The version I had was DOS and it included a special cable that connected the two computers via their parallel ports. Possibly there was a way to connect the serial ports as well.

I was wondering whether Lap Link still exists, possibly updated for newer machines running Windows and without parallel ports. Or whether there is some similar software that would perform the same function. Does anyone here know?

My suggestion to her was to forget about donating the old machine, take out the hard drive and smash it, then just trash the computer itself in whatever way is permitted by her community. My theory is that laudable as it may be to give the computer to someone who could make use of it, it is not worth her time to figure out all the files that should be deleted, and do what it takes to get them off onto something else, then erased in whatever manner renders the information unusable.

[davidh]

If both computers have ethernet ports, it might not be too hard to beg, borrow, or steal a hub, switch, or router or an ethernet uplink cable and just use Windows Explorer to copy the folders and files over.

However, if both computers have USB ports it might be easier to configure the transfer using external USB drives. (avoiding any network configuration). Small MP3 players for $20 or less and small thumb drives under $10 are available and at 1GB or more will hold more than a single CD and often don't require intalling or configuring any extra software, unless the Windows version is old (Win 98?, Win 2000?, Win NT?).

Perhaps the easiest way to "clean" the old computer without turning it into a doorstop would be to reinstall the OS from the factory installation disk(s), if available. One disadvantage of doing so would be that if the OS was old it might be hard to reinstall all the patches to the OS that had been issued from the mfg date up until the OS "end of life" (end of support) date.

[ndebord]

I have a sister who has an old computer that she wants to donate to someone, but first she wants to remove anything that might contain personal information. I am not sure I fully understood her query because it sounded to me as though she wanted to back up those files. So there are two parts to her problem, one of which is copying (or moving) the files and the other of which is to wipe out all that information from the older machine so that it cannot ever be recovered. My question here addresses part one: moving the files.

There are some obvious options such as copying them to CDs or to an external drive. But while mulling this over, I wondered about simply copying from the older machine directly to her current machine. And I remembered an old piece of software that I think was called Lap Link. The version I had was DOS and it included a special cable that connected the two computers via their parallel ports. Possibly there was a way to connect the serial ports as well.

I was wondering whether Lap Link still exists, possibly updated for newer machines running Windows and without parallel ports. Or whether there is some similar software that would perform the same function. Does anyone here know?

My suggestion to her was to forget about donating the old machine, take out the hard drive and smash it, then just trash the computer itself in whatever way is permitted by her community. My theory is that laudable as it may be to give the computer to someone who could make use of it, it is not worth her time to figure out all the files that should be deleted, and do what it takes to get them off onto something else, then erased in whatever manner renders the information unusable.


Guerri,

Depends upon the machine she is transferring files to. Newer ones only have USB ports, otherwise she can use serial or faster parallel ports to transfer files. Plenty of software out there to do it, just google it. (I used to use laplink, which I no longer have unforunatley).

As for the hard drive itself. Look here:

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

[Guerri Stevens]

However, if both computers have USB ports it might be easier to configure the transfer using external USB drives. (avoiding any network configuration). Small MP3 players for $20 or less and small thumb drives under $10 are available and at 1GB or more will hold more than a single CD and often don't require intalling or configuring any extra software, unless the Windows version is old (Win 98?, Win 2000?, Win NT?).I didn't ask what software is on the machines or whether both had USB ports. Thanks for the info on the thumb drives - I knew about them, but not what they cost or how much they held. If the old computer's drive is small enough, and it has a USB port, she might be able to just copy the whole thing onto a thumb drive, avoiding the need to figure out exactly which files should be moved.

[Guerri Stevens]

Plenty of software out there to do it, just google it. (I used to use laplink, which I no longer have unforunatley).

Thanks for the link - I will pass it along.

I think I still have Laplink around someplace although it is useless now. It was one of my favorite pieces of software. Easy and logical to use. I wonder if there's an updated version? Probably not because of all the relatively inexpensive external devices available now.

[ndebord]

I didn't ask what software is on the machines or whether both had USB ports. Thanks for the info on the thumb drives - I knew about them, but not what they cost or how much they held. If the old computer's drive is small enough, and it has a USB port, she might be able to just copy the whole thing onto a thumb drive, avoiding the need to figure out exactly which files should be moved.

Guerri,

IF both machines have USB and can't use the older serial or parallel port technology, then using usb cables is an option:

"few years ago I bought a cable designed to link 2 PCs using USB. It was cheap, simple and worked well, even under Win98 - and apart from the odd crash and failure to connect it continues to work with XP and between different flavors of Windows. I bought a couple more... But the software that it runs on, which was on a floppy, is almost impossible to find on the web - but it IS out there! "

Look here for the tout:

http://www.georgedillon.com/freeware/pclinq.shtml


Look here for the file:

http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDownload/Prolific-Technology-PL-2301-Driver-1642-Download-24874.html

[earler]

Laplink was a marvel in its time. Today there are better solutions, usually gratis, too.

[davidh]

I didn't ask what software is on the machines or whether both had USB ports. Thanks for the info on the thumb drives - I knew about them, but not what they cost or how much they held. If the old computer's drive is small enough, and it has a USB port, she might be able to just copy the whole thing onto a thumb drive, avoiding the need to figure out exactly which files should be moved.
I would hope that most of the personal data would be in only a few folders, such as "my documents" and "application data" or in folders specifically created by the user that the user would remember having created. Hopefully not more than a couple gigs, unless there be a significant number of media files (e.g. pictures, videos, music). In Windows Explorer one can right click on a folder and look at the properties or whatever to get a rough estimate of how many CD's full or how many USB drives full one would need to make the transfer.

An older OS such as Win 98 would require drivers to access some or many USB thumb drives or MP3 players (basically a USB drive with earphones and music playback control buttons on it).

I've never bothered to price any of the larger USB drives because I have not felt the need. But these days one can even get TERABYTE (i.e. 1000GB) USB hard drives that may be in the neighborhood of $100 (on sale?). That's probably an extreme for most home computer users, but such external drives (TB) can easily hold a couple hundred DVD's (at about 4 GB each). (So you can have a whole library of movies to play on the PC without much sweat. It's easy to convert audio CD's and DVD's (not copy protected) to image files (e.g. ISO files) and play the whole library on demand from the external (TB) USB hard drive. I use VideoLan VLC media player to play such image files.

In case of large amounts of email, in most cases, it should be possible to copy only the email file(s) to become a "mailbox" in a fresh installation of the particular email program's "application data" subfolder , for example, on the new computer.
If this is not satisfactory it might be worthwhile doing a copy of most of the old hard disk files , via network , onto the hard disk of the new machine. Chances would be that the HD of a new computer would be significantly bigger than the old one, such that such a mass copy would not eat up a huge fraction of the new disk. Even tho' such a copy would likely be overkill, one would then have the leisure to delete the mass of useless files so copied when got a "around to it".
With a little configuration of the network (with ethernet ports on both PC's) a simple $10 or so uplink cable (between the 2 pc's) should easily handle all the copying needed with no additonal software besides the built in Windows networking.

[Jeff]

My theory is that laudable as it may be to give the computer to someone who could make use of it, it is not worth her time to figure out all the files that should be deleted, and do what it takes to get them off onto something else, then erased in whatever manner renders the information unusable.

About six years ago, upon receiving my new IBM with XP, my SiL asked for my Win 98 Toshiba for her adult education center students. After due consideration of the laudable I decided that the laptop was too personal and the OS was too old, and threw it under a bus.

- Jeff

[fhaber]

Copying the usual document directories, then deleting the contents on the source may not clear all personal information. Examples: Web shortcuts and passwords, software licenses, company login info.

If you give the machine to a friend, I'd say re-imaging with the manufacturer disk is safe enough. Otherwise, I usually advise either a secure wipe or just physically destroying the disk. A spirited session with a ball-peen hammer is sufficient.

[Guerri Stevens]

I would hope that most of the personal data would be in only a few folders, such as "my documents" and "application data" or in folders specifically created by the user that the user would remember having created.The problem with finding files is that Windows, and I am assuming the old computer in question is running some version of Windows, believes that it knows best where your files belong. I am now running Vista (no, not by choice) and it is the very worst. I set up the folder structure I want and put things where I want them, but somehow it manages to make extra copies elsewhere or does who knows what for whatever reason. And you have to be careful about emptying the trash, too. I am sure my sister would have put data where she wanted it, and I hope that she would have been careful about storing account numbers, etc. on the machine. But then, what about options to "remember me on this computer"? It may remember her, but will she remember that it remembered???? In some cases, the default is to remember, and you have to unselect it.

Don't tell anyone, but I was perfectly happy with DOS. <g>

[Guerri Stevens]

Copying the usual document directories, then deleting the contents on the source may not clear all personal information. Examples: Web shortcuts and passwords, software licenses, company login info.

If you give the machine to a friend, I'd say re-imaging with the manufacturer disk is safe enough. Otherwise, I usually advise either a secure wipe or just physically destroying the disk. A spirited session with a ball-peen hammer is sufficient.The ball peen (or peenless) hammer would be my choice, too. Far simpler and safer.

[ndebord]

The ball peen (or peenless) hammer would be my choice, too. Far simpler and safer.

Guerri,

Some freeware utilities that will protect personal data: Eraser and Hard Drive Eraser look promising:

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/security/fwerase.html