computer upgrade question

[Chad Fitzgerald]

Im finally upgrading to a new computer with Windows 7. Here is my plan but would like opinions on if it makes sense.
Current computer is Win XP with corel x4. print driver for the laser will need upgrade for win 7 and in order to do that i need to update the bios and firmware.
I am getting a cnc therefore vcarve software for new computer which is why i am updated now.
Im going to leave corel x4 and print driver for laser on XP computer, network it with new computer using 1 moniter and a toggle to switch between the two. design in corel and send to laser like normal, import corel files from old computer to vcarve when designing for cnc. send cnc files to cnc computer and go.

Does this make sense. i am trying to avoid too much change at one time. also the upgrade cost to corel x7 to run on new computer, would rather not lay that out right now, figure i can do that down the road.
change makes me nervous, upgrading the print driver really make me nervous as i am very busy right now and can not afford for something to go wrong and have the laser down for any amount of time. want to wait until i have plenty of time to make sure everything is right.
FYI, i am very good at USING the computer and software. BUT Making changes to it and making it work scares the heck out of me.

Appreciate any thoughts, suggestions and opinions.
chad

[Jason Hilton]

If your machines are on the internet I'd suggest using Dropbox to keep your files synced. That way you can edit on you Coral machine, save, and not have to send or transfer the files before working on/importing them to your new machine to use on VCarve. Added benefit is they're backed up and synced automatically, so if you lose a machine or machines you don't lose your files.

[Keith Winter]

Ok I must admit I was slightly confused as to the question you are asking.

If the question is how to best secure your files, get a Nas drive I recommend synology they have a nice light program that runs on the pc at night and backups up everything to it. Easy and keeps your files secure. If you really want to secure them get a nas plus two external backups keep one at home and swap weekly or backup your Nas to amazon cloud.

If the question is where to get a new computer, newegg is where we buy all ours. A nice and powerful win 7 pc will run you about $500-$600

[Craig Matheny]

Ok on the computer upgrade you might want to read this article on win 7.... http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010820/how-long-will-microsoft-support-windows-7.html this is a support issue for win 7 (I know links are bad But this is important) Plus trying to find a good computer with win 7 might be a challenge also unless your getting it custom built. FYI mine are all win 7 and 1 vista (wife's doesn't want to change)

Back ups I have a Seagate 4 bay business NAS hot swap-able 4t bytes full duplication plus a Dropbox account and I back up weekly on to a thumb drive and goes off site. for cheap and easy Drop box does a great job. You can also use sugarsync if you need to sync files on different computers used that for 3 years when we had the store. The otther thing is change properties to read only on all finished files prevents the accidental overwrite :D

[Chris Parks]

Networking XP and WIN 7 is not straight forward and IIRC never 100%.

[Scott Shepherd]

Networking XP and WIN 7 is not straight forward and IIRC never 100%.

It seems to me that when we did it, it would not work with Windows 7 Home, which is what our computer at the time came with. We had to upgrade to Windows 7 Pro to get that to work. I think that's the case, but it's worth checking to make sure.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

Sorry bout the confusion:
I wasnt asking(or even thinking) about secure storage. currently everything is stored on the computer.

I will double check into the win7 and xp like scott mentioned.


I want to keep the old computer (xp with corel x4 and print driver) and
get a new computer(getting it from local computer place who will be setting it up) with win7 for internet, vcarve, etc.
I do not want two monitors, keyboards on the desk. i do not want to have to move files via a thumb drive, so
i want to link them with a toggle switch, use both computers but only one monitor, keyboard.
i want to network for ease of transferring files.

Does this make sense? Am i missing something?

Craig, thank for the link, will have to check on that as well.
Thanks Chad

[Mike Null]

I use a KVM switch with my XP pro and Win 7 Pro. I do not network them. I have a download folder on both desktops (my pc geek did it) and I save a file there and can access it from both pcs. My primary pc, the Win 7 Pro is backed up with Carbonite which I feel is a worthwhile service.

I need the XP Pro to run my old version of Engravlab--an upgrade is just too expensive.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

thanks Mike, KVM switch is what my computer guy said. I will ask him about the download folder, that seems perfect. not wanting to upgrade right now is why i want to keep the XP as well.
Thanks
Chad

[Curt Harms]

How much do you have to keep backed up and share? For modest needs I have a router with a USB port in the back that appears as another drive when there's an external drive or flash drive plugged into it. It shows up in Windows Explorer (not internet explorer) automagically. I can use a simple file syncing program to keep data folders on multiple machines synced and it also provides a local data backup if a hard drive gets corrupted or dies. I don't believe this requires enabling file and print sharing which is or at least has been a security issue.

[Ross Moshinsky]

I have a network of XP, Win 7, and Win 8. Store all our files on a Win XP computer as a shared folder. Map network drives on all the other computers. It's pretty painless and works as you'd expect. The main folder is made redundant on another computer through the same thought process using a free piece of software. There are LOTS of writeups on how to setup a basic Windows network. It's really not difficult.

Also Windows 8 gets a bad wrap in my opinion. The interface is awful for general computing but Classic Shell takes care of that and makes it look pretty much like a Windows 7 computer.

You should not make any change in computer systems until you have time to work through the bugs. Adding a system, getting all the drivers up to date, installing all the software, and everything linked together is normally, at minimum, a few hours for me. If you're not comfortable with it or doing it for the first time, expect it to take a few days.

[John Noell]

It's pretty easy to let up a shared folder, so as long as both computers are on, you can have a folder on one computer and a shortcut to it on the other computer. That said, there are a few issues in linking XP and Win7 boxes (e.g., you will want to turn off 'password protected sharing' on the win7 box). Someone who has the knowledge can save you a lot of trouble. The web has some good tutorials (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15247/complete-guide-to-networking-windows-7-with-xp-and-vista/). MS also has some instructions (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/networking-home-computers-running-different-windows#networking-home-computers-running-different-windows=windows-7).

[Mike Null]

I forgot to mention that when you use the KVM switch you must also use a USB mouse and keyboard. Cordless won't work with the KVM.

[Jason Hilton]

I know I've mentioned this, but the easiest way to save networking headaches is use a cloud service to sync. Dropbox or google drive sync through the internet and a local network, with the added benefit of cloud storage so you don't lose your work if your office burns down. My girlfriend is a photographer and video editor, I'm a UX designer. We are typically actively working with around 20gb of data (mostly her active photo work). We have the following setup:

On all machines:
-Dropbox and google drive (dropbox is free to 2gb of storage, Google Drive is 30gb for 50$ a year): Dropbox and Drive we use to keep all our active working files synced and backed up

Network:
-Synology 2413+ RAID NAS with Crashplan Cloud backup (Raid is currently configured with 4x3tb drives for 8tb of storage in modified Raid 5, Crashplan is 50$/year for unlimited backup): We use the raid to store and backup our completed work. Photos take up the majority, and everything is automatically backed up nightly to Crashplan. As needed we can add capacity to our RAID so we can have quick access to client files locally.

The goal is redundancy. There is no scenario short of global catastrophe that would cause us to lose any data, so our most important business asset is completely protected.

[Lee DeRaud]

Im going to leave corel x4 and print driver for laser on XP computer, network it with new computer using 1 moniter and a toggle to switch between the two. design in corel and send to laser like normal, import corel files from old computer to vcarve when designing for cnc. send cnc files to cnc computer and go.

Does this make sense. i am trying to avoid too much change at one time. also the upgrade cost to corel x7 to run on new computer, would rather not lay that out right now, figure i can do that down the road.
change makes me nervous, upgrading the print driver really make me nervous as i am very busy right now and can not afford for something to go wrong and have the laser down for any amount of time. want to wait until i have plenty of time to make sure everything is right.You're making it harder than it needs to be, IMHO. I went through a similar evolution a year or so back: was running the laser off a 32-bit XP machine, wanted to bring that setup into line with the rest of my 64-bit Win7 stuff.

The key phrase in what you are doing is "new computer". Get it, set it up, and install Corel X4 and the new print drivers on it. Move the cables from the old machine to the new machine. Test the laser. Does it work? If yes, you're done...if not, you haven't touched the old machine yet, just move the cables back. I guarantee that process will be cleaner and simpler than working out the cabling and whatnot for the KVM setup. (And yes, X4 works fine under Win7 and the licensing for both X4 and Vcarve allow it to be installed on multiple machines.)

Full disclosure: I'm not a big fan of of KVM switches. Even if it works right, you end up either having two "computers" that behave differently or you find yourself getting confused about which one is active at the moment. DAMHIKT.

[Lee DeRaud]

It's pretty easy to let up a shared folder, so as long as both computers are on, you can have a folder on one computer and a shortcut to it on the other computer. That said, there are a few issues in linking XP and Win7 boxes (e.g., you will want to turn off 'password protected sharing' on the win7 box).In my experience, there tend to be symmetry problems: the XP machine could always see the Win7 machine, but the Win7 machine sometimes could not see the XP machine...it seemed to depend on which one came out of sleep mode first.

[John Noell]

...but the Win7 machine sometimes could not see the XP machine...it seemed to depend on which one came out of sleep mode first.
I think the trick there is to use hard coded IP addresses. I have not seen that fail.
On a side note: I just received notification that Win10 (soon to arrive) is NOT compatible with X4. However, I am happily using X4 with the preview version of Corel X4.

[Mike Audleman]

I forgot to mention that when you use the KVM switch you must also use a USB mouse and keyboard. Cordless won't work with the KVM.

Yes, they will. You plug the dongle into the KVM, then USB cables from KVM to each computer. Works fine.

In any event, the OP needs two solutions here.

1. KVM
2. Share Storage

The KVM solves one KB, Monitor and Mouse. But do note that you simply can't cut/copy/paste from one to the other. To move data from one to the other you have two choices:

1. USB sticks and drives
2. Networking

Option 1 is the the most PITA. You have to save something on a device, unplug it, move it to the 2nd machine and then access the files there. Don;t do it.

Option 2 has further options:
2a. Share on one PC
2b. NAS or other shared device or cloud

You can share a folder on one PC and access it locally as well as from another PC. Its the cheapest option as its free and built into windows. Good way to get started.

Option 2b is more expensive but is more fault tolerant. In Option 2a, if the machine with the share fails, you loose all the files. With a NAS (Network Attached Storage), you can set it up to have two drives in a "mirror" raid array. This writes the data to both drives simultaneously. If one fails, you have a second there already online. Buy a replacement and rebuild the array. This is what I use (to extreme) at home, see below. They are pretty easy to set up and offer fault tolerance to the mix. Expensive though.

Other options are online services such as DropBox but space is limited. Free though. And it offers fire insurance. If your house burns down, your files are still on DropBox. Its totally transparent to you. It works and looks like a regular folder but when you save something there, they are shipped to Dropbox. This also has the side benefit of getting them available on your phone, tablet and anywhere with an internet connection and a browser (remember your user/pass).



As for my NASs....and way beyond what the OP needs...
I have two.
NAS #1 has 4 drives, 2tb each. There are 2 pairs of volumes, two drives in mirrored pairs. The primary one gets direct updates from the PC (software monitors folder changes and writes files to the NAS immediately). The software came with it and is configured to watch a folder on the PC. Any change, poof its on the NAS. It also does nightly backups of non-watched folders. The second volume on NAS 1 is a backup of volume 1. Each night it backs up whats on volume 1 to volume 2.

My 2nd NAS contains a pair of 2tb drives in a mirror. It backs up the first NAS's volume 1 at weekly intervals. Once a month I pull a drive from this pair and park it on a shelf disconnected from the grid here at work. The drive that was here at work gets rotated back to the house on the shelf. The one that was on the shelf gets put back in the NAS.

Depending on the age of the file, its going to exist on several drives. A new file just created will exist on a mirror pair on the PC. At the save, it gets copied to the pair of drives on Nas1V1. So it lives on a total of 4 drives within seconds of creation. At that point I could instantly loose up to 3 of the hard drives and still have my data. Its never happened. That night its backed up to Nas1V2 and now exists on 6 drives. That weekend, it gets backed up to Nas2 and now exists on 8 drives. At the first of the month, the drive is pulled from Nas2 and put at work and an old drive is cycled in. Now its on 9 drives. The following month, the drive cycles again and its brought back to the house and an old drive is again put in Nas2. Now its on 10. One of which sits in a server room here at work.

If the following day, I accidentally delete the file, Nas1V1 will pick up the change and delete it from itself. But, I can go to Nas1V2 and get the file back.

PC and Nas2 are on one UPS. Nas1 and my router/switches are on a separate UPS. I would have to have both UPSs fail at the same time as a thief breaks into my house and steels all the drives on my shelf while at the same time my work's server room (protected by a halon system) would have to burn to the ground before I would loose all my files. Then there are the CD and DVD backups using M-Disk blanks ;)

Jst call me Capt. Overkill.

[Bruce Clumpner]

They do if the KVM has any USB slots.. My ConnectPro does and works great with logitech receivers

[Chad Fitzgerald]

appreciate all the opinions and help. gonna print this entire thread off for my computer geek to look at and let him decide which is best. some of this is over my head.
i just want simple and easy. and it to work.
Thanks all
Chad

[Kev Williams]

No real opinions other than newer computers won't work with my older machines, so I have a lot of older computers.

Some of you may get a kick out of my network. All of this in our house...314845

[Mike Null]

Good to know about the cordless but wrong on the sharing files.

Don't know how it's done but I have a shortcut on both desktops that I place a file in and I can pick it up on the other machine. Works both ways and they are not networked.

[Lee DeRaud]

Don't know how it's done but I have a shortcut on both desktops that I place a file in and I can pick it up on the other machine. Works both ways and they are not networked.Eh? The only way that works is if they're both talking to a common outside server (or disk drive) without talking directly to each other.
And that qualifies as "networked" by any definition I've ever seen.

[Lee DeRaud]

I think the trick there is to use hard coded IP addresses. I have not seen that fail.Hadn't considered that, but it's certainly possible. Not an issue anymore, but if I were still chasing the problem, I'd probably try to increase the DHCP lease time on the router to some stupidly high value: the machines in question sometimes went weeks without being woken up.

(And yes, I know what you're thinking: I do indeed sometimes go that long without firing up the laser.)

[Mike Null]

Suit yourself but that folder is the only folder accessible on both computers. I cannot access other files or printers from both pcs as a network configuration would allow. I told my pc guy I didn't want a network.

[Lee DeRaud]

Suit yourself but that folder is the only folder accessible on both computers. I cannot access other files or printers from both pcs as a network configuration would allow. I told my pc guy I didn't want a network.A network doesn't allow access to files/printers on another computer unless you enable sharing. It sounds like what your PC guy did was simply restrict sharing over the network to a single folder.
Notice I said "over the network", because that's what you have: the fact that access is (overly) restricted doesn't change the definition of the word.

[Mike Null]

How would I determine that? I look at my network settings and see nothing that would tip me to a network.

[Gary Hair]

How would I determine that? I look at my network settings and see nothing that would tip me to a network.

If you have two computers connected together in any way, you have a network.

[Kev Williams]

Not sure I understand the 'no network' thing... don't know if anyone checked out (or cares about) my pdf ('my network') above, but I have 7 computers running 14 different machines and various software. One is running Win98, one is running 8.1, one is running Win7 Ent64, the other 4 are all running WinXP Pro. All are networked and all have complete file and printer sharing. 5 of the 7 computers I can run from from each other via 'Remote Desktop'. The only reason I can't run Remote Desktop with the other 2, win98 is too old, and the Win8.1 computer is so much trouble to get to interact with the others I don't even bother. File sharing is enough for those. Between Remote Desktop and sharing, I can run any program or machine, or do any office work on any of those 5 computers.

4 of the 7 computers are within my 'roll space', a 6' square area where I roll around on my chair and do 'sit' work. One is my 'hub', that's connected to my cable modem and router. It's the only 'email' computer. One computer is at the other end of the shop, the one my BIL uses. One is in the garage shop, the last one is up in the office.

One of my 'roll space' computers just sits, don't even have a monitor for it. It's a 10 year old Compaq. It runs no programs. It's loaded with LPT/COM ports to run 5 machines, and contains 3 hard drives that are my "common" drives. One of those drives is THEE drive for all of my saved work files. That drive, and the most used folders on it are set up as network drive on every computer. I back up my work files to two other drives regularly: the drive in my 8.1 and an external drive in the office. I've been going to connect a drive to mirror the common drive as a failsafe, just haven't gotten to it yet.

I've been running this setup for over 15 years. Only thing that changes is when I've added or moved machines. It allows me nearly total freedom. When a job is done I can make an invoice from whatever computer I'm on. Even tho email only comes to one computer, I can get it from ANY computer. If any computer fails, I'm not dead in the water. If the server computer fails, I just get another one. If the server common drive fails, I'm backed up to within a few days at worst.

All computers are always connected to the internet. Knock on my head, I've never not once ever had any kind of virus or hacking issue that my basic firewalls and free AV & AM software haven't been able to take care of. Since the dreaded "get your XP off the internet!!" commandment from 14 months ago, I've had zero virus threats detected....

I'm not about to suggest my system to anyone. But I'd love to hear a real, actual reason why I should not have my computers networked. I'm at a loss...

[Mike Null]

Kevin

I think maybe it's only me who doesn't want mine networked. I don't use social media either. I am not advising anybody to do what I'm doing and as I read this thread I may not even know what I'm doing.:confused:

[Craig Matheny]

i want to link them with a toggle switch, use both computers but only one monitor, keyboard.
i want to network for ease of transferring files.


Thanks Chad

This is possible http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-connect-two-or-more-computers-to-one-monitor/ this is a link explaining the concept using a KVM switch

[Lee DeRaud]

I don't use social media either.:confused: Internet forums like this one are social media.

[Craig Matheny]

Good to know about the cordless but wrong on the sharing files.

Don't know how it's done but I have a shortcut on both desktops that I place a file in and I can pick it up on the other machine. Works both ways and they are not networked.
Drop box, sugar sync, google cloud, apple the list goes on any of those cloud based systems allow for this function

[Jason Hilton]

Also Mike, if you have a single shortcut where both files go you definitely have your computers networked.

[Lee DeRaud]

Drop box, sugar sync, google cloud, apple the list goes on any of those cloud based systems allow for this functionYes, but to use those systems, both the computers sharing the files have to have an Internet connection.
In this case, there's an extremely high probability that they are sharing a single Internet connection through a router...i.e. networked.

[Mike Audleman]

Good to know about the cordless but wrong on the sharing files.

Don't know how it's done but I have a shortcut on both desktops that I place a file in and I can pick it up on the other machine. Works both ways and they are not networked.

Mike, right click the short cut on each machine and select "Properties". Copy down the "Target" from the properties box from each machine. Post a message here with each of their "Target" locations. I will almost bet one of the two points to the other machine. If not, there is software behind the scenes copying them.



Also Mike, if you have a single shortcut where both files go you definitely have your computers networked.

Yea, unless he has one of those Osmosis cards where the two computers can just be near each other and absorb data ;)

[Mike Null]

Mike

Here's the target for each machine. This is from the shortcut folder on each desktop. Is there something else I should look for (aside from my pc guys phone no.)?

C:\Users\mike\Downloads Asus Win7 Pro machine
C:\Users\mike\Downloads Lenovo Win XP Pro

[Kev Williams]

Kevin

I think maybe it's only me who doesn't want mine networked. I don't use social media either. I am not advising anybody to do what I'm doing and as I read this thread I may not even know what I'm doing.:confused:



:confused: Internet forums like this one are social media.

Well yah, 'Bulletin Board Forums' are a form of social media, but they usually have a narrow focus. And are typically NOT accessed by your phone.

IMO, the popular definition of "Social Media" is apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat that idiots can do while driving a car... :mad:

[Lee DeRaud]

Well yah, 'Bulletin Board Forums' are a form of social media, but they usually have a narrow focus. And are typically NOT accessed by your phone.

IMO, the popular definition of "Social Media" is apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat that idiots can do while driving a car... :mad:What? You can't get SMC on your iPhone?!?

[Mike Audleman]

Well yah, 'Bulletin Board Forums' are a form of social media, but they usually have a narrow focus. And are typically NOT accessed by your phone.

IMO, the popular definition of "Social Media" is apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat that idiots can do while driving a car... :mad:

I direct your attention to....
https://tapatalk.com/

And you can read it while driving your SUV at 20 below the limit in the fast lane on the freeway.

[Gary Hair]

C:\Users\mike\Downloads Asus Win7 Pro machine
C:\Users\mike\Downloads Lenovo Win XP Pro

Mike - like it or not, your computers are networked. Not sure what your aversion is to a network, but your computers can't communicate (share files) without being networked. In the "old days", a network consisted of a server and client computers, what you have is a peer to peer network, no server involved, just computers connected together to share something.

[Mike Null]

Well, regardless, it ain't broke so I ain't gonna fix it.

[Craig Matheny]

Yes, but to use those systems, both the computers sharing the files have to have an Internet connection.
In this case, there's an extremely high probability that they are sharing a single Internet connection through a router...i.e. networked.
Some have made this so confusing, having access to the internet is not networking.. yes in Mikes case having two computers he has some form of network even though it is not being used for anything other then access to the internet (so yes technically it is a network) The thing is, the down load folders short cuts that Mike shared, show that the folders are not shared from machine to machine so the 2 machines do not work across a pier to pier network. Mike has some form of cloud based storage and using it to sync machine to machine and have a backup off site for emergency as many have stated.