I want to move a bunch of files from my old computer (a crappy Compaq with all of about 80 MB of space when the hard drive is empty) to my laptop. The problems are...well...many. My Compaq is a tower computer and it was built out of used parts. It did not originally come with any USB ports (I put the USB card in a few years later). I have a portable USB drive, but my old computer tells me I need to install drivers to use the device and there are no drivers for it on the installation disk that came with the USB drive/MP3 player (I think the disk is to install music management software). My email provider also recently underwent some big changes and now, for some reason, I cannot properly upload ZIP or RAR files to emails, so sending my files en masse is out of the question. I have tried alternate emails from different providers - one also won't support loading ZIPs/RARs and the other won't even let me access the site from my Compaq. My Compaq also does not have CD-burning capabilities and my laptop does not support floppy disks, so I cannot depend on either of those. Does anyone have any advice on how I can transport my files from my old system to my new one? Do I need to remove the hard drive from my old computer and somehow hook it up to my laptop? Or must I send files individually? Become one with your computer.

Do you have a network port on both computers? If so, a special cable called a network crossover cable can connect the two computers. Other option include using serial ports or parallel ports. The cables required for either of those connections may be difficult to find. Finally you could remove the harddrive from the old computer and get an external enclosure that will allow connection to a USB port on the laptop.

This may (or may not) help in getting the USB drive working (at the bottom of the page). They seem to work pretty good with the devices that I've tried so far, anyway: http://www.technical-assistance.co....

If both have bi-directional printer ports you could use an old external zip drive. Something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Iomega-Zip-100-... One disk will hold 100 meg so you could copy the whole 80 meg drive to it. Dos and 9x drivers are available from iomega's site.

USB2IDE adapter $8.99 http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?in...

FREE - File Maven or InterLink which is a LapLink derivative of some sort which is also out there and free but hard to find and some more cable info here. Cable info for both File Maven and InterLink are at links at those websites so don't wander off without getting it - it's essential stuff. Lee