Posted on 07/31/2012 10:13:19 PM PDT by ExGeeEye
I have a zombie laptop.
A week ago Monday, my laptop died. It was two and a half years old, had shrugged off a vicious infection by a bot virus, had served well as a web surfer/email fetcher/GPS device and game console, and now it was gone. The screen wouldn't light up, the hard drive wouldn't spin, and it was only with difficulty that I got the disc drawer to open up and let me have my game disc back.
I took it to the store from whence it came; they shook their heads over it and sent me to a nearby shop where they fix computers and sell used ones. They shook their heads over it and said it could probably be fixed for about what it would cost to buy a new one.
I went back to the other store and ordered a new one. After pulling the hard drive, put the old one in the back of the car,intending to try to get something out of it.
*****
So this guy says "let me look at it, and if I can get it going again, give me $45; if I can't, I'll give you $45 and keep it for parts."
*****
Whatever he did worked. I got it back today. I picked up the new one last Thursday.
So I have two laptops, both running up-to-date Win7 64-bit; one has a better processor and more memory and a bigger hard drive. Both have wi-fi.
So here's what I'd like to do:
I know about making ad hoc connections between wi-fi enabled computers. I'd like to connect them this way and have them compare notes in the "My Documents" areas-- Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos-- and make sure they both have the same items in these areas, and in the latest versions.
Quicken files, too...
Thanks.
Just “ghost” it. It will copy all MB information and copy 100% of your drive.
I switched to Mac a while back, but I think there is a peer networking feature in Windows. It probably involves enabling networking, placing the files you want to share in a folder intended for sharing and giving permission to the other machine to see that folder.
Sorry, misread your post. You already know how to do all that.
did that guy install the Windows 7? Is it a registered copy or will your laptop get zapped at the first Windows update?
Do yourself a favor...buy yourself a big external hard drive (or an internal drive plus an enclosure, which ought to be cheaper and more flexible) and us it to back your important stuff up. Then you can easily transfer it to another machine if you need to, and keep it in a safe place when you aren’t using it.
How does one “ghost” a “zombie”? :)
Seriously: or a non-zombie?
It already had Win7. In fact, the HD stayed with me. The guy got everything else working so that when the HD was slotted back in, it went back to work.
Some issue with the motherboard, he fixed.
I’ve had one o’them for a year and a half :) Carrying updates back and forth on thumbdrives. I could keep doing that, but hope for a quickie wi-fi fix.
BTW: when Blackbeard was killed, did they change his name to “Edward Taught”? Just wonderin’
;)
Or Connect the computers together. Copy all the music files from laptop a to laptop b . Check don't copy duplicates. Copy all the music files back to laptop a check don't copy duplicates. Now you have all music files on both laptops. Repeat for each type of data. This will not work for programs.
Or Connect the computers together. Copy all the music files from laptop a to laptop b . Check don't copy duplicates. Copy all the music files back to laptop a check don't copy duplicates. Now you have all music files on both laptops. Repeat for each type of data. This will not work for programs.
Isn’t that what the “Briefcase” is supposed to do? I think you put stuff in and it syncs with whatever other device you want it to.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155
You will have to network the two computers. Windows 7 makes that fairly easy. Join both of them to the same homegroup.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/home-sweet-homegroup-networking-the-easy-way
If you have never networked computers, here's one potentially valuable piece of advice: If you have followed all the instructions and the computers still refuse to connect, suspect your firewalls.
Do NOT "ghost" or clone one computer's hard drive for use on the other computer. Among other things, the drivers will probably be wrong, the second hard drive might be the wrong size, and Windows will probably stop working once it notices that it is running on a computer for which it was not licensed.
Thanks to all, especially the ammunition suggestion :)
TChad, your advice seems most likely to end with my desired result.
Thanks again!
Use Dropbox. It will keep documents in its folder in sync across all your devices.
Be careful with synctoy. I use it to backup my laptop to my desktop. I recommend running it on one machine only. The synchronize and echo features can sometimes cause undesired results (especially when relying on the renaming and moving sync options). I suggest you use the contribute feature and only contribute in one direction - make one machine the original (left folder) and one the copy (right folder).
I never ran into problems, but it sounds like you have used SyncToy a lot more than I have.
The Dropbox suggestion is also good but I lean toward SpiderOak.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/spideroak-as-a-secure-alternative-to-dropbox/34305
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