Thread: Good USB-C Transfer Cable - Laptop to Laptop

Originally Posted by Saitch

Are there things I should be aware of, when purchasing a Data Transfer Cable?

Mainly that you get what you pay for. Be aware that some "USB" cables are for charging only, no data. So much for the "universal" part of USB. I'd co for a name brand like Samsung, or Belkin, that sort of thing. The blue office shop or the yellow hifi shop will stock them. Or, if you want to pay more, the Store. Those ones will be good but $$$y

Many moons ago Belkin had a transfer cable that you connected to each laptop/computer and it came up with a list of whats on each computer.
You then could transfer whatever you wanted from one to the other, think this was before W10.
I still have that cable lying around somewhere but have not tested whether it works on W10 to W7/8/9 or visa versa.

I dont think that it is for sale anymore either.

DG

get a double ended usb-c

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

get a double ended usb-c

I was told not to use a standard usb-c cable and to use what is referred to as a 'Data Transfer Cable'.

The reason being, that a standard usb-c cable is not designed for Data Transfer and may damage one, or both, 'puters.

Originally Posted by Saitch

The reason being, that a standard usb-c cable is not designed for Data Transfer and may damage one, or both, 'puters.

Unless Windoze is even more stupid than I believe, I doubt that. Data corruption, possibly. As I understand it, a "Data Transfer Cable" will come with software to "enable" the process.

More bloatware. No wonder I have a Mac. USB, Thunderbolt, WiFi, it just works

If you want an exact copy on the new PC you could try this.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

get a double ended usb-c

That won't work. USB is a master/slave protocol. Unless one of the machines has a dual purpose host/gadget port (and I've not seen one on a PC yet) then you'll be connecting a master to a master and they won't talk to each other. Given the protection specified for USB-C you shouldn't damage anything, but it certainly won't work.

Now if you were talking Thunderbolt then that's a different matter. I can connect my desktop to my laptop and they establish a 20GB/s network connection over Thunderbolt. Cable is a bit more $$ though.

A "Data transfer" cable has a USB gadget on each end and will often use some bespoke driver on the windows side to facilitate data transfer.

It'd be far easier to just hook the network ports together, share a folder on the destination machine and just drag and drop the files from the source machine.

Saitch,
Belkin apparently still have there "transfer cable" still available. Good guys,officeworks,hardlynormal,amazon apparently have them.
Good luck which ever way you go.
DG

Originally Posted by BradC

That won't work. USB is a master/slave protocol. Unless one of the machines has a dual purpose host/gadget port (and I've not seen one on a PC yet) then you'll be connecting a master to a master and they won't talk to each other. Given the protection specified for USB-C you shouldn't damage anything, but it certainly won't work.

Now if you were talking Thunderbolt then that's a different matter. I can connect my desktop to my laptop and they establish a 20GB/s network connection over Thunderbolt. Cable is a bit more $$ though.

I should probably stay out of this as my PC experience is way out of date, but what you say about USB isn't the case on a Mac. Migration Assistant works fine, albeit slowly, on USB-C on Macs. It also works over WiFi, even over different networks post El Capitan. Thunderbolt is fastest.

Guess I shouldn't assume....