Can I move files from XP to an ME system by zipping them?

I have a question about zip files. While I've occasionally zipped up files to email or put on a floppy or CD for someone else and often unzipped downloaded files from the net, I know nothing about the zip format other than it's a convenient and widely used means of compressing files for transmitting over the net or archiving etc.

I'd like to move a MS Word text file (a doc file) from my girlfriend's XP desktop system to my ME laptop computer so she can use the laptop when she's travelling to work on a book she's writing. But ME uses the FAT32 file system I believe while her desktop machine has XP installed with the NT file system. If I zip up the Word doc will that process create a sort of generic file that can then be reconsituted when it's unzipped and is automatically converted into the OS file system on the machine it's unzipped on?

I realize there are surely limits to how far you can push this sort of thing if it works at all. E.g. I wouldn't expect it to work with a file zipped up on an XP system and then unzipped on a Win 3.1 or perhaps even a Win95 System (which was FAT16 I believe -- actually just referred to as FAT in the old days of Win95?). But I wonder if it will work for moving a file from an XP/NT file system to an ME/FAT32 system?

I'm guessing it might but I'm not sure.

If it will only work with a particular zip/unzip piece of software, which zip programs support that sort of file movement between the two OS's (ME/FAT32 and XP/NT) in question?

Finally, if there's a better way to move a file from an XP/NT system to an ME/FAT32 system (some sort of file conversion utility that will work with Word doc files) what would you recommend I use? Does MS Word itself include such a file system conversion utility for moving files between computers with different OS's installed perhaps? I haven't stumbled onto any such utility in Word but then I'm not very familiar with it beyond the vanilla basics of using the program and seldom use it myself as WordPad meets my word processing needs nicely.

Yeah, I know -- ME is a lame OS so why am I running it on a laptop in the first place? Well, I got a really good deal on a store demo laptop that met my really modest laptop needs about three years ago and as I've had no need to upgrade any hardware nor install much additional software and only use my laptop occasionally, I don't feel like spending the additional money to upgrade to XP -- and then likely also have to spend more money to upgrade some of the laptop's hardware to make it compatible with XP's demands.

I have several old Win98 install CD's around and have thought about removing ME (after backing up my data of course) and installing Win98 SE on the laptop. But even that seems more trouble than it's worth (given that ME is quite stable on my laptop as I haven't needed to upgrade the laptop hardware nor do I often install new software on it). And even if I did "downgrade" the laptop to Win98 SE that wouldn't help with this particular problem as I'd still be moving an XP/NT file to an OS running FAT32.

I believe that XP systems can run with either the newest version of the NT file system or FAT32 and it seems to me I've read that it's possible, with a tool built into XP, to convert an XP setup using the NT file system to XP using FAT32, but that seems a rather drastic (maybe even risky?) step to take just to move one Word document from one computer to another. Surely there's a better way to proceed?

 

Addendum to my initial query about zip files above

I know that the doc file could be sent to the laptop via email but -- if sent as an attachment wouldn't it still be in XP/NT file format and be unable to be opened in Word installed on an ME/FAT 32 swstem? And if the doc were copied and pasted into the email itself I'm afraid the formatting would be disrupted and require a good bit of re-editing to get it formatted properly. (the document in question is over 200 pages long).

Or is there some way to accomplish this via email AND preserve the formatting? (so that we can move the file from the XP/NT system to the ME/FAT32 system, intact with all the original formatting?)

I trust I make myself obscure?

 

one thing you need to understand is that the file system itself does not affect the file at all. You can transfer files from FAT32 to NTFS and not have any worries. I do it all the time. Every day.. no problems at all. you can zip and send it, copy and paste it, email it unzipped.. any way you want to.
The OS doesn't care where it came from.

 

Actually what I want to do is move the file in the other direction (from XP/NT to an ME/FAT32 system. But if I understand you correctly I should be able to do that w/o any problem either?

If so, then I have another problem! I did, in fact, try to move the file from the XP/NT system to my ME/FAT32 notebook. I copied the file onto one of those little USB jump drives (a Lexar, 256 MB) and plugged it into the USB connector on my laptop. While I could browse to the file I wasn't able to get my version of Word (Word 97) to open the document (created on Word 2002 on my g'friend's XP/NT system). I tried to use a utility in Word 2002 to convert it so a Word 97 version could use the program but had the same result -- could see the file name when browsing to the USB jump drive on my laptop but Word 97 hung and was unable to open the document. Guess I'll give that another try and see if I have better luck a second time.

Thanks for the info! I assumed that the source of the problem was moving from one Win file system to another, but apparently it's something else.

 

Thanks for the info Halo. I'll be trying to move the file again in the next day or two and will zip it up after first being sure my font is set the same on my laptop as the one that the file was created with.

What does the Adobe package cost? I know the Acrobat reader is free and is already on both systems I believe. I have often used it to view various kinds of documentation and other stuff distributed in the pdf format. Or does the widely used Acrobat reader software also include a word processor to create stuff in pdf formats? If not, can you tell me about how much it costs? And if, as is the case with my girlfriend, you just want to write simple text documents w/o any graphics, photos or charts, etc is it relatively easy to do that with the Adobe software you mention. I'll pass this suggestion along to her.

Thanks again!

 

Will try again tomorrow

 

Another old thread I started that I never followed up on. Lots of excuses of course but I won't bore you with those. We tried a second time to convert the doc file on her machine to a Word 97 file, saved it on her machine and then ported it over to my laptop with the flashdrive. I thought we'd done exactly the same thing the first time we tried converting it, but at any rate it worked just fine the second time we tried it. Not sure if we did something wrong or were just victim's of Murphy's Law of Computers. At any rate, we finally were successful converting and then moving it.

Thanks everyone!