Number 212 - January 2001
Copying Files From One Computer To Another
from Jennifer Fulton's Click! Computing Coach column
Q. "I bought another computer, and I need help transferring stuff over -- things like my list of favorites. Is there an easy way of transferring these things?" --iVillager katana79

    A. If your old PC doesn't have a Zip but the new PC has an external Zip drive, then unplug it from your new PC and into your old PC (typically where the printer plugs in) and run the installation disk to install the Zip drive. I know this seems silly since you're not keeping your old PC, but a Zip disk can contain a lot of your data, possibly all of it, so it's worth the trouble to move it from the new PC to the old one temporarily. If your new PC has an internal Zip drive, I'd skip this idea. If your new PC doesn't have a Zip drive at all, it might be worth it right now to buy an external (parallel) one, install it on the old PC, and use it to transfer files. Then you can install it on the new PC, copy your files, and have a really neat way to back everything up.

    To back up my files, I keep them all in the My Documents folder (or subfolders within My Documents), and then I just periodically drag that folder to my Zip disk. It'll ask you, "Hey, there's already a My Documents folder here -- do you want to replace it?" and you say, "Yes-sir-ee!" and it just copies everything over, and in a few minutes, you've got a backup. Easy as pie.

    Someone mentioned the potential problem when copying files of creating a Favorites folder within the Favorites folder on your new PC. To avoid this error, just drag the copy from the Zip drive or floppy disk to the Windows folder. You'll get the same message I described above, so just reply Yes to replace it, which really means, "Only replace files that are the same with these, because these are newer" In this case, you won't duplicate any files, but you will create new ones if they aren't on your new PC yet. But you won't end up creating two Favorites folders this way.

    Now, if you really hate the Zip idea, you can transfer files from one computer to another with a null-modem cable. The cable attaches to the serial ports on both PCs. Then you use HyperTerminal or some other terminal program you can get from the Internet to transfer files. The terminal program will "connect" you to the other PC, and you can "download" the files from the old PC to your new one, just like we used to do back in the days of BBSs. Your local computer geek1 can sell you the cable and provide the how-to's if you interested, or I can help if you want; just leave me a message on the Troubleshooting message board (http://boards1. ivillage.com/ cgi-bin/ boards/ cotrouble shoot).2
1 Your local computer store probably carries, or can get, null modem cables. Several of our members can make one for you.
2 Jennifer is no longer there, but the files are.
TOGGLE Editor's Notes:
    Speaking of ZIP
    If you are a beginner, you may not know the distinction between a ZIP drive and a ZIPped file. The ZIP Drive is a special high capacity (100 MB or 250 MB) disk drive (hardware) manufactured by IOmega. However, there are also several file compression (archiving) programs (software), the most popular of which have the extension .zip. They come in various versions from Phil Katz's DOS-based PKZIP (version 2.04g) through several Windows-based programs WinZIP, ZipMagic, etc. What these programs do is compress your files into much smaller packages which take much less disk space to store. They are an outgrowth of programs that were originally conceived in the 1980s as archiving tools to store data files and programs in greatly compacted form. In an era when low speed telephone modems and costly fees prevailed they became a popular way to transfer files across the miles since it took far less time to transfer zipped files than to send the same files over the phone lines in their uncompacted form. Whether the transfer is by null modem, floppy, Zip disk, or telephone modem, compact (ZIPped) files is a popular way to go.

    It may be possible, for example, to compress all the files in one directory, C:\LETTERS say, into a single file, LETTERS.ZIP on a floppy disk, or almost certainly a single ZIP Disk. Then, create a C:\LETTERS directory on the new computer and copy LETTERS.ZIP from the appropriate removable disk drive into that directory. Then load the appropriate ZIP program suite onto the new computer. and UNZIP the file LETTERS.ZIP and Voil`a! your LETTERS directory has been transferred. You can then safely delete the LETTERS.ZIP file, from both the new computer's hard drive and the floppy or ZIP disk. The floppy or ZIP disk can be re-used to transfer more files, unless of course, you want to use them as back-up copies.

Yet Another Way
    "There's more than one way to skin a cat", as the saying goes. The are several other file compression/archiving programs, but zipped files are by far the most prevalent. Stick with them for the present. However, our librarian also has another favorite, a Freeware program called HJSPLIT which will allows you to spread a very large file, including a ZIP file, over several floppy disks, copy their contents to another computer and then reconstitute the file. This can also be applied to a group of several files which are too large for a single floppy disk to contain.

    Your User Group also has its resident experts, (we don't call them geeks--not to their faces anyway), who have agreed to make themselves available to help other members. Check out the Help Line on page 11 of the hard copy of the TOGGLE newsletter as well as on our website at Help Line.
  Number 212 - January 2001