Efficient way to transfer data between 2 laptops  

Bart,

bartjunited said:

I mean use the app fast copy

OK. I do not know it. If you are already familiar with it then fine but if you are not then I think File explorer dragging and dropping would be more straightforward [and if it is not as fast then it merely means you'll have time to make a pot of tea].

Don't you already have copies of all those files on the external drive you use for your backups? Just copy them to his computer from your backup drive as long as he scans for any malware on his computer first.

Denis

Even though I use TeraCopy, I usually Copy a few GBs of data at a time, to avoid "choking" the network or the copy process. I rarely use Move except for small clumps. Just curious - how far apart are these laptops?

bartjunited said:

I didn't know whether using a cross over cable (not that I'm sure I even have one ) or similar was an option

Bart,

Using a cross-over cable is usually associated with buying a specialist application to make use of it.
- In the absence of such a specialist application, you can set up a network to make use of it but the procedure is more complicated than setting up a normal network so would hardly be worthwhile for a one-off copy.
- Actually, using a cross-over cable just affects the speed of transfer. A normal LAN cable does the job just as well and you'd hardly be likely to notice the speed difference in practice.

I still suggest the external hard drive method.

Denis