Upgrading to new computer

[hawkster27]

I buy a new box every 3 years, and the new one just arrived. Now I've got to move everything (or most of it) from the old computer to the new one. I seem to have 3 choices, and would like your opinion as to the best way to proceed:

1> Manually reinstall everything. As if. Oh, yes, this is nice and clean, but I've got about 38,000 files, years of online updates, and programs that are no longer accessable except off the old hard drive.

2> Backup and restore. I kind of like this one, but my current file structure is on virtual drives C: D: and E;, and I'd like to restore to physical drives C: and D: And how do I handle the Registry?

3> A utility like PCRelocator. I used this last time I upgraded. It worked OK, but still left me with plenty of work to do after the upgrade.

4> You alternative suggestion. Lemme know.

 

[paparazi]

Not what you wanted to here but option 1
Windows needs clean installing on a regular basis anyway so 3 years out of any OS clean install is damn good going.
For the average user I would say for optimal performance and to keep sanity intact, 18months is about right, Personally I don't seem to go 8 months but then I'm fussier than most.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[rvnguy]

I think I feel your pain....as I have 250+ Progs loaded and some are no longer available & the floppies are long gone (unreadable).

Are your years of progs still availabe on the old HD as installable or just the already installed version?

Many win progs, as you know, make many files and registry entries upon installing so that just copying the 'Program Files' directory results in many non-functional programs.

While I agree with paparazi on the best is a clean install, I know the trouble it can provide if therer are progs that you want to salvage from only an installed base.

If all your progs are on the OS partition or at most ...OS on one partition (C and progs on another partition (D
as these are the structures that will be represented in the registry. You data files can be anywhere. you can , if careful, for example:

Clone a current OS drive of say 15MB to a new drive Partition of any size that is larger than the existing drive. Same goes for a prog drive(or partition) just maintain the same drive designation as this is where the OS will look for them.

Drive mfg's have utils to do this and Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image among others are 3rd party apps.

If you attempt this XP will not like the hardware change. So print and read this link for how to do this repair install to correct things up.

How to replace the motherboard on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824125

When this is complete, you can retreive you data files at your leisure.

Good Luck

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[bygeek]

You're best off with option 1 because it re-creates the registry in a clean fashion. I've used PC Relocator a number of times with mixed results. You didn't mention the XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. If may save you some time. Just make sure to install the software on the new machine first.