Tom asks:
“What’s the best method to get the info from an old laptop (A) to a new laptop (B), where laptop (B) has no floppy drive, only a CD drive. How do I connect the one PC to another and direct transfer the files?”
There are two ways to approach this question. If you were a super-geeky or tech-savvy type, I’d tell you to do something like “get a crossover cable and create a two-PC network, and copy the files from one machine to another”. But in the interests of keeping things simple, let’s go with easier solutions:
1) You could burn a CD or DVD from computer A and load that disk on computer B. This assumes that your data will fit on one CD, and that computer A has a CD burner. But if CD burning isn’t an option, read on.
2) Get a USB flash drive. (This assumes both PCs have USB ports.) They’re very affordable and easy to use. Use the flash drive as a “temporary drive”: Insert in PC 1 (it will show up on your PC as an additional drive), copy files to flash drive, remove and insert drive in PC 2, and copy your files to PC 2. If you’re transferring lots of data, you may need to get an external USB hard drive instead. Read on for more information about USB flash drives, external hard drives and other backup devices.