Question about files.

[RemnantDream]

I'm not sure if this is where I should put this, but I can't think of anywhere else it should be.

So, I've been having a ton of problems with my laptop in the past couple of months. Turns out, I needed to get a new one. Is there a way for me to move all my files for the VNs I'm creating with Renpy to my new laptop, without having to take my flash drive and manually do it myself? If there's no way, I could do it manually myself, but that would take a ton of time, which I haven't got a lot of at the moment.

Sorry, if it doesn't belong here .-.

[Aleema]

Hmm. The only other way is to transfer it via internet, if not manually. I recommend dropbox - you would drop your files into a folder and when you get to your new computer, download the program again and it will download the files. But, honestly, thumb drive is the easiest, why would it take a long time for you?

[RemnantDream]

The largest jump drive I have is 8 gigabytes. Most, if not all my files, are close to that size. It would just take a lot of putting a couple files onto it, transferring it, and starting all over. I had to do that with some other things. It was very slow and tedious, so I was hoping there was another way. I'll try that dropbox though, thanks.

[Anima]

I doubt that you will get far with dropbox if your files are that big.
Since I'm not sure what OS you use, I can't give instruction for it. But try to share the drive over the local network.
(If both are connected to the same router that shouldn't be too difficult.)

[ScottySeng]

I'd torrent the files from the old PC to the new PC.

Just pack your renpy project files into a torrent (make sure it's private). Send the torrent file to the your New PC and then have new PC download it from your old PC using the torrent.

If you send me your project files, I'd have no problem uploading them to my webhost, but that would take a lot of time with the size of your files.

[SinusPi]

Torrent? From one PC to another within the same house? Really? That'll take ages, instead of minutes, if the network isn't properly set up for local pc-to-pc access and you end up routing the files through your ISP.

You'll sooner just split the files into folder1 folder2 folder3 (each less than 8 GB) and copy them using your pendrive, than write about it on the forum. Really, it should be a matter of 2 minutes... :>

[ScottySeng]

I agree with you SinusPi after thinking about it bit more. The Flash Drive is much faster than any other way online based.

@RemnantDream
Well, if you have a desktop lying around, you could take out the hard drives from both the laptops, install them on the desktop, then transfer directly. It's not too hard, but I'm not sure if you have a Desktop or not. Then it would take minutes to transfer the files.

[Spiky Caterpillar]

I'd actually recommend burning them all to DVD (and splitting them if needed to fit) - while this is actually less convenient than a thumbdrive, it gives you a permanent backup in the event that your new machine dies or gets infected. I personally mistrust thumbdrives - they seem to be more error-prone than hard drives or (properly handled) optical discs, and, worse, the errors they produce tend to be silent corruption.

If the data is stuff you don't mind losing that much (huge piles of uncompressed video that you might need if you're remastering the OP or doing Youtube Lets Plays or whatever) but will probably never actually need, putting both drives in a desktop and copying is best, followed by a direct lan connection (which I only know how to do if at least one of the machines is running Linux, but it shouldn't be that hard on other OSes.)

[PyTom]

I don't trust DVDs either.

I keep all my data on hard drives, and make a nightly backup from my primary hard drive to a backup one. The nice thing about having spinning metal hard drives is that they remain hooked up to your computer. Unlike a collection of a large number of DVD+Rs, which can fail silently while being stored, you're likely to find out immediately that your computer's hard drive is failing. You can then take action to replace the failing drive.

I tend to back up important information - Ren'Py, for example - on a server at an offsite location, just to be sure.

[LVUER]

The reason I don't use DVD anymore that it's too small. As long as you properly store them, DVD could last up to 5-10 years (some even to 15 years, depending on the disc quality). But 9GB (dual layer) is just too small (and eventually making it more expensive) and simply not worth the effort. I wish SONY could make cheap blank bluray disc ASAP...

DVD could die a silent death while being storage indeed, but so the HDD. To make things worse, since HDD is electronic device, they're more prone to sudden death while being used. HDD is also vulnerable to virus/other malicious software attacks.

I trust DVD but I don't use them anymore... a contradiction, isn't it ;P