The More Things Change
Browsing online computer discussions often finds questions about transferring large amounts of data. Many people jump through some interesting Houdini contortions to transfer files.
When the source and destination computers are within proximity, which includes within a few miles, the simplest approach might be one of the oldest — sneaker net. This might apply even when the two computers are many miles apart — just mail a disk.
Many times through the years in the house network the fastest method was not clever ingenuity but temporarily pulling the hard drive and inserting into the destination computer. Mount the respective partitions read-only and copy.
Temporarily moving a hard disk might be a tad inconvenient, but often this method resolves the problem.
USB sticks and drives are another method of employing sneaker net, but many vintage computers do not support USB and with older computers, USB 2.0 is somewhat slow.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: General
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