Migrating data quickly … writing about it slowly

So, I need to migrate around 300 GB of data from my old Athlon XP 2800+ machine to the shiny, new Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 machine.

Let’s explore the options:

DVD-R

How about on 4.7 GB discs? I don’t think so! This would involve:

1. Burn around 4.7 GB of data to DVD-R
2. Repeat approximately 63 times

That’s both painfuly slow and would cost me around £17 for a pack of 100 discs.

USB 2.0

I have a 500 GB external USB 2.0 hard drive; USB 2.0 has a maximum transfer speed of 12 Mbps. But it would involve:

1. Copy data from PC #1 to external drive (max. 12 Mbps)
2. Copy data from external drive to PC #2 (max. 12 Mbps)

That’s really a maximum average of 6 Mbps.

IDE Hard Drive

I could remove the hard drive from PC #1 and install it temporarily into PC #2.  My drives are both UDMA 100 devices, meaning that they have a maximum transfer speed of 100 Mbps.  But this would involve:

1. Power down PC #1
2. Open up PC #1 and extract hard drives
3. Power down PC #2
4. Open up PC #2 and install hard drives
5. Make sure that the BIOS recognises both new IDE drives
6. Transfer data
7. Power down PC #2
8. Uninstall hard drives
9. Reinstall hard drives to PC #1

100Base-T Fast Ethernet

I have a network that runs at a spritely 100 Mbps. This would involve:

1. Copy data from PC #1 to PC #2 directly (max. 100 Mbps)

I already have the network and the appropriate drive shares set up, all I need to do now is drag-and-drop files and folders. Simple!  I love networks.

Guess which method I’m going to use today …