How to Transfer Data Between Two Computers

When it comes to moving data between two computers you have several options. If you intend to use the one computer as a backup you don't have to transfer it live. What I mean by live is always connected. The option you use depends on what your needs are. In this article I will show you the different ways of moving data from one computer to another.

Backup Media

The easiest way if you don't need the data as live is to use any one of the many backup media formats. You could do this daily, weekly, etc. Whats available to use as backup media is CDRW, tape drives, zip drives, floppies, etc. When moving large chunks of data of course floppies would not be a good backup source. If you are using CD's than purchase CDRW CD to move the data that way you can use them more than once. Using CDR's would get expensive to use on daily basis. Not too many use tape drives anymore cause they are slow and outdated.

Small office network

You can setup a small office network in your home if your running you want your data to be live. Any changes on one computer would be accessible by the other. A simple network is made up of two computers connected one is the host and the other is the remote. Windows XP makes it easy to help you share data between one computer and the other. You just have to make sure that any files you share have to be placed in the shared folders. All other data is not accessible only what is shared. Whether this data is pictures, music, etc.

Direct connection

This type of connection is setup using a serial or parallel connection cable between the two computers. Using the network setup makes it simple to set up. This is a type of connection to simply transfer data from one computer to another computer. You can use the network setup wizard to also setup this type of connection. Once the data is transferred you just disconnect the cable. Its a cheap way of moving data from one machine to another. Keep in mind though if one computer has a virus you will be transferring it to the other. So make sure your data is clean.

Hard drive master and slave

You can remove the hard drive from the computer you wish to transfer data to and slave it to the other. This requires you to physically remove it and connect it to the other computer. If you use this method make sure you properly set up the pins. Cause the one will be the master and the other the slave. When your done you have to reset the pins back on the slave drive. This kind of transfer is used when you want to fully move data from one hard drive to another. There are programs that make it easy for you. New hard drives have software that comes with it to image your data over to the new. You can use this software when you want to move all of hard drives data to another.

All these methods work just depends on how much data and how often you will be transferring it. Which ever method you choose there is helps and software available to accomplish it.