New Computer

[JRH]

Buying a new computer and wanting to know how to move programs and data from old computer to new. I know I can use cd's and floppies but need to move a lot of data. Can a person use some kind of a hookup to accomplish this?

How do I move my e-mail and all addresses?

I am thinking about removing the hard drive from this computer and installing in the new one and call it drive D. Would this work?

Thanks for any advice.
jrh

[Stayouttadabunker]

Buying a new computer and wanting to know how to move programs and data from old computer to new. I know I can use cd's and floppies but need to move a lot of data. Can a person use some kind of a hookup to accomplish this?

How do I move my e-mail and all addresses?

I am thinking about removing the hard drive from this computer and installing in the new one and call it drive D. Would this work?

Thanks for any advice.
jrh

I don't know how to clone a drive and I've heard of some websites that can help
you clone your hard drive to your new computer, but I don't trust them.
I do know your email and addresses are stored with your email's server -
not on your computer.

All you do is go to the email website from your new computer
and save the link on your desktop
and you'll have all your email stuff back.

[Speedbump]

5 Free Apps to Clone Your Hard Drive
This link has five free ways to clone a drive. Cloning a drive from an old computer into a new one with a new hard drive can be a bit trickie to say the least. If your not up on all the ins and outs, you might want to find a pro to give you a hand.

If your using an email client like Outlook express, the cloning should take care of that for you. If you use online email, just be sure to keep your email addresses and passwords.

[HayZee518]

look into newegg or tiger direct. they have a cable with an "egg" in the middle with usb connectors on both ends. [I have one of these cables] you can move data from one machine to another by means of this cable. most newer machines use usb bus connections. hard drives nowadays use SATA cables instead of IDE so interfacing the old hard drive to the new machine might be a problem because of hardware compatibility. the egg cable solves this.

[adnadeau]

You can make your old drive an internal D: drive if it is the same type as that in your new computer. You have to make the C: drive the Master and change your old one to Slave. There are IDE (older) drives and SATA (newer) drives. I bought an adapter on e-bay for $10.45 from accstation that enables you to connect any drive removed from a computer to a USB port on another computer and makes it a D: drive (or whatever drive letter is next.)

Most programs you have to reinstall from the CDROM. Older programs you can sometimes just copy & paste.

If you used a mail client such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird on your old computer, you can export your mail files and address book to a file and then import it into your new mail client. If you used webmail, then all your files are on the external server. Also, if you use Outlook Express you can go to the Maintenance tab to locate your mail folder and then copy and paste it to the new computer.

You can also connect two computers with a crossover cable between the network connectors, but it's a pain to setup the software. You could also get a router and set up your own home network. Or, as hayzee suggests, get a USB to USB cable.

[ncc74656]

You can not move programs easily. it can be done but its not recommended and by all accounts you should not try it.

data can be easily moved from your HD to the new computer, what you need is a IDE or SATA to USB adapter, bestbuy sells these for 20 bucks or so. this will make your old comp's HD act as a external HD. you can also install this HD into your new computer. i have not seen any MFG's shipping comps with out an ide port on the motherboard so you should be able to add this old HD regardless, the connections should be there. you may need to use some cables from your old comp. you DO NOT want to clone your HD, do not do this. you can not boot your new computer from your old HD operating system.

make a list of all programs you want and find the new, updated versions of them and install those. the vast majority of your programs will still be able to open your files created by the old versions of your programs.

IDE is a wide grey ribbon cable, SATA is a thin narrow cable. if you have IDE there is a jumper on the back side of the HD right next to where the cables plug in. move this jumper to the pins marked CS that stands for cable select, that should make everything work just fine.

[CarlosinFL]

You can buy a 16 GB ~$20.00 flash drive and copy data to and from your new PC. Only copy the raw data. Don't move program folders and system files as they're useless and not safe on your new PC.

[Stayouttadabunker]

May I ask a somewhat related question?
It has to do with moving programs from one hard drive to a new one but on the same computer.

I had the MS Office Student version on my old hard drive.
I took the old hard drive out and installed a larger one (500Gb)
However, when I moved the Office files into a folder, copied it to a 16Gb SanDisk thumb drive and moved it over to my new hard drive, it wouldn't work.

Every time I try to open up an Excel ( .xls) sheet, I get a message saying that my "computer is not configured to use the program".
What did I do wrong?

[HayZee518]

The operating systems didn't comply with each other. One application may be 64 bit the other 32 bit. These do not mix.

[Speedbump]

And you have to reinstall Office on the new drive. Moving the files won't do that for you. You need to run the install disc on the new drive. If you have the old disc in the computer with the new drive, you should be able to run excel from it.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Thanks for the kind suggestions guys!
I threw the dead drive ( wouldn't spin the disc anymore) in the freezer in a seal-able Ziplock bag with as little air as possible for 20 minutes, I then pulled it out, installed it as a "slave" or "secondary drive" and utilized the software that came with the new drive to clone the old to the new.
My time was limited because the old hard drive died again.
I repeated the freezing technique again except this time I left it the baggie for a 1/2 hour instead.

What I think happened was that over time, the bearings on the old drive were beginning to seize up. It was after all, nearly 12 years old!
I was able to move all my files and programs over to the newer 500Gb drive and I'm able to use my MS Office program to view .xls files again without having to go through some MS tech from India...

[CarlosinFL]

May I ask a somewhat related question?
It has to do with moving programs from one hard drive to a new one but on the same computer.

I had the MS Office Student version on my old hard drive.
I took the old hard drive out and installed a larger one (500Gb)
However, when I moved the Office files into a folder, copied it to a 16Gb SanDisk thumb drive and moved it over to my new hard drive, it wouldn't work.

Every time I try to open up an Excel ( .xls) sheet, I get a message saying that my "computer is not configured to use the program".
What did I do wrong?

You just moved the program data folders and files over. You still need to re-install the application on the new machine. Then you can copy over your data. Just reinstall Office on the new machine and then move all your data after you've installed Office. Don't forget to install the latest Service Pack for your version of MS. Office.

Your PC can't open XLS files because it can't read them w/o the Office program being installed.

[Stayouttadabunker]

You just moved the program data folders and files over. You still need to re-install the application on the new machine. Then you can copy over your data. Just reinstall Office on the new machine and then move all your data after you've installed Office. Don't forget to install the latest Service Pack for your version of MS. Office.

Your PC can't open XLS files because it can't read them w/o the Office program being installed.

Yes, the Office program didn't work the first time when I moved
the program folders over with the 16Gb thumb drive.
However, MS Office works fine now when I did the freezer/Ziplock bag trick
and cloned the hard drive to the new one.
I then threw the old hard drive away.

[CarlosinFL]

Highly recommend you never clone your PC. You clone all the problems in your registry and file system as well to your new system. I always reload / start fresh. It's like taking your old fluids from your used car and filling them into your new car. Sure it will start and drive good for a while but that's not why you bought a new car... Glad it worked for you.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Highly recommend you never clone your PC. You clone all the problems in your registry and file system as well to your new system. I always reload / start fresh. It's like taking your old fluids from your used car and filling them into your new car. Sure it will start and drive good for a while but that's not why you bought a new car... Glad it worked for you.

Thanks Carlos!
I wasn't having any problems with my registry though - my problem was just an old, over-used hard drive motor with bad bearings.
If I had an exact hard drive - I would have just swapped the actual disc wheel plate to the new hard drive housing and re-installed the optic eye reader mechanism.
It just takes a few screws to undo and re-tighten ...there's not much to a hard drive really.
When the price goes down a bit some more, I will buy another exact hard drive as this one, so I can run it for another 11 years! ha ha!