Backup and storage before switching computers

RacyRed

Hi,

Apologies first as I'm guessing this is already on here somewhere but I've gotten nowhere fast searching for it.

My aged parent has upgraded his computer and I'm "helping" set up the nw one - ie the blind leading the blind

He wants to keep his documents, favorites and settings but, never having done a backup before in the 10 years he has had his computer, we have just discovered that his 1gb memory stick is too small to copy the backup onto and I cannot get his DVD drive to write to the DVDs (possibly wrong disks - I cannot work out what kind of drive he has). We have just under 6gb of info to store.

Online storage seems the best short term solution if it will be possible to load from one computer then, if ncessary, restore to the new one. But what would be best to use in this situation?

Or is there an easier way to do this?

I hope someone can help us.

Thanks

bat999

RacyRed wrote: »

Online storage seems the best short term solution if it will be possible to load from one computer then, if ncessary, restore to the ...

I don't think that online storage is a good idea for 6GB of data. It will take a long time to upload it.
Find out about the DVD writer and buy some of the correct discs.

RacyRed

bat999 wrote: »

I don't think that online storage is a good idea for 6GB of data. It will take a long time to upload it.
Find out about the DVD writer and buy some of the correct discs.

Ok thanks. It might be worthwhile then getting an external hard drive for his backups

basmic

Assuming he is running XP on the old computer:-
Start menu > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance (you might not see this, if not continue to the next step) > System > Hardware > Device Manager > Press + next to DVD/CD-ROM drives and list all the drives here.

For a backup, I would definitely recomend an external harddrive. DVDs will give you both confidence about the security of your backup, knowing you have two copies if one should fail.

If you can burn to DVD, always choose the slowest write speed available to you, and if possible choose DVD+R media as they have a better error correction management system than DVD-R media - meaning even more confidence!

closed

Split the data into six 1GB folders, transfer 1 by 1, or network the 2 pc's

DVardysShadow

closed wrote: »

Split the data into six 1GB folders, transfer 1 by 1, or network the 2 pc's

Agree with networking, it probably will be least hassle overall. Probably the reason OP cannot write DVD is that the drive is either a CD only drive or it is read only.

RacyRed

Hi,

I found the right drive at last but then hit a problem with there not being enough memory to compress the files.

Gave up and bought an external HD - backup working as I type. I'll do DVD backups from the new computer.

Many thanks for your help and advice

googler

You could have saved the cost of the external drive by

Installing the HDD from the old computer as a secondary internal HDD in the new computer, then copying data from the old drive to the new one.