For the technically savvy out there

[sanpaku_backup]

I'm sure that more than one person on my friends list has encountered this problem.

My iBook has stopped working. The thieves at CompUSA will charge me $140 just to crack the thing open. The problem is we want to go up to Maine without shlepping my desktop computer. It will take them weeks to get back to me with a fix. (I detest CompUSA since the last time this happened it took them six weeks to make the repair!)

I have an iMac, and I have a Dell laptop from work. However, never the twain shall meet. I back things up back and forth between the iBook and the iMac using a Zip drive, but I am pretty sure it is a Mac Zip drive.

So if I wanted to move my files from my desktop to this laptop... how would I go about doing it? On a massive scale, that is. If I got a CD burner, would that work? Would the Dell be able to read Mac files if I burned them to CD? Are CD burners really expensive?

Etc. Discuss amongst yourselves. (Any ideas are welcome.)

Comments

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

I believe that CDs I burn on my eMac (about 1 year old) work on my PC from antiquity (it's about 6? years old). As long as you're putting them in some universal format like .rtf, I can't see why it wouldn't work. But since my eMac doesn't have a disk drive and I'm too lazy to get one, I just upload whatever files I'm working on to whatever email account is most cooperative and download them wherever I'm going. If you don't have internet access or are working with 500 files this would not be the best choice, obviously.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Yeah, alas, I need to upload something like 300 MB worth of files. I'll figure something out!

[cellio]

I would think that burning CDs would work (assuming compatable file formats), but I have no relevant Mac experience. Other solutions to consider, depending on number and size of files and presence/absence of network access: FTP via some other machine out there on the net; USB external hard drive (which itself is OS-agnostic so far as I know).

I bought my external hard drive for backups because CDs were getting tedious, but the fact that I can pick it up and plug it into a different computer is not lost on me. :-)

[laurens10.livejournal.com]

I guess there's no Apple Store around, yah?

When dalek's iBook broke, he got a week turn around from the people at the Apple Store, and they pretty much replaced everything except the motherboard and the keyboard.

It is a terribly difficult thing to open (you run a risk of breaking some internals), so I understand how it might cost a good bit of money just to open it. If you need anything to be replaced, it will cost a lot more money. :( The iBook is geared to people who won't need laptop upgrades, but that also seems to mean that it is hard to fix the thing.

The CD burning solution should work just fine. CD burners aren't too expensive these days.

[librarygrrl.livejournal.com]

how about a flash key? 64 or 128 mb would make the transfer not too too painful... maybe for about $50. Plus then you'd have a spiffy new keychain...

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Dadgummit, you once again upstage the subject of an anticipated post.

So I go to CompUSA and I try to explain to the idiot what I am looking for. "It's... I dunno... it's like... a memory stick, or something. You get this thing and can store 256 megs on a little stick or something. You put it in your machine." He tried to tell me I was looking for something to put in a camera. So I'm all set to get a CD-RW drive when I walk past an entire row of these very things ("thumb drives" or "flash keys" or what have you). I got one for 50 bucks and it works like a charm, and I don't need a massive new piece of machinery in the office.

People at CompUSA are such idiots. It never ceases to amaze me!