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:
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Burn around 4.7 GB of data to DVD-R
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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:
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Copy data from PC #1 to external drive (max. 12 Mbps)
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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:
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Power down PC #1
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Open up PC #1 and extract hard drives
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Power down PC #2
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Open up PC #2 and install hard drives
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Make sure that the BIOS recognises both new IDE drives
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Transfer data
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Power down PC #2
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Uninstall hard drives
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Reinstall hard drives to PC #1
100Base-T Fast Ethernet
I have a network that runs at a spritely 100 Mbps. This would involve:
- 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 …