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Overall Rating

Targus file transfer cable saved my data
Well one day my XP laptop failed to boot up properly. I could only get it to boot up in “Safe Mode”. I spent many hours trying to resolve the boot-up problem, but ultimately I was not successful. I was going to have to re-install Windows. But first, I had to get my important files off of the laptop! (Of course, I did not have a recent backup.)

The problem is that in Safe Mode, I could not get files off of my laptop and onto some other storage device. USB flash drives did not work. Burning CD’s did not work. Networking did not work. Ugh.

Then I stumbled upon this Targus cable in a store and decided to give it a try. I had access to a borrowed Vista laptop. So I plugged the fat end of the cable into the working Vista machine, and the skinny end of the cable into my XP machine running in Safe Mode. And, lo and behold, the EasySuite software popped up on both laptops and I had an effortless way to copy files from the XP to the Vista machine. After so many hours of trying things that did not work, it was a delight to be able to use this product, which worked for me despite my XP laptop being in Safe Mode. It almost seemed too easy, but I’m glad it worked!

Overall Rating

Good for transferring large files or multiple files, not for complete backup
Installation
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The installation is fairly simple. I plug in one end of the cable to winxp notebook and the other end into winvista PC. It does not matter if you swap the ends. For winvista, installation of driver is fully automatic. For winxp, it is almost fully automatic except you need to restart the PC once. Once the driver is installed in each machine, the cable is detected as a CDROM drive (kind of weird). Using My Computer, you can access the drive and run the program. Before you can transfer files between the two machines, you need to run the program in both machines. This means the cable only works for Mac and winxp/vista and no other devices. Once loaded, you will be able to transfer files between the 2 machines.
Transferring files
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As described by the manufacturer, the purpose of the product is to transfer files between two machines (Mac/Winxp/winvista) at speeds up to 480mbps. A plus feature is you are able to synchronize folders as well as emails. But be warned that the although the interface is similar to windows explorer, the functionality is nowhere near the robust functionality of windows explorer. You cannot right click and get info of folders and files. In addition, you won’t be able to view names in other languages. Long names also give problems. Overally, I can say the software is generations behind winxp. I transferred a 480MB file and it took around 24s, means, the speed is 20mb/s. Both machines have USB 2.0. I also tried transferring multiple files (smaller), 4401 of them, total size of 92MB and it took 3min.
Recommendations
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If you expect to backup your programs or even the whole windows into another PC with a super large hard drive, this product won’t work. If you have wireless in both machines and don’t mind slightly slower transfer speed, you won’t need this either. If you have a lot of files (which total more than ordinary USB flash drive) to transfer and need high speed transfer and the two machines can be placed next to each other (the cable is only a few feet long), I would recommend this product. If you just need another means of transfer for contingency (wireless down, not secure, lost your USB flash drive), go get one.