This is part 2 of a 6 part article series. To read the introduction, please visit How to Transfer Your Photos from One Computer to Another.
What’s the best way to transfer digital photographs from one computer to another? If your new computer is running Windows Vista and your old computer is running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista, then Windows Easy Transfer is probably your best option – especially if you need to move more than just your photos. But let’s start by taking a look at some other options:
Email – This is probably the easiest and cheapest way to transfer your digital photos. However, it may not be your best option if you need to transfer a significant amount of photos, thus making the file sizes very large, or if you’re on bandwidth limitations. There are free email providers which offer a remarkable amount of storage space, such as Google’s Gmail who currently offer 6 gigabytes (GB) of free storage (25 GB if you pay for the Premier Edition). The steps for emailing photos are easy:
- Select the photos and/or folders you wish to email.
- Right-click, choose “Send To” and then “Mail Recipient” from the drop-down menu. A window may open that will give you the option to resize your photos, making the file size smaller. You’ll want to keep the original size if you plan to do more with your photos than just email. Making the size smaller will reduce image quality. Click on Attach. [See Image 1] [See Image 2]
- A new email will open with the selected photos and/or folders attached. Simply fill in the email address to which you’d like your photos sent.
- On your new computer, open the email account to which you sent the pictures and save the photos.
The above instructions assume that you’re emailing from a mail client such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Mail. If you want to do the transfer from a webmail account, simply compose a new message, select “Attach Files” and navigate to where the photos are on your computer, and then follow steps 3 and 4.
Keep in mind that most email servers have size limitations. So, just because your storage capacities may be measured in GBs, you might only be able to send emails up to 10 megabytes (MB) or so; accordingly, you may need to email your photos in batches.
Next>> Transferring Photos Using a USB Flash Drive
