I'm looking for a cheap portable way to transfer 1-2 Gigs of files between a laptop and various PC that don't have DVD drives. A 3.5" Enclosure it too big to carry arround and I don't really want to pay what it takes for a 2.5" enclosure. Plus having to carry the power supplies around is not too much fun either. Using a crossover ethernet cable is not convient since the ports are generally on the back and would require configuring each time I wanted to use it.

I was looking at the possibility of using a USB2.0 data transfer cable to connect 2 PCs. Ideally, it would not require a CD for driver installation. The two I found on newegg have poor reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812189001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812150003

Has anyone had any experience with these types of cables and could reccomend one?

11/18/2005 9:08:05 AM

nm -- uhh yea that actually does sound like a problem.

why do you need to transfer over a GB of data? you could burn CD's i suppose.

[Edited on November 18, 2005 at 9:23 AM. Reason : -]

11/18/2005 9:13:14 AM

^ For home use I agree, but this is for on the go use to connect to PCs that are not my own.

11/18/2005 9:23:18 AM

^yea i just re-read your post and i got what you meant

it wouldnt be cheap, theres always the 2GB USB thumb drives

[Edited on November 18, 2005 at 9:24 AM. Reason : -]

11/18/2005 9:24:07 AM

Idk if you happen to have an iPod but if you do you could use it as an external hard drive...

11/18/2005 11:59:41 AM

A 2.5" enclosure is $15 and a cheap latop hard drive shouldn't be a whole lot. Most of them are powered off the usb port so no power supply needed.

I see those little 5 gig usb drives for $100 or so as well. That would be the easiest.

I would think most any computer that had usb 2.0 would have a dvd drive anyhow.

11/18/2005 2:26:40 PM

Also it might be slower, but a USB 802.11 card would allow you to share the files as well.

11/18/2005 2:29:42 PM

or you could get a cheap 512 MB usb thumb drive, and just move the files peacemeal

i win


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820181503

[Edited on November 19, 2005 at 12:50 AM. Reason : 0]

11/19/2005 12:40:53 AM

or just get a 4gb thumbdrive for ~150 bucks and be done with it all

11/19/2005 12:54:35 AM

my way costs $30

11/19/2005 1:00:06 AM

1) piecemeal
2) kruznby, quit borging for f@h

11/19/2005 1:09:02 AM

lest you have one file thats like 600MB

wtf are you moving thats so big?

11/19/2005 1:18:18 AM

What about another NIC and a crossover?

11/19/2005 1:51:12 AM

For any biologists out there, it is about 20+ microarrays worth of data. A single file can be just over a gig in size. Unfortunatly the individuals with the most experinece and software to help analyze the data are on older machines w/o DVD drives. I was thinking a USB data transfer cable would be good for this and it could be handy in general for moving files from a laptop when I travel. It looks no one has experience with them or they are not too reliable.

I do have a iPod mini that would work. Actually all of this is for the gf, so if I suggest iPod I guess she will want one for Christmas or borrow mine indefinatly. LOL.

11/19/2005 8:27:32 AM