Transfering files between computers.

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I am planing on getting a new computer – hopefully before Christmas. I backed up a few things on USB but my game files are too big.

The joy of Linux distros like Mint is installing is easy and fast. If I had to I would just download the game files and putter until i got the settings right and the game running fine. The problem is that even with a cable hookup downloads take hours. It took 16 hours to download and install ESO two years ago and currently my Zenimax folder holds 100G of data.

i can get at his external drive locally: Toshiba Canvio Ready USB 3.0 External Hard Drive – 2TB for a reasonable price. i was thinking of copying my ,Wine folder or the Zenimax folder to an external drive. The format of the drive is probably fat32.  Would that be fine for both the Windows folders in Wine and Wine itself or would the .wine folder need to be saved on ext4?

(The new Computer will run Linux Mint or Pop!_OS so there won’t be a change in flavour/package management,)

 

 

 

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Cheaper to get a USB to disk cable and hook up the old drive to the new computer once it’s running, then copy the data.

If you are running Linux, use ext4, or leave it at FAT32 if already formatted.

cheers, Paul

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firemind

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[Ascaris]

Is it not possible for the new computer to be specified with a drive that can fit all of the data?

FAT32 volumes are limited to 32GB, so it would not be that on a 2TB drive. I looked it up for that drive, and it is formatted NTFS. If you want it to be readable by Windows PCs, you could leave it, but if it is to be used only with Linux, I would reformat it Ext4.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Ascaris. Reason: Added strikethrough for incorrect information

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firemind

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@Ascaris The new computer will have at least a 1TB drive. I’m not sure I will get separate drives for the OS and data. My current computer just has a 1TB HDD and i still have about 650GB left. Since the computer is having issues i am thinking of backing up my Wine folder to an external HD so it won’t be an issue later when i switch computers.

I couldn’t remember the format.:) and will probably reformat as Ext4

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Ascaris wrote:

FAT32 volumes are limited to 32GB

“maximal FAT32 volume size to 2 terabytes with a sector size of 512 bytes. The maximum FAT32 volume size is 16 TB with a sector size of 4,096 bytes”

cheers, Paul

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Ascaris

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The problem with Fat32 is max file size of 4GB.

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You are correct; I was wrong about that. Windows does not permit formatting a volume larger than 32GB in FAT32 by the usual means, but it is possible to do with Powershell or third-party tools. I had confused the two, so thanks for the correction.

FAT32 is a non-journaling file system, and that is why it has not been the standard Windows format for hard drives since the Windows 9x era. NTFS, Ext4, and other more modern file systems are more robust and are less likely to lose data if something goes wrong during a write. Its only advantage is interoperability with other systems… if you don’t need that, it’s not a good choice.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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1 – Has anyone transferred files from computer to computer using USB? and do you need special cables?

2- Would it be easier to add the old computer temporarily to the LAN and transfer that way?

 

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USB to USB transfer requires software.
To USB disk / from USB disk requires a USB disk.
Adding to the LAN is OK, but you have to set up networking between computers and there are plenty of stories about that being a pain.

You can use one of the free backup programs to image the old, then restore the files you need to the new, then making an image of the new. The advantage is having a backup.

cheers, Paul

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