Move files from one laptop to another?
 

Any suggestions regarding moving a large number of files from an older laptop to newer?

I've considered using a thumb drive but is there a better method?

Is it possible to maintain directories?

Not Apple if that matters.

Thanks much in advance.

In my opinion, using a thumb drive is the best and easiest way to do it. You can copy everything from one laptop directory to the thumb drive and then copy it into the same directory on the other laptop. You can buy a thumb drive with up to 1TB of storage data.

Windows used to have a special transfer program, but I think they discontinued it with Windows 10. Note that, if you are trying to transfer software programs, you may need to reinstall the program onto the new laptop. The thumb drive will copy the software files, but the program may not operate without inputting a "product key".

Another option is email them to yourself as attachments. I've gone so far as to remove the drive from an older (sometimes broken) laptop and use a drive cable with a USB plug on the other end and just plug it into the side of the new laptop. At that point it acts like an external drive with all directories etc. in place. It's fairly easy to copy in bulk at that point. Cables are less than $10 on
Ebay. Good luck.

A thumb drive would work fine. A portable external hard drive would be easier but more costly if you don’t already own one. I remember when thumb drives first came out, many brands came with a large attached necklace type of band. All the actuaries at work wore them around their necks, so we called them geek sticks.

I connected my laptops together and transferred the files. Took a while, but I could walk away while it was in progress. Just Google it to learn how.

Hook both to your network router with hard lines, create a folder on the newer machine, share it to the network and drag/drop from the older to the newer.

Most routers are 1gbit interfaces, most modern NICs(network cards) support 1gbit so in effect you will transfer probably about as fast as the destination drive can write files.

Doing it over wifi you're going to take a fairly big performance hit but it'll still work, just take longer.

You can probably hook both machines directly together, assuming both nics can auto-negotiate crossover or you have a crossover cable but it requires setting the IP numbers and a couple other things. Doable, but would be frustrating if you have no idea what I just said. Easier to just hook both to the router.

The OP wants a better method than using a thumb drive. How is using cables, a cloud drive, or a router better than a thumb drive? To me, the thumb drive or other external hard drive is the safest and easiest way to go.

Speed for one thing. Thumb drives, specially USB2.0 only drives are SLOW writing files. Even USB 3.0 thumb drives are slow when it comes to writing lots of tiny files. If you have a performance 3.0 thumb drive, this is much less of an issue.

I don't see how using a network is worse than using sneaker net. You're not using a thumb drive to view this post are you? Networks exist to share data. Thumb drives exist to store data.

Use a thumb drive then you automatically have a "safety" back-up of those files if your new laptop HD crashes

To save a bit of time (if your files are spread about) you could collate them into one file on your current laptop then just copy that to your thumb drive. Easy to walk away and let the copying take place while you grab lunch.

I doubt that many people have two extra ethernet cables, or are even familiar with how to share a folder with a network. But, most people know how to copy files to a thumb drive. No cables needed, and so what if it takes a while for the files to copy. If you already have a cloud drive and are familiar with using it, that may be another option.

I am serious when I say, "Google it." You will get step-by-step help.

And yes you can maintain directories.

Good luck!

I agree that a thumb drive or external hard drive is the easiest way to do the transfer. Even if it takes a while, just walk away and come back later.

Keep in mind that you may have to copy different folders (directories).

Folders to check
Desktop (if you keep files here)
Documents
Downloads
Favorites
Music
Pictures
Videos
Contacts

I just did this using Dell's Migrate program. Other manufacturers may have something similar. Cost $49 and their techs were available to assist online. Took a couple hours to transfer more than 18k files. I had also created a thumb drive backup in case things got wacky. Transferred all my passwords, etc. I only had to reinstall 2 proprietary programs. I am no techie. Whew.

PC Mover Available - Unopened software
 

I purchased “PC Mover” by Lap Link when I bought my new laptop but have not used it because I set up “One Drive” to go from one computer the other. That worked for my needs.

Boxed product is opened. Cost $39.99 from Amazon but will sell if you could use it for $20. It is sealed in box. See link for product information.

https://www.amazon.com/Laplink-PCmover-Ultimate-10-Use/dp/B008MR37XK[/IMG]

I just bought a portable hard drive that I plug into my laptop and store all my documents/pictures on. I store nothing on the laptop hard drive any more. Easy Peasy..I think I paid $80 and more storage than I will ever use!