How to Transfer Info on Memory Stick to a New Computer

I assume the memory stick is USB compatible?

If so, plug it in, go to 'computer' on your new machine, click on 'removable storage' or 'F drive' or whatever the memory stick is called. Highlight all the files/folders on it by holding CTRL-A, then 'copy to' and...wherever on the new computer you want to copy the files to.

If you 'copy to...' the files will still be on the memory stick. If you 'move to...' they won't be. I always copy in case something fucks up in the transfer process and I need to start again.

And for future reference, if the only place you know have these files is on that flash drive ("memory stick"), that's a dangerous practice. You should always always always make at least two copies of everything you're transferring to a new computer.

If this is pc to pc, you can buy a cable (eg, laplink) at Wal mart or Best Buy that allows you to connect the two computers and migrate your files and programs and settings. Transferring files should should be fine the way you're doing it (though dangerous if this is your only copy), but if you just copy programs onto a memory stick, they probably won't work on the new machine. If you're buying the new computer from Dell.com (for example), they will probably have such a cable included in the package price. If you buy a computer from a store, ask them to include it. That is, unless you've already gotten rid of your old computer, or for some reason don't want the old software and settings, and you want to repurchase all your software.

As Julie mentioned, there is a difference between programs and files. If all you are doing is transferring saved documents, spreadsheets, etc. You can copy the folders to you "My Documents" folder on your new PC. You will need to install the programs, i.e. MS Office, that created these files on the new PC, unless they came pre-installed when you bought it.

Another simple way to copy folders with their contents, is to click on the folder and drag it to your "My Documents" folder on the new PC.

You can grab all the folders at once and drag them, or a few at a time. If you change your folder view to "List" it will line them up and you can hold the shift key while clicking on the first folder then click on the last folder to highlight all of them. Then just drag them to your "My Documents" folder.

I'd recommend not doing the drag-and-drop thing, for a minor security reason. In the (admittedly unlikely) event that something should go wrong, you actually risk losing files this way. Better to highlight the desired folders on your removable storage device, COPY them, then go to the place you want to put them, and PASTE them there. That leaves a copy on the storage device, which you can delete later, should you want to.

And by the way, that thing you're using is a removable storage device, or flash drive, or thumb drive, but not technically a "memory stick". "Memory" and "storage" are entirely different animals in computers. Memory is what the computer uses internally during operations, and is active only when the computer is on. Storage devices, whether USB flash drives or CD-ROMs or old-fashioned diskettes, are places where information is stored in the form of files. The term "memory sticks" generally refers to the things you install inside your computer to increase RAM capabilities, which I just did to one of my old ones a couple of days ago.

blacbird said:

I'd recommend not doing the drag-and-drop thing, for a minor security reason. In the (admittedly unlikely) event that something should go wrong, you actually risk losing files this way. Better to highlight the desired folders on your removable storage device, COPY them, then go to the place you want to put them, and PASTE them there. That leaves a copy on the storage device, which you can delete later, should you want to.

Click to expand...

Dragging and dropping to a different drive is by default a copying operation.

You shouldn't have any problems transferring the files. They'll stay on the usb stick as long as you leave them there.