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Data Transfer between different OS

Nineteen HundredNineteen Hundred Registered User regular
edited September 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
I need a little help from some computer geeks. Or actually, my brother-in-law does. His hard drive is failing, so he needs to transfer his files onto a working computer. Problem is, Windows won't boot on the system, but he can get it running on Linux off a CD. Being that the two computers are running on two different OSeses, I'm not sure how to set up a connection between the two. He was thinking of a direct ethernet cable connection (if that's even possible), but he also has a router available to him. Any ideas?

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Posts

  • Jimmy KingJimmy King Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Can the computer get on the internet with linux? If so, does the ISP provide web space and enough of it to back up the data? He could also pay for a web hosting account or the like with a ton of space or even a backup specific account.

    To transfer directly from that pc to another one locally, you've got a couple choices.
    1) Setup Samba. This allows windows and linux to interact using shared folders/directories just like between windows boxes. I've only ever configured it by hand by editing the text file, so I don't know what options are available that may be easier for someone less technical to configure it. I know it has a web based config, tool, so that may do the trick

    2) Setup an ftp on the machine you are trying to transfer to and ftp the files over. This is probably relatively simple. IIS has an ftp server built in or there are probably a number of free ones for windows.

    3) Setup ftp on linux and use a windows ftp client to move the stuff over. Likely pretty simple, assuming the linux boot cd has an ftpd.

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  • RaereRaere Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    These are instructions to set up a quick Samba share from an Ubuntu live CD using networking. You should be able to just connect both PC's to a router/switch and follow the guide.

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  • Uncle LongUncle Long Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Can't he just hook the failing hard drive to his working windows box and boot from the good disk and transfer the files from the disk that refuses to boot?

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  • Nineteen HundredNineteen Hundred Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Probably should have mentioned that the failing hard drive is in a laptop. I'll pass along these suggestions. Luckily, I'm not the one who actually has to do anything, because man I am crap with computers.

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  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    Uncle Long wrote: »
    Can't he just hook the failing hard drive to his working windows box and boot from the good disk and transfer the files from the disk that refuses to boot?

    QFT. This would be way easier.

    EDIT: Saw your response. There are adapters that let you connect a laptop drive to a regular desktop IDE cable. I bet you can get one at Best Buy or someplace like that (I think I've seen them there.) Again, this would be far easier than trying to ftp stuff. Just make sure you set the jumpers on the main drive of your desktop to master to make sure it boots from that drive.

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