A Computer Question

[Mallard]

I’ve just bought a nice new HP Lap-top which is running Windows 8.1 to replace my ageing tower PC which is running Vista Home Premium. I’ve managed to transfer over everything I need with the exception of an old copy of Auto-Route, for which I no longer have the disc, and Mapsource.

My question is: - if I power up both my lap-top and my PC and connect them together (USB to USB) will I be able to:

A) Access the software that is still on my PC that I cannot transfer to my Lap-top?
B) Use my old PC as a back-up drive for my Lap-top?

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

No to both via USB.

If you have an internal network

A. Yes via remote desktop but it is still running on your old pc and will still run like crap.

B. You could create a network share on the pc and copy your files from the laptop to the pc. I would buy a USB drive though and forget the old pc. Alternatively you could go the modern way and save/backup to the Internet.

 

[lagauk]

Hi Mallard

Powering up both laptop and PC and connecting via USB wont work. I think you have two options:

1. Get yourself an external caddy enclosure for around £10 depending on the size of your hard drive on your pc. By size I mean physical ie 2.5” or 3.5” not storage capacity such as 500GB. Remove the hard drive from the pc and put it into the enclosure. You can then connect the enclosure to the laptop via USB and transfer anything you want and also use it as a backup afterwards.

2. Buy a large capacity external hard drive. Decent 1TB ones can be had for around £55 but they can be as low as £30. Using USB plug this into your PC and transfer the files you want. Then plug the drive into the laptop and move/copy the files to the laptop.

Both of these options give you an external drive you can use as a backup drive. Option 1 is cheaper because you’re using a hard drive you already have but option 2 will give you perhaps a larger capacity drive for more storage albeit at a slightly higher cost.

 

[hops]

Probably easier to source the software from somewhere & install it on your new machine. I bet there's someone on here who could lend you the discs.

 

[cookie]

If the software is installed you can't transfer it however it's connected. It's windows, not Mac.

 

[Myke Rocks]

Get an ethernet Crossover cable. Link both computers with it. Now you have to make the files between both computers accessable. This is the hard part, since Microsoft help presumes you know what you are doing. On each computer, right click on "C" and click on properties. Go to Sharing and tick the 2 boxes to make files Shareable and changeable.
Now you have to do the same with the directories you wish to share. Once you have done this to the said directories, the computers will be able to "see" one another.
Right click on start, and explore. Now look down the left hand panel and you will see "My Network Places". Click on this, go in and you will find the hard drive of each other's computer. Copy & paste.
All this is available on net.
Myke

 

[Redboots]

Simple way is to install Team Viewer (free). You can then control your Vista box from your laptop and copy the files across.
Not tried this, but it may be possible to use an "application mover" to move it from one to the other.

 

[wessie]

Mapsource is available free from Garmin

Personally, if I had a legit licence for MS Autoroute I would just download a hooky copy of it from somewhere but you need to be sure you aren't going to infect your shiny new PC with some malware. As you don't sound like a very IT savvy individual you may want to have second thoughts about this. Borrowing the DVD from a mate is probably the best bet.

As far as the old tower is concerned, I'd bin it. Faffing about trying to get Vista to talk to Win8.1 will give you a headache and burn lots of electricity unnecessarily. If the hard drive is a decent size then maybe stick it in a caddy, format it and use it as a backup device. Thing is, hard drives have come a long way in the last few years in terms of size and reliability so it's probably not worth the cost of the caddy. When I went down the same route a few years ago I invested about £30 in a standalone back-up drive. It is redundant as anything I want to keep is stored in dropbox or google drive. Photos are backed up to Facebook, Snapfish and Flickr. All this can be set-up to happen automagically keeping my laptop, document scanner & phone in sync.

 

[Mallard]

Thanks for all the help & advice you lot - what this forum is all about really. Unfortunately I'm a bit of a computer numpty when it comes to the technical stuff.

I have a very nice Samsung 1TB external HD which I used to transfer all my data over in the first place, and for a numpty I thought that I had done that very well. So, taking on the advice from above I copied the whole drive from my old PC onto it.

After plugging it into my lap-top I can now see both Mapsource (I thought that this was now discontinued by Garmin, and only Basecamp was free) and AutoRoute. It will load Mapsource but only with a global map, it will not load AutoRoute at all. I now feel that I'm at the limit of my computer ability, so rather than push-it and risk a disaster I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.

Don't reckon much to windows 8.1 though; not half as user friendly as Vista and I've lost Office Picture Manager as well. But thanks for all the help.

 

[Blackal]

The problem is that your copy of Autoroute has not actually been "installed" on your new laptop - so won't run. Same goes for your Garmin software.

Get on Ebay and see if anyone is selling the Autoroute discs cheaply.

Al