# Files from one computer to another



## Boss Cooker (Nov 26, 2005)

I am now full time on my xp computer. I have an old windows 98 computer with a lot of files and videos that I would like to access but not load onto this machine. Is there any simple way to hook the older machine to the newer one and look at and the files without moving them to the new one? I don't want to over load this hard drive. My goal would be to have the older tower near by and to turn it on when I need to see something. I have a lot of long videos from BBQ comps. and tower building that I want to see from time to time. 
I also have one other question. I have several older media cards full of pictures. I can view them but need to find a program that will let me reduce them to 600 X 450 for email and such. 
Thank you in advance for any help.


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## Willowynd (Mar 27, 2005)

Why don't you just take the hard drive out of your old computer and put it in the new computer case. I had 2 HD's in my old computer at one time. Used smaller one for back up and storage. Someone else can chime in with how to do it if that is what you would like to do. I am not going to try to explain how to change drives to slave/master, took me a bit through trial and error. It is not hard to do, just getting the other hard drive set right if you have a hard time seeing tiny print is a chore 
For resizing and simple photo editing....for free ...you can try Google's Picassa or Paint.net. I use PaintShop Pro and Photoshop, but still like a simple little freebie to do basics on the fly like resize and crop instead of waiting for larger programs to open just to do a 30 second task.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Your best bet is to get a USB enclosure put the old disk in the enclosure and plug it into the new system.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Seems to me the easiest, cheapest way would be to copy all the files you want from the old machine onto a USB flash drive, and plug it in when you want to use them. You can get 8GB flash drives for $20 these days, and I just ordered a 2GB one for $7 incl. shipping. But it would be even easier to copy them to the new machine, unless that would make it short on disk space or something.

For the images, when I used Windows, I used to use Irfanview for most tasks with images.
http://www.irfanview.com


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

backwoodsman7 said:


> Seems to me the easiest, cheapest way would be to copy all the files you want from the old machine onto a USB flash drive, and plug it in when you want to use them. You can get 8GB flash drives for $20 these days, and I just ordered a 2GB one for $7 incl. shipping. But it would be even easier to copy them to the new machine, unless that would make it short on disk space or something.
> 
> For the images, when I used Windows, I used to use Irfanview for most tasks with images.
> http://www.irfanview.com


With a machine running 98, you may not have USB ports and or drivers.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

Gary in ohio said:


> With a machine running 98, you may not have USB ports and or drivers.


Good point, didn't think of that. But if it came new with 98, there's a good chance it has USB ports; if so, he'll just have to be sure to get a flash drive that comes with a Win98 driver.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Transfer cable and software and done in minutes.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

If the drive from the 98 machine is older than 5 years, you're living on borrowed time - best to move whatever you need/want to a newer drive - either the one in your XP box, a new backup drive or some other type of media.

Having just one copy of anything critical is good way to lose data forever - best to backup.


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## Boss Cooker (Nov 26, 2005)

Thank you for all of the ideas. The transfer cable seems sound. I had a new hard drive installed in the 98 two years ago. To go back to the transfer cable. Would it plug into a usb port as a means to access the data or would a flash drive with 98 ability work better to transfer for later viewing. I don't need to have it all but do want to see some of the stuff.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

Since your drive is only a few years old - I'd agree with Gary and install your old drive into a USB enclosure - the external drive will be quite handy in the future : for backups, data transfer, etc. 



Boss Cooker said:


> Thank you for all of the ideas. The transfer cable seems sound. I had a new hard drive installed in the 98 two years ago. To go back to the transfer cable. Would it plug into a usb port as a means to access the data or would a flash drive with 98 ability work better to transfer for later viewing. I don't need to have it all but do want to see some of the stuff.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

If you go the cable route then you have to make sure you have whatever port your using on both boxes. With one running 98 you may be limited. The easiest and almost the cheapest is an enclosure. You dont need to worry about ide master slave issues, you dont have to worry that the new box might have sata drvies and the old one IDE. You can move the data or just leave it in place with an enclosure. after your done copy all your data back to the older drive and use it as a backup. You can get enclosures under $20 with shipping.


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## Boss Cooker (Nov 26, 2005)

Thank you all for the help. Gary, I will take your advice and get the parts needed to make it work.:clap::clap:


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