transfering files to new pc

[kuby123]

I want to transfer some movies to a new home built pcfrom an older pc. I bought Detto Intellimover, but it only transfers programs like MS Word, Excel, Winzip etc. I tied putting hard drive into new pc as a slave but pc wants to format hd which means I'll lose all data.
Win xp says to transfer files I need a serial pc to pc cable. Will this transfer anything or just the aforementioned files? also, Is this cable a serial to serial cable or a usb to serial cable? I really need some enlightenment on this. thanks

[Statica]

Hi kuby123:
Some more information on your systems would help us, theorotically there are a LOT of ways to move your data, however it would be nicer if we could give you a solution that would work cheap and fast:
1) Detto intellimover is a reasonable program that wasn't really needed to move stuff like movies etc. However since you already have it, I'll say that it can do it. There are settings that will allow you to move files and not computer settings/programs, these are entirely configurable (for example: http://www.detto.com/imhtmltutorial/tutorial06.html) as to what can be moved. Check out the user manual for more details. OR
2) are they networked? Or are they networkable? (do they have network cards on them)
If they do, the easiest method would be to network the PCs, we can furnish details as needed. OR
3) What filesystems are your new/old Hard drives running? Again, generally speaking, if it is a windows readable format (FAT, FAT32, NTFS) you should not have to format your new drive at all. Are your jumping settings right? Can you verify that your BIOS settings for both hard drives are right?

[kuby123]

new pc hd is ntfs. old hd is maxtor 80 mb in Dell dimension p3 850. OLd maxtor hd was an add-on slave to existing 20 mb master hd. Both old and new pc's are win xp home, not networked. Detto manual is only 5 pages and shows what to do. I started at old pc and when files were listed for transfer, nothing that I wanted was listed. Is this because they were on slave hd? Also detto manual says "in order to transfer any files and documents to your new computer, you must select them on this screen". Well, the files I want are not listed and I dont know how to get them listed. Please help?

[glc]

I'd look at networking the machines - all you need is a NIC card in each and a crossover CAT5 cable. XP has a home networking wizard to make it fairly easy to do. Sure, you can use a serial cable, but it will take a week to push movies across that slow of a connection.

[Spartan]

Networking is probably the easiest, safest, fastest way to do it. I did a little experiment the other day where I loaded Kazaa on 2 machines then on one machine named a file I wanted transfered with a very unique name (something no one else would search for). Then I went to the other and searched and d/l'd it no problem. Finally.....a legal use for Kazaa.

-Spartan