Backup Your Laptop Data - Windows O/S

Note: for more information of different ways to backup your laptop, please take a look at http://damtp.cam.ac.uk/internal/computing/laptop/databackup.html

It is possible to backup date from your laptop into either CD or DVD using either of the public Windows XP pc's. The pc in pavilion G, pochard, has a CD writer while the pc in pavilion B. garganey, has the DVD writer (NOTE, pochard only has this funtion ATM).

To make the backup, you firstly need to install some software in order for the USB connection to talk between your laptop and the desktop pc. This software has to be installed before you connect your laptop to the USB cable. The software only takes up 1.4MB of disk space and can be removed once finished with using the standard Add and Remove Software procedure or running the Superlink setup.exe program again. The software runs on Windows 98SE/ME/2000 and XP. It can installed using the link below.

usb - USB2.0 Super Link Virtual Network Zip file, (more on zipping)

The following install procedure should be followed on your laptop as a user with administrative rights!

  1. Unzip the download to your local disk. Locate the setup.exe file and execute it. The first question you'll get asked is what language you want to install the program in.
    usb

    2. You then need to select the 'USB Super Link Adaptor' radio button.
    usb
  2. Use the default location.
    usb

  3. That completes the install. You don't need to reboot your laptop.
    usb

Now you can plug in the USB plug into your laptop. You should see a few windows appearing tetting you that the machine has found new hardware and it's installing the drivers for it. Once these have finished, you can check that the USB adaptor has been correctly install by looking at the Device Manager (Windows Key and the Pause Key, choose the Hardware tab). It should list the adaptor under 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'

usb

All being well, that should conclude the software and driver install. Make sure the other end of the USB Data Transfer Cable is plugged in the pc you want to copy your data to. To start the data transfer, you need to start the superlink program on your laptop before starting the same program on the desktop public pc (Start -> Programs -> System -> USB Superlink -> Superlink). A new window will appear ...

usb

... showing the local computer (your laptop). Run the same program on the desktop pc and press F12 to connect to a remote pc. While it's trying to connect to the laptop, it will say at the bottom of the screen 'Opening Remote Window'. Once the connection has been made, you will then see the drives on the laptop in the bottom window and the drives of the desktop pc in the top window.

usb

You can then choose the files on the laptop that you want to copy to the desktop pc, highlight them and drag them up to the desktop location or cut and paste them. Remember, you need to have Superlink running on both computers for this to work!