Belkin Easy Transfer Cable helps you share between XP, Vista machines

Belkin's just come out with its Easy Transfer Cable, which we're guessing by the cryptic name allows you to, um, easily transfer stuff via the magic of USB. You plug one end into your XP machine, and another into your Vista box, and voilà, the bits start flying. Belkin claims that this eight-foot cable will transfer at speeds of up to 480Mbps (yep, that's standard USB 2.0, indeed), which translates to 30GB in an hour. Is this convenience worth a pair of Jacksons ($40)? We'll let you decide for yourself.

[Iain @ Jan 8th 2007 3:03PM]

Talk about USB OCD. Thanks Belkin, but if you actually serious about getting stuff transfered over in anything less than a decade than look Firewire's way and then give me a shout. Hoping USB will roll over and die. Iggy.

[rogersmj @ Jan 8th 2007 3:10PM]

Wow, this early in 2007 and we already have a product going for the "Dumbest rebranded product for dumb suckers to buy" award. IT'S A F***ING USB CABLE.

If you recall, the winner in 2006 was the XtremeMac iPod Audio Splitter (http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/04/wanna-share-your-sounds-ipod-splitter/).

[Wonderboy @ Jan 8th 2007 3:17PM]

Uh, not just a USB cable... this thing is a USB cable with software to make things easier. Which actually sounds pretty good. Trying to transfer files between my work laptop and my home network is a pain since my company has things set up so particularly.

For a lot of people this will be very much worth it... for me, I'm not sure, I'm relatively proficient at networking and usually get by... but who knows, maybe one of these days I'll feel the need for one of these.

[Roceh @ Jan 8th 2007 3:27PM]

Well its not just a usb cable, its a bridged usb cable, theres some electronics in the middle that handle the data exchange. Basically it looks like a usb device to both pcs.

You can get usb cables with just the pc connector at both ends and no electronics in the middle, but if you plug two pcs together with one of these you will most likely damage the usb ports.

[josh.hampton @ Jan 8th 2007 3:28PM]

How is this different from say... Any other usb-male to usb-male cable?

[Trojan @ Jan 8th 2007 3:34PM]

As other users have pointed out, it's not just a USB Cable, it's designed to work with the Windows Vista Easy Transfer Wizard that will transfer all of your data, users, user settings, etc from a Windows XP/2000/2003 machine to a brand new Vista Computer.

[Pax @ Jan 8th 2007 3:42PM]

First I have been testing this cable for 4 months. Its primary function is to be used with Windows Easy Transfer Wizard. It is the ONLY official cable that can be used with Windows Easy Transfer Wizard. The Alohabob cable (Microsoft Owned) does not even work with WET.

Belkin USB Transfer Cable:
Data Volume: 5.03 GB
Setup Time: 3:00 (first time)
Transfer Time: 13:30
Total Time: 16:30

Third Party USB Cable:
Data Volume: 5.03 GB
Setup Time: 30 Seconds
Transfer Time: 12:22
Total Time: 12:52

And yes the Third Party cable is faster but they were unable to obtain licensing from Microsoft for it and will not be put into production.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jan 8th 2007 3:54PM]

OMG. What could be worse?? That thing is licensed by M$???

In any course of events - count me out. I'd rather buy couple of USB FE adapters.

Or crossover cable. Though last time I tried transfer over GE crossover link, both Windows machine basically hanged until transfer ended. That was record in our office moving 1GB of data - but we do not do it anymore, since apparently Windows XP cannot reliably sustain such rates (when data go directly to hard drive). Hope Vista pares better. (Transfers off and to Linux server go slower - but XP remains usable for all the time of transfer. What is definitely plus.)

[dave @ Jan 8th 2007 3:42PM]

what happened to crossover ethernet cables?

[Ken @ Jan 8th 2007 3:48PM]

lol, x-over would make things too easy.

[Susan @ Jan 28th 2008 2:08PM]

I just bought a Belkin crossover Ethernet cable to transfer data from old computer to new, but none of the data transfer software I've been able to find works with it. Anyone know of any? Thanks!

[dave @ Jan 28th 2008 3:36PM]

try sync toy - its available for free from microsoft and should recognize your second pc if you've mapped it...or just drag and drop

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jan 8th 2007 3:47PM]

Apparently this is NOT USB On-The-Go.

I've seen couple of solutions like that before and only news for me here is the price: $40. Though I'd rather go with USB Ethernet - one such FE adapter costs $20. Slower but can be reused and is also guaranteed to work under other OSs.

P.S. To Iain: Firewire has it's own bunch of problems too. Though I personally prefer it (for data transfers) over USB too. Funnily enough, practically achievable peak data transfer rate of USB is higher than thous of Firewire: bus mastering takes its toll. CPU load with USB transfers is of course can (and often does) go into teens - compared to moderate wee numbers of FireWire. But, nobody counts CPU times anymore: raw speed / price == USB wins. Sad reality. (Bit like SCSI lost to (S)ATA: price is everything.)

[joe @ Jan 8th 2007 4:44PM]

with vista, you can no longer do ip over firewire like you could with xp and regular ethernet would get done by the time they come out with the next os. this could be a good solution for anyone who has to regularly transfer large files between operating systems...i would consider getting one of these. how valuable is your time, you could use a hdd but you have to wait on transfer in both directions. the deciding factor for most people is frequency of use and amount of data being transfered. that's my perspective.

[Joe P @ Jan 8th 2007 4:45PM]

I'm assuming that it can also do XP to XP and Vista to Vista transfers as well?

[Russell @ Jan 8th 2007 5:02PM]

Almost anyone reading this blog is smart enough to network 2 pc's together to do file transfer, even if you still end up using windows easy transfer over that network. Most PC's have ethernet built in or as mentioned USB ethernet is cheap.

This cable is for the 95% complete and total technoobs that don't know what data is or where theirs is stored.

Not a bad idea for $40 if it works seamlessly and really does get all their important files.

[km @ Jan 8th 2007 5:46PM]

FYI: USB 2.0 (480Mbps) is faster than Firwire (400Mbps)

[Maurs @ Jan 8th 2007 6:06PM]

It is faster in theory, but in practice firewire generally has higher throughput. Of course, there is also now Firewire 800 which pretty much crushes USB2.0.

[Andrew @ Jan 8th 2007 6:57PM]

Compusa carries it, in stores now. had it for about a month or two.

[... @ Jan 8th 2007 6:58PM]

Have NONE of you ever heard of this nifty thing called ethernet? Any computer running vista damn well have a gigabit ethernet port on it, so all you need is a standard, non crossover, cat5e cable, which should run you less then $1. Then reap the benefits of 1000mb/s of data.

But really it isn't all that important since many harddrives can't even transfer data over a few hundred m/bs, especially since you data is all fragmented...

[Susan @ Jan 28th 2008 2:09PM]

Once you connect two computers via regular (non-crossover) Ethernet cable, how do you see from one computer into the storage of the other? I bought a crossover Ethernet cable, but none of the data transfer software out there works with it.

[Clint Roberts @ Jan 8th 2007 7:52PM]

I have been using a Move It On Over for quite some time. This sounds like the same thing. It's easy to simply hook two computers together and drag and drop (once you get to the correct place on the drives). It was $40 and makes nice for transferring large files like movie and DivX without the internediate step of a flash or hard drive. Plus I can use it on different computers without having to configure a network.

[Vinay Venkatesh @ Jan 8th 2007 10:12PM]

Incidentally 480Mbps does not convert 30GB an hour. It translates to much more :P 480/8 = 60 MB/s. 60 MB * 60seconds = 3600 MB/minute. 3600 MB/minute * 60minutes = 216000MB/hour. That's 216 GB/hour.

Slightly more than 30GB. However, I somewhat doubt that there will actually be 60MB of data being transfered per second. I think that's a very hopeful number...

[joe @ Jan 10th 2007 3:29PM]

that's megabits per second...you are thinking of mega bytes per second. they sound similar but are very different 25 Mbps is around 3MBps. so it is actually slower than you think. don't worry, many people (including tech junkies)don't seem to know the difference.

[thanatos12 @ Jan 9th 2007 9:24PM]

jesus crist, give me a break it'a a friggin m/m usb cable with a led light that lights up when its connected to power...if you buy this your an idiot and should make sure you read the safety label: for external use only

[Christo @ Apr 7th 2007 5:38PM]

If you were to take "a friggin m/m usb cable" and connect it to two computers, you will kill off the USB ports. There *is* a difference between this and a simple USB cable: the circuitry in the middle is *not* just for a pretty light. USB requires a "host" and a "guest". You can't simply connect two computers which are both "hosts". This takes care of that problem.

[E71 @ Jan 13th 2007 8:13AM]

Don't let those lieing b*****ds fool you. I had an older version of the Belkin USB-to-USB cable. Extremely poor performance and failed to work, randomly.

[George @ Mar 27th 2007 12:39PM]

Am trying to transfer data and files from my old XP machine to a new Visata machine.After loading the Belkin Easy Transfer software on the XP machine, I connected the tranfer cable between the 2 machines and followed the on-screen instructions. The light was blinking on the Belkin device and I thought the data was being transferred. I let the device run for at least 17 hours straight but it appears nothing was being transferred. What am I doing wrong?

[richardsd @ May 4th 2007 1:36PM]

so i have a regular Ethernet cable and i want to transfer from xp to vista. wat software do i need to transfer and were can i get it.

[allan evans @ May 8th 2007 2:37PM]

Purchased Vista and nothing but problems. I used Belkin to transfer from my previous XP. I have now decided to return Vista machine and have ordered new XP loaded computer. Can I transfer from Vista to the new XP?

[Jack @ Jun 3rd 2007 11:41PM]

Belkin Easy Transfer Cable for Windows Vista™
Can it be used to transfer for window xp to xp?
Instead of vista to xp.
please help..

[JRick @ Jun 26th 2007 12:32PM]

I purchased this ETC hoping to transfer data from my old machine to my new computer. I followed all of the on screen directions. (What a Flop)please come up with something that works.

[John Ricker @ Jun 26th 2007 3:45PM]

It does not work

[MRLILLY @ Jul 1st 2007 6:11PM]

I WISH I HAD READ THIS INFORMATION BEFORE. HOW IS IT THAT IN 2007 A HUGE CORPORATION CAN SEE A NEED AND NOT FILL IT. WHY WASTE THE TIME AND ENERGY TO PACKAGE A PRODUCT THAT DOES NOT WORK!! IT IS CERTAINLY NOT EASY, IT IS SLOW, AND IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU ANY CONTROL OVER WHAT IT COPIES FROM ONE PC TO THE OTHER. SOMEONE AT BELKIN AND DELL NEEDS TO LOSE THEIR JOBS FOR THIS ONE. AS I AM SURE SOMEONE GOT PAID FOR THIS USELESS PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY.

[IslandGirl @ Oct 28th 2007 11:29AM]

Wow! Just got a new laptop and want to transfer all of my "valuable" photographs, not to mention, banking info from my old computer. I ordered the wireless stuff to network with my old computer which I fear is going to crash at any time. I was just about to order this "easy transfer cable", but I can see that there is a lot of controversy here!!! Should I just wait until I network? It's costing me $60. for the networking stuff, then $5.00 a month.

[Linda @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:11AM]

I tried 3 times unsuccesfully to transfer files from my old computer to the new. At this point when I plug in the usb's neither computer will show they are connected. I've spent $35 and countless hours and still have no files transfered! All software is installed and the program opens but doesn't recognize the cables are connected. The program goes to the screen to choose how to transfer files when I click on use easy transfer cable it tells me to install the cable and connect the computers. I have no network between the two computers. At this point I may have to try using the flash drives, what a mess!

[armin @ Apr 16th 2008 9:53AM]

I have tried to transfer from my XP to Vista several times....it did not work....indicating that too much stuff was being transfered and Vista did not have enough space. My question: How do I select say one item only from "My Document" to transfer without the entire stuff in "MyDocument" Furthermore I would like to transfer my pictures in "Picasa2" to my new Vista machine....how do I select only certain pic's to be transfered and not the entire program? Looking forward to hearing from someone...thanks

[Billy @ Apr 29th 2009 6:19PM]

Count me among the "Belkin Easy Transfer Cable Is a Stupid Piece of Crap That Doesn't Effing Work" camp. Tried using one just for simplicity's sake when attempting to migrate a user from a dying XP laptop to a new Vista model, and program would freeze with a flashing icon complaining that the USB connection had been broken, despite the fact that the two were obviously solidly connected. I trashed the thing, and eventually did the job by dragging/dropping to a thumbdrive.