Hi,
I'm listing this here, because many I have talked to on the net, have been having the same problems, so to me, it's worth talking about.

I have 3 computers in different configurations, and while looking for my tons of Ephemera for Frank's post, I realized that a lot of it is on another computer.

That's not so bad, until you remember that one of them only has an A drive to download, then there is the one that has many drives, but your new computer only has the itty bitty USB ports that takes the new small disks.

This turns all my information into a mess.

Has everyone been updating their information?

Have you had to do this too?

I crashed all of my computers at some time or another, and I have some copies, but sure need to update my newest computer with the important information.

Does anyone know of any shortcuts to this method, or do I really have to try to get all of the information from one to the other, to the other, to the other?

Darn, I don't even have any clean A disks left.

I've even been getting my old computer out and going online at 56K and e-mailing pictures to myself. This could take months.

One suggestion.......... Don't be like me, and have to do over 2,000 photos over, not including the paper ephemera that is too large to even count.

If you know of a shortcut, pass it on please.

All my really good stuff is sitting there, and not updated.

Thank you Frank, your post warned me before it was too late!

Sheila, there will be others that follow that probably can tell you how to do it, but a couple of years ago I had the Geek Squad come out and they networked my computers with each other and I can take files from one to the other with no problem....Cost me about $125.00 for their call and that is not the main reason I had them come out....

Wish I could be more help, but sorry....

Regards,
Jerry

Jerry,
WOW! I forgot about that! Years ago I found out about that, and never used it.
It would be sooooo worth the money to connect them. At least in my situation it would save a lot of heartache.

Thank you so very much!

and

The Geek Squad is right up the street too!

Sheila, if all your important stuff is on the pc with the floppy drive, your two easiest options are:

1. Buy and install a PCI internal USB2 add on card, they're 'cheap as chips' (no pun) and will enable you to plug in a USB flash drive that will work straight off in your new pc.
Just buy a flash drive big enough to download all your data.
You'll need a geek to fit the card for you, but they're a quick job usually - unless it's Win95 and the drivers get stroppy!

The downsides are - you may have a job finding a card, but a used one would do the job!
Also, your old pc will be slow, and it'll take forever to transfer files and folders to the flash drive!

2.
Buy an external combination IDE / SATA hard drive caddy, these are USB connected, so will work with your new pc.

Your old pc drive will be the older IDE type, and your new pc, probably the SATA type.
Your old drive is probably close to croaking on you anyway, so don't use it for back ups, just get everything off it!

Install the hard drive from your old pc into the caddy, plug it into your new pc and copy folders across - piece of cake!.

Then to make best use of the caddy, buy a New SATA hard drive and use that as your main back up drive.
We can buy a 1TB drive in the UK now for around £60, so in the US will be a lot less.
(1TB is around a thousand Gigabytes, so even the most hardened digital photo freak would have a job filling those!)

Again you'll need a geek to swap the drives for you, and again it's a quick job, and no drivers are needed as your new pc will pick up the old drive ok.

You could try networking them, but to be honest, trying to network an old Win 95/98 pc to either XP or Vista would be like trying to get sworn enemies eating off the same plate!

Even getting two pc's with both running either XP or Vista can leave the floor carpeted with hair!
You'd still need either an ethernet card or an internal USB card for the old one anyway, so you might as well go the USB route!

Good luck!

John

Your new (Vista / XP) pc will be running an NTFS filing system, where your old pc will be either FAT32 or FAT16, but your new pc can read either ok.