How to move Picture & Video ?

[blaze one]

I just got a laptop , there are a lot of pictures(60-70mb) and some video/audio(500+ mb) that I want to copy on to the laptop from my Home PC .
What would be the easiest way to get this done ?
This would be a one time thing , so I don't know if I need to setup up a network , unless that is cheap and easy .
Any suggestions ?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Maybe burning them to CDs and transfer that way. Solves two problems, backing stuff up and the transfer.

 

[blaze one]

that sounds like a good idea , i have never backed any of that stuff up , good thinkin'

But... I have lots and lots of audio ( 300+ songs ) and some of the video is big too . Would I compress it all somehow , and then burn it on the cd ? or does it have to be in "viewing" format to be backed up ?

 

[UncleChris]

depends on how many CDs you want to use.

The other alternative is to use a USB stick.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Like UC says, depends. A regular CD is about 700MB and a DVD is 4.7GB. Compression is OK, but for back-ups I usually don't just so that the CD is universal for all platforms and maybe a bit less chance of getting a corrupted file. My sort of semi reasoned plan is to use archival CDs (personally I use Mitsui Gold CDs) and try to keep the files in something of a standard format (ones like TIFF, EPS, AIFF, MPEG, etc. when possible).

Oh, BTW, the USB stick is a good idea, too!

 

[60seriesguy]

Do what I did, buy an external HD (in my case a 160 gig one that I got at Costco for $99), then transfer everything to it. I keep over 60,000 Land Cruiser pictures and all of my music collection on it, plus another 10K family/home pics.

 

[CLynn85]

If you have newer computers with 1394/firewire ports that's a great way to go as well.

 

[blaze one]

well I think burning them to cd's is gonna be time consuming and costly , So i was thinking , can I just connect both comps. via a network cable and send the info that way ? or would I need some sort of router and prgram ?

 

[Brian McVickers]

Set up a network, it's easy.
I just did it and in my case I have:
Laptop
Desktop PC
Cabel Modem
Wireless Router
Ethernet cable

Set your laptop up to talk with the router wirelessly or by ethernet cable if you need to, then hook your PC up to the router via ethernet cable then just set up a network on each machine and tell them to talk to each other. If you are Windows there is a wizard to walk you through it. Then it's just drag and drop between the two.

And remember that I have no idea what I'm talking about! I think I got lucky that it worked easlily for me, I was amazed!!

 

[edgear]

there are a lot of pictures(60-70mb) and some video/audio(500+ mb)

that should all fit onto one CD-R (most of them nowadays hold 700MB).

Set up a network, it's easy.

most home routers are now "plug-and-play", especially if you're running Windows XP. At home, we've got 1 windows PC, 1 windows laptop, and 1 macintosh laptop -- all on the same network. Pretty easy to set up too.

 

[whitethaiger]

...So i was thinking , can I just connect both comps. via a network cable and send the info that way ? ...

Yes you can. I haven't done it in years so the details escape me now. Here are some hints I seem to remember to get you started though:

- You will need a 'cross over' network cable (~$5)
- Windows XP network setup wizard should help you get it working

Other options are serial cable with null modem (slow for you purposes), see here.

Yet another option I have never tried is a USB connection. You may need the right cable and drivers though

I'd go with a USB drive. The smaller ones (512MB and less) can be found for under $20 these days. The drive may come in handy for data (pictures, etc.) at other times also.

EDIT: just checked, looks like even 1G drives are <$25 see here

 

[photoleif]

posting as reference. here are three ways to move files, listed in order of overall speed of the operation (even if hard drive to hard drive would be the fastest way from a data-transfer perspective).

if you're security-minded and have disabled sharing and such, which makes your network invalid except for letting the router farm out IP addresses, just sign up for an AIM account, then get another one. log on with one ID on one computer and the other on the other, and then just send the files to yourself once you OK the firewall warnings (you do have a firewall running, right, haha). the program figures out that your other machine is local, and you get amazing bandwidth, ie 2500 kb/sec. it doesn't take long to move several gig by this means.

if you have two desktops, you can just pull the hard drive from the source, temporarily plug it into the destination PC and grab the files that way. (do that if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, figuratively speaking, and have something against getting an AIM ID.)

there are also PCI-to-USB2 adaptors that allow you to "see" a remote computer as a drive from the destination computer, essentially making a makeshift network.