Can I get me some five-dollar tech support?

February 26, 2006 11:09 AM

I have an old Dell PC (Optiplex GX1--"Opti" for "the eye," and "plex" for the . . . oh, never mind), and bought a new Dell. I'm trying to transfer files from old to new, but I think the lack of a hi-speed USB port in the old Dell is hindering my experience (more inside--really!).

I bought a USB Linking Cable from Radio Shack, and it included software to make the transfer easier. After installing the software on both PCs, it appears the new one is good-to-go, but the old one can't use the USB-USB Bridge Cable.

FWIW, here's some of the other stuff I have at my ready:

1. Linksys wireless router (for a third computer--laptop)
2. CDRW with burner (old PC)
3. ZIP drive

I'm not wedded to using the USB to USB method, if there's a better one out there. I don't have a ton of stuff to transfer--some Office docs, photo software, iTunes, and Quickbooks. For extra bonus points, answer me this: When I transfer my e-mails from Outlook Express (old PC) to Microsoft Office Outlook (new PC), will it work?

(May your own personal God bless all ye who care to help me).

posted by Kibbutz to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Seems that your old dell was sold with Win98 and that doesn't support USB unless you are running Win98SE. Right click on my computer and go to properties, that should tell you what version of Windows you are running. Did the installation really complete on the old system? Go to the hardware manager (my computer, properties) and see if your usb port shows up.
posted by Ferrari328 at 11:23 AM on February 26, 2006

The optiplex should have built in ethernet, so why not do the transfer over the network?
posted by b1tr0t at 11:27 AM on February 26, 2006

If they both have an ethernet card, by all means use that. Is the Linksys a hub/switch? If yes, hook them both into that, give them both IP addresses on a private network space (like, 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2), and copy away with Windows file sharing.

If the Linksys is not a hub/switch, get a crossover ethernet cable, hook the ethernet cards directly to each other, and do the same (if there were an auto-sensing ethernet port on either machine, you might not need the crossover cable, so you might try it with a regular cable first, if that is all you have).
posted by teece at 11:39 AM on February 26, 2006

Apologies for not using html, as I can't ever remember how to do it, but are you using the file and settings transfer wizard?

There are a number of ways to do it using this utility. Directions can be found for some of these methods at the site below.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/crawford_november12.mspx
posted by jefeweiss at 11:41 AM on February 26, 2006

Helpful information, both of you. Many thanks. Another concern I have is that the old Dell is achingly slow, due to what I think may be some spyware/malware buried deep within. I run AdAware, but to no avail.

If I transfer my files en masse, will I just be bringing problems from the old PC to the new one? I'm not sophisticated enough to pick-and-choose files, if that isn't already painfully apparent, so would it be better to move 'em on over, and then delete stuff I don't want/need?
posted by Kibbutz at 11:43 AM on February 26, 2006

Thank you, too, jefeweiss.

Here's another stoopid question: Once the files are on the new PC, will they still be on the old one, too?
posted by Kibbutz at 11:45 AM on February 26, 2006

Oh, this page is linked from the page above and has a lot more detailed instructions.

Hopefully the link
posted by jefeweiss at 11:45 AM on February 26, 2006

The files will remain on the old PC using this method, any adware would stay on the old computer. If you have a virus it's possible it might go along to the new computer, it's probably a good idea to make sure your virus checker is up to date and do a complete scan before you run the wizard.
posted by jefeweiss at 11:46 AM on February 26, 2006

teece--I think I'm following your recommendations as we speak--thank you.
posted by Kibbutz at 11:47 AM on February 26, 2006

Another suggestion would be to install the hard drive from your old computer as a slave in your new system, provided that you don't already have two internal hard drives.

That way, you have access to all of the data on the original drive without having to copy it over to the new drive. The only downside to this is that you would not have a hard drive for the older machine.

Here's a nice article from Microsoft that lists how to add a slave drive to your computer. (If you know a geeky neighborhood kid, offer to throw him $20 if s/he will do it for you in the event you want to keep your hands clean).

If you think that the old system is infested with malware/spyware, I would recommend running scans after connecting it to your new system. Newer system means faster scans, and access to better spyware tools.

You'll want to run the following scanning tools on the new machine:

1. Ad-aware. Download the latest version from here, and make sure to update the definition files.

2. Spybot. Download the latest version from here, and make sure to update the definition files.

3. Microsoft Anti-Spyware/Windows Defender. Download the latest version from here, and update to the latest definition files.

4. TrendMicro Online Scan. Online spyware scanner you can access here.

5. Webroot Spyware Sweeper. This is a commercial program, but they used to offer a free 15-day trial of the full version of the software. You can uninstall after cleaning your system to avoid the registration nags. Download from here.

If you do a search on AskMefi for spyware, I'm sure you'll find other applications as well. As someone who recently worked in a helpdesk responsible for 2000 remote computers, I can tell you that these 5 programs were some of the best ones that I found.
posted by Jim T at 12:08 PM on February 26, 2006

If it's a new Dell, the HD is probably SATA, the old prob. IDE, so plunking it in the new machine won't work, although there are adapters.
posted by words1 at 12:23 PM on February 26, 2006

If you don't mind opening the old machine but aren't comfortable opening the new one you just bought, you could get a USB hard drive enclosure. It would make the old HD an external drive you can plug right into one of the new one's USB ports.

As an added bonus, at some later date you can swap the old drive (which is probably small) with a newer one and have a nice big cheap external drive.

You could also get a plain IDE to USB adapter slightly cheaper.
posted by Pryde at 2:37 PM on February 26, 2006

Regarding your email, you have to jump through some hoops, none too small and none set very high.

First, you need to move your OE mail to the new machine.
Here's a Readers Digest version of that process.

After you're receiving mail in OE on the new machine, use the Import/Export... function on the File menu in Outlook to import the OE mail. It will pick up the OE settings you created earlier.
posted by disclaimer at 5:11 PM on February 26, 2006

As of today, you're all in my will. Thank you very much!
posted by Kibbutz at 5:24 PM on February 26, 2006