Belkin - Transfer Cable from XP to Vista

Preliminary Remarks

You have bought a new computer system. The operating system may be some version of the new Microsoft Vista and you suddenly realize that all the data on old computer that you need (or just want) is on your old computer. How to transfer it from the old computer to the new one?

One answer is the Belkin Easy Transfer Cable. It works reasonably well but I encountered some problems but not necessarily because of the cable. So, I share the successes and make a note of some problematical issues that I encountered.

Belkin is noted for its peripheral computer equipment. I bought their Belkin Surge Master surge protector many years ago and have been quite satisfied. And with reason, my electricity does goes on and off too many times for unexplained reasons. So, I went with the brand name although there are other similar products.

The Question of Operating Systems

The cable is advertised for the transfer of files from a computer running the Microsoft XP operating system to the Microsoft Vista operating system. While the Vista logo is prominent the XP logo is not. If your machine is older and has an earlier operating system, this software will probably not work. There is no mention on this particular cable and accompanying software of its use with another operating system. I presume it doesn’t.

The Question of Hardware

Although it doesn’t mention it on the package the website notes that both the old computer and the new computer must have Pentium based processors. Since the cable connects to each computer with a USB connector, both computers must have a USB port. The cable is 8 feet long so your old computer and new computer have to be reasonably near each other. The cable has two USB connectors, one at each end, and in the middle of the cable is the hardware box with a monitor light.

Installation of Software

The cable is accompanied by a small CD (3.5 inches in diameter) with the necessary software that must be installed on the new computer and perhaps on the old. Even though the directions didn’t mention this (or at least I didn’t see it) I had to install the same software on each computer. Software installation must be done BEFORE the cable is connected to each computer. Here I ran into my first problem. Before the software is installed there are directions that ask for an identification number. There are numbers on the package and a product number on the cable for neither of these was correct. Finally, I found the desired number at the bottom back of the CD sleeve. I would have thought the tiny label could have been pasted on the CD itself. Don’t lose the sleeve! Or better yet make a label for the CD.

Transferring Files

The menus for copying files are easy to navigate. They resemble Windows Explorer. I copied one folder at a time just because I wanted to organize the documents on the new computer in slightly different ways. Folders that contain data files (word processing txt or doc files, spreadsheet files and databases) were transferred very quickly.

Folders that contained photo files were a bit slower but nothing to complain about. The website says that the transfer rate is 30GB per hour or about 7,500 songs. Since I don’t have anywhere near that many songs I’ll just believe. At any rate (pun intended), the transfers were quick.

Transferring Programs

This is a bit more tricky. I tried to copy some software applications for which I have a license and was not successful. Since I had the original CDs for these applications I reinstalled each of them individually. This turned out to be beneficial since I could reconfigure each application slightly different than I had it before. For example, I reinstalled Microsoft Office 2007 but decided not to install Powerpoint. However, on the Belkin site is a link to Microsoft where it is possible to download software that will allow the Belkin cable to transfer other third-party software.

Transferring Address Books

This was my major problem. Microsoft does not support Microsoft Outlook Express anymore. I had used it as my email software. Now I had to use Microsoft Office Outlook and it took me several tries (over two days) and visits to several websites (including Microsoft) before I finally figured out how to transfer two address books from Express on the old computer to Outlook on the new one. Even so, any groups in the old address book only transferred the name of the group but not the email addresses themselves. I had to rebuild that email list on the new computer. I can’t say for sure that there isn’t a way to do it easier but I didn’t find it.

I decided against transferring my email folders since I really did want to radically reorganize them. I don’t know whether there would have been any similar problems.

A Mystery

The Belkin site compares Belkin to Laplink. But, on the CD the software IS Laplink. Beats me.

Final thought

The alternative ways to transfer files seem tedious at best so the cable route is desirable. Take your time. The name of the cable is “easy” transfer but that’s not entirely true.