Moving into a new computer, and need some help

[AlabamaYankee]

Some of those files are really heavy.

But seriously, folks, I bought a brand new eMac, and love it. The problem is the eight years' worth of documents stored on the old Umax clone, including a number of my wife's which she is actively using. Is there a reasonably convenient way to hook the two machines together without investing in network stuff? It would be nice if I could trick the new machine into thinking the old one is just another hard drive. The new machine is USB, and the old one, of course, is not.

Thanks for your help.

[webDude]

1. does your old one have an ethernet connection?

if so, you could get a CROSSOVER ethernet cable, connect the two and transfer data back and forth. You must set your network connections to ethernet, and restart the computers a few times, but once set up, it works like a charm. note: THE CABLE MUST BE A CROSSTALK ETHERNET CABLE, IF THE STORE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, GO SOMEPLACE ELSE. It should be about ten bucks.

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. Man, those eMac's are sweet...

I just helped my Mom in Law into one from an old Winders 95 machine (my old one in fact).

The crossover cable will work.

Another option is to use a regular ethernet network and OSX's rendesvous feature to locate the UMAX on the network. All you need is it's IP address and you can set a shared folder. Move all the stuff into the shared folder then pull it all down to the eMac.

In OSX the feature is under the "go" menu. Go/connect to server/Umax name or IP address.

[FlaGranny]

3. First of all,

you need to go buy a very big computer, if you're going to move in.
(Sorry - I couldn't help it.)

[Mika]

4. What kind of docs?

"The problem is the eight years' worth of documents stored on the old Umax clone, including a number of my wife's which she is actively using."

What kind of docs are looking to transfer?

[AlabamaYankee]

5. Mostly Word Processing

Most of tehm are in WriteNow, a wonderful, elegant, and now defunct word processor that isn't copatible with much of anything, plus some Apple Works and Mac Draw.

I was hoping I could simply transfer via floppy, but the drive that came witrh the machine hasn't recognized any of mu disks. This may be a separate problem, but if I can't get disks recognized, I can't reload the WriteNow from the originals. The workaround I'm using now is to copy teh text of some of the most critical documents into an email to my junk mail acount, open the mesage on the new machine, and copy the text to an Apple Works document. Slow, but it works for now.

[dani]

6. can the Umax do "target mode"?

(and does it have a Firewire port?) Hold down the "t" on the keyboard as you start it. If it's like a normal Apple it will go into target mode (the screen turns blue and a Firewire symbol flashes), you can then connect your new eMac and old Umax together via Firewire cable and mount the Umax hard drive on the desktop of the eMac (or do it vice versa if you wish) and drag-and-drop your files from one machine to the other.

That's the easiest method I know of (assuming you have a Firewire cable). But the Umax clones may not do target mode.

[AlabamaYankee]

7. I'm not sure firewire had been invented

This machine is, as far as I can figure out, about eight years old; Apple only licensed third party manufacturers for a brief timeuntil it realized that the practie created unwelcome price pressure on its own products.

What does the connection look like?

[alfredo]

8. The UMAX is pre FireWire

the crossover is the best plan. those solid state USB drives are wonderful. With a 125mb or 256mb drive you can move a lot of data quickly and easily.

[alfredo]

9. If the UMAX has USB get something like this

Any small USB flash memory drives can transfer a lot of data. I have a 128mg drive that I use all the time. They are cheap and you will find that you will use them more than your ethernet connection.

[AlabamaYankee]

10. It's pre-USB, too

WE're talking old, here. Are conversion cables (serial to USB, or something) available? As you can tell, I'm nearly ignorant technically.

[Atlant]

11. Options...

(By the way, "WriteNow still works as of MacOS/X Version 10.2,
running in "Classic" mode, of course. I still use it from
time-to-time, and still think it's an exemplar of how a
word processor ought to work!)

Folks have already mentioned some options for you; I may repeat some
of them in the interest of completeness. Here are some I can think of:

• Ethernet -- The UMAX may or may not have a built-in Ethernet,
  but if it's a PCI bus machine, Ethernet "NICs" (Network Interface
  Cards) are dirt cheap. Add Ethernet to the UMAX and get the crossover
  cable that others mentioned. Then just AppleShare the UMAX's disk
  over to the eMac and you'll have all your files moved in half a
  jiffy. If the UMAX uses "NuBus" slots instead of PCIbus slots,
  it will be harder to find a workable Ethernet card.
  
  
• iDisk -- If you have an Apple .Mac account, it comes with 100 MB
  of network disk storage (hosted by Apple). You could transfer 100MB
  worth of your files from the UMAX up to the iDisk, then transfer them
  back to the eMac. Lather, rinse, repeat. Apple has some utilities
  that may help you do this.
  
  
• Other network "disks" -- Your ISP may offer the same sort of service.
  
  
• CDROM -- If you have a CD burner for the UMAX, transfer
  everything on CD-R. It's cheap, fast, and reliable.
  
  
• Zip Disks -- If you have a Zip disk in your UMAX, get or borrow
  a USB Zip drive for the eMac.
  
  
• SCSI disk -- I suspect your UMAX has a SCSI disk in it. There may
  be possibilities here, but they're technical and messy.
  
  
• USB -- You may be able to add a USB card to the UMAX. If you can,
  that opens up some other possibilities (like that USB Zip disk).
  
  
• Serial -- If worse comes to worst, you can buy a serial adapter
  for the eMac and connect the two computers together that way. But
  that will be slow and require a lot of work.
  

Have fun with your new eMac!

Atlant

[AlabamaYankee]

12. iDisk sounds like an option

I havn't taken the time to look into the iDisk feature, but it sounds better than trying to kluge together a cable. I'll just have to stay up late some night and transfer away at 56k.

Thanks