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General discussion

Moving hard drive info from old computer to new.

May 19, 2005 4:21PM PDT

I was wondering what was the best way to go about this. I dont know if it's best I just copy stuff to cd's and over to the new pc. I really just don't want to spend an enormus amount of time going thru my old pc's hd to find what i do/don't want. I'd rather just get it all over there so i can begin using it and then clean out the junk from there. I was thinking of partitioning a bit of the drive on the new computer to hold all my "old" hard drive info and just clean house from there. Is that possible? I hope I've been clear enough to get help and posted in the right place??

Thanks,
Lisa

Discussion is locked

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I'd save data off the old hard drive without moving
May 19, 2005 8:14PM PDT

it to the new computer. No matter where you sort through the stuff, it will take the same amount of time. If you have a CD burner on the old computer, making copies of what you want to save won't add that much to the task. I wouldn't want the clutter on a new computer if is was me.

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Re: moving
May 19, 2005 8:53PM PDT

Lisa,

There's the difference between programs and data and settings.

Programs, generally, have to be reinstalled on the new computer, because you can't simply move or copy them. There are exceptions, but it's best to just install them, as you did on your old computer.

Data like documents, pictures, music is easy to transfer via a cd-burner or a local network. It makes sense to burn them to CD, so that you've got a backup in case anything happens with the hard disk of the new computer. Backing things up always makes sense.

Moving mail, address book, account data, templates, favorites, passwords, cookies, contacts, fonts and data like that (that is integrated in application programs like IE and OE and Word and Outlook) is more work. There is no general recipe for that, but the Windows XP File and Settings Transfer wizard is designed for exactly this purpose. But if you know what you're doing and how to do it, you can transfer most of it 'manually' also.

You can put all the old stuff on a separate partition, but just as well in a folder, named something like "old_comp" in the same partition. Then you've got time to gradually sort it out and move it around to the appropiate place on your new one. Or you can just add the old hard disk as a 'slave' hard disk to the new computer.
I like the idea doing it like this.


Kees

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There are a couple of ways
May 19, 2005 8:54PM PDT

to do it, depending on what version windows you have.

Here are a few of the ways so you have your choice...the easiest method is the HICKERYS one if you have anything other than W2K or WXP......

http://www.pcwarfare.com/hdd.toc.htm

TONI

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External hd to usb
May 19, 2005 10:08PM PDT

Yes, you can't really anticipate what you may need in the future. Keep it all available.
What i did was to yank the hd from my old computer.
Buy an external hd case.
Then plug old hd into new computer usb port.
And lived happily ever after.

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This was the winner of all ideas!
May 20, 2005 7:41AM PDT

Thank you so much, what a great idea. Wish I would have thought of it Happy

Thank you everyone for your help and ideas. This is what I love about this site. It's priceless!

Thanks again,

Lisa

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Bought new external hd case
May 20, 2005 7:02PM PDT

and have it hooked up to my new computer thru a usb port and have access to all my old files etc. My old & new hd's have win xp home installed on them. Is it possible to access the old hd in a "windows" enviroment? What I mean is can I get into the old hd and have it put me into how I was looking or working on my "old" computer? I say this because a lot of the programs are not able to run because it acts as if they are not running on an operating system. I hope the person who suggested the external hd case via usb reads this and understands what I'm trying to say. Help ??????

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Normally, since you never removed the
May 20, 2005 8:23PM PDT

operating system (XP) from the drive now in the external setup, the original system files are still located there, and what you need to do is put shortcuts to all of those programs onto your 'new' desktop, and change the path DRIVE letter ONLY part in Properties of that shortcut to the external drive letter. They should run then.....without having to reinstall them.

TONI