Setting up networking

I have virtually no experience with Win 2000 but I am supposed to help my father migrate his files from his old PC to a new Win 7 Home Premium PC. He paid for the file migration service when he bought the PC but the company failed to do the job. The good news is they refunded the price, but he still needs access to the files. I do not have physical access to his PC right now, so I don't have a lot of details. I suspect that he is running an illegal copy of Win 2k that a computer repair place put on the PC while fixing the system after after the computer (which originally ran Win98 or maybe Win ME) broke down. I don't know for certain, but I'm told a lot of shops did install Win 2k illegally once upon a time. I don't know if that matters to the process. I'm surprised he has been able to use it for this long without too many problems. I don't know if he has USB (he doesn't know USB from NAT) and I don't know if he can write CDs but he DOES have a working ethernet port that he uses to connect to his broadband service.

The Win 7 Easy Transfer program does not support Win 2000 so I presume that the easiest way to salvage what we can is to transfer files will be via ethernet.

I think that if I take a monitor for his old PC (he didn't get a new monitor), an ethernet switch and a couple of network cables it should be easy enough to get everything set up. I know that I can't transfer any programs he has installed, but I don't think that will matter. The worst case scenario is I can't make things work, in which case I have to bring his PC home, transfer the hard drive to one of my obsolete PCs and burn a DVD with the files he needs. I'd rather not monkey around inside his new box since that might void any warranty but there's no warranty to worry about on my old P3-500 box running Win XP.

I'm fairly comfortable with basic network settings on Win 7 and Win XP Pro and I USED to be fairly proficient with Win 98SE but I don't have any experience with Win 2000 network settings. Are there any major differences in the interface or the details that I need to know about before I get involved in this? Does Win 2k still use the basic pattern of specifying a Workgroup? Is there some kind of simple file sharing? I know that he does NOT have to log on when he boots the PC and I doubt he has any security installed other than basic antivirus.

I hope I can figure out how to transfer his IE bookmarks but I don't know how Win 2k stores any of that stuff. Shoot, I don't use IE enough to know where it stores that on MY computer.

I appreciate any assistance.

Reply 1 : Setting up networking

Networking Windows 2000 and 7 is well discussed so I won't repeat the dozen or so steps to get them to talk. Let's use a 20 buck cable to the old drive and get it done.

Here's the cable I use -> http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020
Bob

Reply 2 : Setting up networking

I would not have thought that Win 2k networking would be hard to set up. I've ordered the cable and I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

Reply 3 : Setting up networking

When it stopped fitting on a sheet of paper I said enoug...h.

Reply 4 : Setting up networking

I was able to get Win7, Win2K and XP networked and running happily though I recently tore my Win2k system down. Win2k doesn't use XPs default "simple file sharing" so it's just as if you've unchecked that box. I have found more success using "the" administrator rather than "an" administrator account, however. I don't see why you cannot set up a folder in the 2K box, share it and move any and all desired files and folders there. As long as your Win7 box has the same username/password account, it should work. There's one small glitch I ran into along the way having to do with Windows SMB that needed a policy tweak but I've forgotten exactly why it was needed. Anyway, all worked fine for me. Link below. Good luck.

http://www.tannerwilliamson.com/2009/09/windows-7-seven-network-file-sharing-fix-samba-smb/

Reply 5 : Setting up networking

Now here's my question.

Why didn't MSFT add a button to "Share with Windows XP machines?"

Reply 6 : Setting up networking

that can't be undone once the task is complete. It's just to transfer files from one PC to another in someone's home. I can't see what's so bad about that.

Reply 7 : Setting up networking

That Microsoft continues to add more complication when simpler setups are being sought. Read your that web page again. It's why people get upset over having to be their own IT staff.
Bob

Reply 8 : Setting up networking

Look at the tax code. People need to be their own lawyers and CPAs too, I guess.

Reply 9 : Setting up networking

I have not encountered any problems sharing between Win 7 Professional and Vista Home Premium or Win XPO Pro but I hve not done thorough testing yet. I have not had to tweak anything in Win 7 ... yet. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I have written anything to the Win 7 computer from the other LAN clients. I've been accessing the other clients without problems. I'll have to try writing something to the Win 7 PC from one of the others on the LAN.

It has been so long since I set up the file sharing on the various computers that I'm not sure but I don't think I used 'Simple File Sharing'. I don't remember why.

Reply 10 : Setting up networking

The cable for the drive works OK, but I wasn't able to transfer the data that way. For some reason the new PC kept trying to interpret the Old drive (attached via USB) as a recovery partition. I was tired and I didn't understand what was happening so I went to plan B. The old hard drive only had about 7 GB of data so I whipped out my 8 GB USB flash drive and copied the most important stuff to it, then used the flash drive to load the stuff onto the new PC. It worked, but I forgot about a major problem. 1998 vintage PCs had USB 1. Moving 'just' a few GB at USB 1 transfer rates is SLOW. We went and had dinner. It took about 2 hours to copy from the old PC to the new, and about 10 minutes to upload onto the new PC. There were a couple of delays when the old PC's AV decided that some of the document files might be infected but things generally went smoothly.

I had hoped to save the entire hard drive on my WHS PC back at home, but it turns out WHS doesn't support Win 2k. I'm currently using the HD to USB cable you recommended to load all the files onto a WHS share instead of creating a backup. I don't know how to do it directly via RDP without messing up the WHS file system so it's having to go over the network. Another SLOW process. At least this time I can go to sleep while it runs. I've got a wireless connection so copying several GB will take a while.

It's funny how things that should be easy (eg: copying a file via a USB drive) can turn out to be an adventure.

I've read about programs that can create a mountable image of a disk so the programs can be run as a virtual PC but I don't know anything about it so I don't know how easy/hard it is or whether it's likely to be worthwhile.

Reply 11 : Setting up networking

win 7 is snappier and much easier to navigate.I like win7.
To hell with old files.Start a fresh system you won't regret.
Bill Gates designed win7 to make it easier and faster to repair pc faults(win 7 has a windows repair function in safe mode),unlike win 2000 or win xp.Win 7 also finds drivers automatically when you install new hardware.Win xp sucks now and it's so slow I USE TO REINSTALL WINXP EVERY MONTH TO GET IT WORKING AND THEN YOU DIDN'T REALLY KNOW IF IT WAS GOING TO CRASH AGAIN,"BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH" EVEN UPDATES DIDN'T FIX ANYTHING.I HAD A FAULT IN XP THAT REALLY GIVE ME A HEADACHE.ONE HALF THE SCREEN WAS WHITE THE OTHER HALF BLUE.NO IT WASN'T THE GRAPHICS CARD ITSELF.REINSTALLATION OF WINDOWS WAS THE ONLY THING THAT CURED IT.IT WAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH UPDATING THE GRAPHICS CARD ON LINE THAT DID IT,PROBABLY A VIRUS.i'LL NEVER GO BACK TO THE OLD WINDOWS.

Reply 12 : Setting up networking

There's a software programme called transwiz to transferr files from 2000 to any other system xp win 7.You can get it from Forensit .com.I may try this myself.