Novice Question

Well, you can connect them in many ways ranging from a network connection to connections through other ports.

Either that or you use removeable media or the internet to connect 'em.

Thing is, you don't give a single detail about your computer so how can anyone help?

I'd tell you how to network them but you don't say if it has a network card.

I'd make a recommendation about removable media if I had an idea of what removable media drives you own.

I'd tell you an easy way to do this over the internet but you don't mention your connection speed so I can't tell if it will be convenient for you.

Without some very basic information it will be hard to help.

If your new computer will have Windows XP on it, XP comes with a utility for transferring files from one computer to another. You'll just need the method to connect the two via cable. Depending on how old your computer is and the set up for your laptop, it could be one of several types of cables you'll need.

When I bought my new PC I used an USB cable to connect my new Windows XP machine to my old Windows '98 machine and transferred files.

Just make sure you thoroughly check out the old system for viruses and other things that go bump in the night before transferring files to your new computer.

use a program to ghost the drive, thats the easiest way.

If she/he's asking a basic question such as how to transfer files, you might need to give more of an explanation of the term "ghost the drive."

thats what google is for, if they make no effort to find the answer either do I lol

Safecracker, if that's how you feel why make the effort to help at all? It's not helpful to do what you did.

Pitter, disregard all that. Ghosting your drive is not an appropriate suggestion for what you want to do anyway.

If you have a CD burner you can easily burn them to CDs and transfer them over. If you have few files you can do it by floppy.

If you have a semi-decent internet connection you can upload the files to a webserver then download them onto a new computer.

There are other methods like connecting the computers and transferring the files.

Let us know what you have to work with and what you want to do and we'll help ya out. Because that's what Able2Know is for.

I help to give them a direction to go in. Ghosting is fine for what this person wants to do, it is what 90% of tech biz do anyway. I always search google before I ask questions, I don't mind helping but it shows you are trying by atleast searching the net a lil, this world is getting lazy I just don't want to see that happen around here. Give them a fish they eat for a day. Teach them to fish they eat for a lifetime.

That's the whole point, SC. You aren't considering your audience, a novice who even labeled the question as a "novice question." Giving them a terminology used by 90% of the tech biz is not answering the question, it's more like showing off your superior knowledge of the subject.

You yourself are looking for citations about a specific law in another thread. If Jespah were to give you an obscure technical reference known only to her fellow Bar Association members and nothing more, would you consider that helpful?

I have done my searching on google and other search engins for that question before I posted. I am not trying to show off at all. that obsvure refferance is what I'm looking for on my question actually but I get your point. I guess my bottom line is I can tell this person didn't research and they should next time it's nothing personal.

I think the main thing though is that A2K is just the thing to fill the breach... when someone doesn't even know where to start to do a Google search on something, coming here for some good ol' fuzzy human logic is just the ticket.

If they can use the net they can find a search engine but I understand where yall are comming from.

There's finding a search engine and knowing how to use it. Like, OK, you put "buying a new PC" in there. Yoiks. Maybe even try "transfer files". Um.

You need to know a little to do a good search.

(But I think you do get the main point, don't mean to pile on.)

An interesting repartee...well should I bite the bullet and buy a new one I will need to transfer files from a Dell Inspiron w/Windows ME to a new Dell laptop. If I can do it with ghosts or say a weegee board well that would be just too cool but maybe something more down to earth would be better for this novice.

say pitter just a question that would help me better understand something....instead of speculation, have you ever used google?....anyway burning to a removeable media source such as CD' would be a easy way or using a file transfer like a network cable if you have a ethernet card. I would sar parallel port but thats just to slow.

pitter, your new Dell will have XP, which offers a file migration utility that works ok. There are a number of ways to connect the computers to effect the transfer; the easiest is probably ethernet (assuming both machines have a network card, which, given the machines you mention is likely), but it can be done via FireWire, USB, and even serial connection. There are many commercial programs available that will do a good job of migration via removeable media (CD-R is convenient for this). Be aware that it is quite likely you will have to update drivers and other software intended for Win ME to get them to work under XP ... though XP also has a semi-reliable feature that frequently allows XP to handle non-compliant legacy software. The folks at Dell Tech Support will be able to help you out to, considering you're moving from one of their machines to another of their machines. Now comes the trick question ... instead of spending all the money for a new machine. why not just add memory to your current one and upgrade the OS to XP? Is there a hardware reason you want a new machine, or are you just looking for more performance?

Thanks to all and most recently Timber, that makes it all pretty clear for me. Yes I guess I'm thinking more performance. For example I'm using a digital camera editing program now and it seems awfully slow. The processor on my inspiron is 800 and the new ones offer 2.4 or something.

Safecracker thanks for your info too. Google? I haven't gotten past cyber times navigater.