New PC - checking components & migrating files

Memory stick pen.......but what else?

Rainy - Before I go looking for one of these, is there ANYTHING else required in using them? For example do these need both computers to be "set"? What always gets in the way of my efforts at I.T. is lack of knowledge about what's what on the different LEVELS of the system. A friend mentioned during a phone conversation earlier this evening "If you use a memory stick you just give it another name, like "E drive"". It's actually not knowing how to do THOSE things that cripple newbies like myself. How do you give a "drive" a name? Where on the system do you go to find a drive? Do you need a separate Ethernet cable into every P.C. connected in a home network in order to be able to access internet? sometimes people who know a lot about I.T. and all the technical language and specs don't get what it is that holds up the uninitiated......and these are usually confusions about what kind of thing a "Memory Stick" actually IS! For example I fitted a new 128MB memory strip in my P.C. but I lifted off the back and fitted it into a slot. Is that the same thing as this USB port memory stick? Something different? Heeelp

Re: Memory stick pen.......but what else?

From my experience, it is a matter of 'plug & play' - just plug in the stick into the USB port and the new drive will appear on the next available drive letter (D: or E: or whatever). Just make sure you have a USB post on both PC's. What operating systems are you running? If you are running old versions, make sure the memory stick you buy are compatible.

more aggravation......

Rainy - I bought a memory stick this morning and after 4 hours problems with the host P.C. (the old one with the files which need to be migrated to the new Sony) got to the stage where drivers were downloaded successfully from the net and files could be loaded onto the memory-stick.

It is a very powerful animal - a Disgo Pro USB2.0 - as I wanted something that would serve to carry images, music etc for later (though currently its principal task is very large and numerous documents).

For others following this and trying to use this technology, please note most of the difficulty you will encounter will be if your operating system is Windows 98SE. If it had been ANY OTHER SYSTEM download of appropriate drivers would not have been required and I would have saved myself 4 hours work!!!

Next I popped the device into the USB port of the new (guest) computer onto which the files need to be loaded. Immediate message is "You must add a HI-SPEED USB host controller to this computer to obtain maximum performance. The Unknown USB Device will function at reduced speed".

If anyone has any advice/ideas/comments on what to do next I would be most grateful.

P.S.

The second P.C. is not yet connected to the internet and doing so is the next project. Can I use the installation disk from the internet account on this (old) computer?

I've discovered documents migrated from Windows 98SE to Windows XP Home are not incompatible and there are no formatting issues so this may also apply to Windows 97 (which I understand from friends is less prone to bugs, temperament and glitches).

Re: P.S.

For others following this and trying to use this technology, please note most of the difficulty you will encounter will be if your operating system is Windows 98SE. If it had been ANY OTHER SYSTEM download of appropriate drivers would not have been required and I would have saved myself 4 hours work!!!

I have been prompted for the Windows installation CD or third party drivers when using such USB flash drives on various versions of Windows including Windows 2000 and Windows XP. In most cases they worked straight away without requiring any additional driver installations.

The second P.C. is not yet connected to the internet and doing so is the next project. Can I use the installation disk from the internet account on this (old) computer?

What way are you planning to organise your network? You could use Windows Internet Connection Sharing to allow a second PC to share the internet connection originally used only by the first PC if that suits you. You should Google for ICS tutorials first before attempting this though so you know in advance what you're doing.

internet connection tutorials

Thanks Clubman! I'll search for these and try this method (loading the ISP's C.D. encounters "There are problems")

Re: P.S.

Immediate message is "You must add a HI-SPEED USB host controller to this computer to obtain maximum performance. The Unknown USB Device will function at reduced speed".

Click to expand...

Will it allow you to just ignore the message and continue at reduced speed? [In fact, you probably won't notice any difference in performance].

Re: P.S.

It should do - Windows XP (and possibly other operating systems) will warn you if you use a USB 2.0 device with a USB 1.1 cable, port or hub because doing so will still work but will limit the USB 2.0 device to USB 1.1's lower speed of up to 12Mbps compared to USB 2.0's top speed of 480Mbps. For many applications this speed reduction will not really matter.

geegee - getting back to the original query I came across another useful system analysis tool called AIDA32 which might be of assistance in checking your hardware setup etc. It seems like a very professional tool to me and provides very detailed information about the system hardware and software setup. I seems that development of the freeware version has been stopped and there is now a commercial version based on it.