How Can I Access a 2nd C Drive Linking 2 PC’s With USB Data ‘Transfer’ Cable

[Bondppq]

Hello, I am using a special data transfer cable with particular softwares: Bravura & PCLinq5 to link 2 mini-PC sticks together to recognize each other’s C Drives to wipe them clean and reformat to them, but I’m not able to see the C Drives of each no matter what I do. Both use Win 10. Is there any software that I can download that can see both C Drives? Any suggestions please is appreciated. thank you

 

[ChatGPT]

Hello! I understand that you are trying to connect two mini-PC sticks using a data transfer cable and access each other's drives. Although you are using Bravura and PCLinq5, you're unable to see the C Drives on both devices. I'm happy to help you with this issue! First, make sure your USB data transfer cable supports Windows 10, as not all cables are compatible with the latest operating systems. You may want to look for cables specifically designed for Windows 10 or mention compatibility in their specifications. Next, ensure both mini-PC sticks have the necessary drivers installed to recognize the data transfer cable. You can visit the manufacturer's website of the cable to download the latest drivers. If compatibility and drivers are not the issue, consider trying alternative software. One option is 'Windows Easy Transfer,' which can be found in Windows 10. To use this, follow these steps:

1. On both PCs, press Win + X and selecting Control Panel.
2. Type "easy transfer" in the search bar and click on Windows Easy Transfer.
3. On one of the PCs, click on Next and select An Easy Transfer cable, then plug the cable into both mini-PC sticks.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to initiate the transfer process. If this still doesn't work, there are third-party software options you can explore, like:
5. EaseUS Todo PCTrans (EaseUS | Data Recovery, Backup, Partition Manager, Data Transfer, Video Editor and Recorder.): This is a powerful file transfer tool that allows you to transfer data between PCs over a USB cable or even a network connection.
6. Zinstall WinWin (Transfer to New Computer, to Windows 11, to Windows 10, to Cloud, to Azure - programs, profiles and files - Zinstall): Zinstall WinWin is another efficient transfer software that supports Windows 10, using a USB cable or a network connection. Be sure to check the compatibility of the software with your devices and data transfer cable before purchasing or downloading any third-party applications. I hope this helps! If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Bondppq]

Hello thank you for your quick reply, I have 3 Asus TS10 VivoSticks with Win 10 on them and 1 AceMacigian Pro mini-PC box with Win 11 on it. On the Asus stix (Win 10) I find it impossible to "fully" turn off automatic updates, and it floods the 32gb drive to a mere 100's mb size. On the Ace box (Win 11) I see the option of turning off automatic updates so far.

I can’t do a reinstall of Win 10 on the stix nor install any 3rd-party softwares to convert them to a Linux system because of the lack of disk space. So I’m giving up on MSFT and trying to wipe all drives and re-format the file system to EXT4 and install Debian with a Deepin distro. But I still can’t get Linux on the drives because there is no space on any 32 gb stix.

I tried this using Rufus and BalenaEtcher but to no avail, so I bought a USB data transfer cable with Bravura and PCLinq5 to try and link 2 stix and remotely wipe one drive through the cable but the target C Drive does not show up under File Explorer - This PC so I can’t reformat it to install Linux Debian / Deepin. I also tried Eassos DiskGenius to remotely access the 2nd stix target C Drive but its not being recognized.

I want to do the same for the Ace box and wipe Win 11 off and go Linux but that is not crucial right now since I have 256 gb size on that drive and auto updates is turned off so the stix is the first hurdle with the box being done right afterwards if I’m successful at this. But I’m not sure what else I can do here, is all of this possible? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[livix07]

I find it impossible to "fully" turn off automatic updates, and it floods the 32gb drive to a mere 100's mb size. On the Ace box (Win 11) I see the option of turning off automatic updates so far.

Hi.
Starting with Window 10 permanently disabling automatic updates is not possible. You can only pause automatic updates for a while.

In regards to erasing the drive(s):
If you have a spare CD/DVD/USB, then you can write live GParted on it and use it to wipe the drive(s).
See here GParted Live on USB

 

[Bondppq]

In Win 11 I found a YouTube tutorial showing how to permanently disable auto updates. It's been working for the past 2 months but we'll see if it continues. Yeah I'm done with Win 10 just can't take the torture anymore.

I will try this GParted program you suggested, but so far Rufus, Bravura, Eassos all didn't work so I'm guessing I may be inthe same situation with GParted but I'll give anything a shot at this point.

 

[Bondppq]

When I use Rufus the device it recognizes is both the external D Drive and the E Drive for the mouse driver, it locks onto both of these drives on the same line and I can’t separate them as I fear it may overwrite some USB drivers for the mouse and make it inoperable. But I still get a failure with Rufus anyways when I tried it.

And then when going on the GParted website it says for me to first download Linux ISO the Linux Live Usb Creator then it says -“This Linux is not in the compatibility list” despite it being the latest Deepen stable version that i just downloaded off the Deepin website today, and their own Deepin Boot Installer also did not work which leads me to believe that something is wrong with my USB stick itself although it seems to be working fine when I use it.

 

[livix07]

GParted live is an .ISO file. You can write it to a CD/DVD/USB using any utility that can write .iso files, including brasero (for Linux).
Download the .iso from here GParted -- Download
What OS do you want to use in order to prepare the liv CD/DVD/USB?

 

[livix07]

GParted live is an .ISO file. You can write it to a CD/DVD/USB using any utility that can write .iso files, including brasero (for Linux).
Download the .iso from here GParted -- Download
What OS do you want to use in order to prepare the liv CD/DVD/USB?

This is how the GParted interface looks like when you boot the live CD/DVD/USB:

 

[Bondppq]

So getting back to this problem after I had to shelf it for a holiday week, I decided not to get back into solving the problem myself because I can't stand the time kill torture any longer.

So I'm just going to bring the mini-PC's to a computer shop and tell them to do it for me instead. But I have one last question for this forum -

Can I have 3 different bootable Linux distro each on their own partitions on 1 USB thumbdrive, but what would happen when you insert the thumbdrive?

Would a boot menu load first asking the user which partition you would like to start from? I would like to eliminate any extra steps so that I can just plug in the thumbdrive and it goes into an autoloader mode to install the Linux distro, but a simple boot menu as described above is fine besides anything else further. Will this be possible and how much space would I need for this per partition, per Linux distro? thank you.

 

[Bondppq]

And with a new USB - (SanDisk Ultra Luxe 32GB USB 3.1 SDCZ74-032G-G46) after reformatting to EXT4 for these partitions will I be wiping away any vital Linux drivers or kernels that would prevent me from doing the set up what I’ve described above?

 

[Bondppq]

this thread went dead, since I wasn't receiving any feedback anymore, I've joined some other forums which gave me some good advice to figure out this garbage Windows software wasn't worth the time torture anymore, I've switched to Linux for good.