Transferring all my stuff from a PC to my new Laptop!

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shayne
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Transferring all my stuff from a PC to my new Laptop!

Postby shayne » Sat May 31, 2008 10:06 am

Hi All!
Have just bought a new laptop and am wondering how I can transfer all my Documents and files to it from my old PC. I haven`t a clue...any ideas?!
Thanks in advance!
PC Thicky!!
:oops:

El Cid
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Postby El Cid » Sat May 31, 2008 10:49 am

It's actually very easy if you use the software that comes with Windows.

Have a look here http://tinyurl.com/3yupab

Sid

Don

Postby Don » Sat May 31, 2008 10:52 am

I had to do this when installing new hard drives from scratch. You can get generic hard drive "grab n go" connectors where you can plug in the old hard drive to a USB port of the new computer and simply transfer all data from drive to drive in one go. That does mean taking the hard drive out of the PC first and an alternative these days is to get yourself a large capacity USB pen drive (I got a 2 Gb for 20 euros some time back so even cheaper/bigger now) and copy files to USB pen then move pen onto laptop and copy on to laptop. You may have to do it a few times to get all data across but 2 Gb at a time is quite a lot.

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Postby Jennifer » Sat May 31, 2008 10:53 am

Hi Shayne,
It depends on what other kit you have.
A memory stick, but would need USB port on the old Computer.
A crossover RJ45 network cable and you could then network .
Connect them both to your Internet router ?

Just some ideas, once we know your setup then we can get down the techie bits 8)
Hope some of the other computer wizards come in on this one ...Beach

J

Don

Postby Don » Sat May 31, 2008 10:55 am

Sid, easy transfer is only with Vista, XP and earlier didnt have that did they?

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Postby Jennifer » Sat May 31, 2008 11:00 am

Hi,
Thanks for coming in on this one guys ..... Don & "The Cid"

Shayne admits to being a "PC Thicky" so we might need to do some "hand holding " here :|


J

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Postby Beachcomber » Sat May 31, 2008 11:06 am

You could try Acronis Migrate Easy:

http://eu.acronis.com/homecomputing/pro ... grateeasy/

Download here:

http://eu.acronis.com/homecomputing/dow ... grateeasy/

It offers a fifteen day free trial.

However, when I move files and documents between computers I just use Network Neighbourhood via my router.

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Postby El Cid » Sat May 31, 2008 12:29 pm

Don wrote:Sid, easy transfer is only with Vista, XP and earlier didnt have that did they?
You just download a copy from MS onto your XP machine and create the transfer file which you put on an external drive/USB stick, DVD etc.. You then run it on the Vista PC and go and find the file on the removable media. It works fine.

XP came with the "Files and transfer setting wizard" which did much the same but obviously the output file is not compatible with Vista.

You can get the program here http://tinyurl.com/2tabn5

Sid

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shayne
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Re: Transferring all my stuff from a PC to my new Laptop!

Postby shayne » Sun Jun 01, 2008 7:52 am

shayne wrote:Hi All!
Have just bought a new laptop and am wondering how I can transfer all my Documents and files to it from my old PC. I haven`t a clue...any ideas?!
Thanks in advance!
PC Thicky!!
:oops:

Thanks for all your suggestions!I think the ACRONIS one is going to be the one to try....thanks for that Beachcomber!
I`ll let you know how I get on.
:D

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Postby El Cid » Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:27 am

Acronis is definitely not the right tool for this job. It is designed to copy data from one hard disk to another, usually when changing a disk rather than upgrading to a new system entirely. You cannot select what data you want to transfer - you get the lot.

If you really want a clone of your present system on your new PC that's fine but my guess is that the new PC will be running Vista and the old one will be XP. If you did clone the old PC to the new there is every possibility that it won't work at all as the drivers will be different.

The Windows tool transfers all your settings as well as your data . Transferring data is comparatively easy, it's all the other, hidden, things that are tricky, such as all your email accounts and settings, all your customised program settings etc.

You specify exactly what data and which settings you want transferred. It will even set up the new PC with the same desktop wallpaper. Acronis will not do any of that.

I have used both the XP and Vista versions on a number of new PCs and it's one of the best and easy to use tools I have seen.

Sid

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Postby Jennifer » Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:03 am

Hi,
I'm with "El Cid" on this one

Find it in Accessories...system tools....files and settings transfer wizard

J

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Cassandra
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Postby Cassandra » Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:38 am

If you use the windows file transfer thingy (another computer numpty here :oops: ) can you store everything to a portable hard drive and transfer later to a new laptop?

Asking cos I'm thinking of leaving pc with a good home and buying a new laptop at the other end. The alternative is to save all my bookmarks, docs etc to google and pics to photobucket with the most important docs backed up on the portable hard drive. Would I lose anything significant doing it this way?

El Cid
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Postby El Cid » Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:57 am

Cassandra wrote:If you use the windows file transfer thingy (another computer numpty here :oops: ) can you store everything to a portable hard drive and transfer later to a new laptop?

Asking cos I'm thinking of leaving pc with a good home and buying a new laptop at the other end. The alternative is to save all my bookmarks, docs etc to google and pics to photobucket with the most important docs backed up on the portable hard drive. Would I lose anything significant doing it this way?
Yes, that's the ideal way to do it.

I assume that the new PC will have Vista rather than XP and that the old PC will have XP.

You must download the Vista version (see my earlier link) and run that on your old PC. You will have the option to create the transfer file on the external disk.

When you get the new PC the transfer program will already be installed. You just run the program, tell it where the transfer file is and it sets it all up for you in a couple of clicks.

I wouldn't consider backing all your data up online as you have suggested - for one thing it will take ages to upload and there is no guarantee that you will ever see it again! An external USB disk is so cheap now that it is the obvious way of doing it and also enables you to keep regular backups in future.

If you do it "manually" you will certainly be able to backup your basic data, photos, music, docs etc but it's the program settings and email settings, that you will find difficult to locate.

A good example of this is if you use Word as your word processor, you will have probably set up a personal dictionary, various templates and style sheets. A basic backup will miss these settings whereas the transfer program will copy them and put them in the right folders on the new PC. It's quite surprising how many custom settings there are on the average PC and you only realise how many when they don't appear on the new PC!

Sid

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Postby Jennifer » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:00 am

Hi Cassandra,
From "El Cid"
"You must download the Vista version (see my earlier link) and run that on your old PC. You will have the option to create the transfer file on the external disk."

Thanks for that, not got my hands on Vista yet :(

If your external portable disk is USB, then the third option in "Select a transfer option" will copy
I find my external USB disk on my laptop works a treat :)
At least having all your stuff on a disk you control is a better option, than saving it round the Web :(

J

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Cassandra
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Postby Cassandra » Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:33 pm

Thanks both :) I already have an external hardrive (250gb, hope that's enough) that I just use as a back up at the moment and then only when I remember :oops:

El Cid you assumed right, currently XP and of course a new one has to be Vista though I'm told it's much better now than when it was launched :? Will give the download thing a go and see how I get on. Moving in 4 weeks so I guess it would be ok to do it now then just save any new docs created later.

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Postby Cassandra » Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:49 pm

Just had a look, you can only download it if your running genuine Microsoft Windows :(

Last time I looked at that option they wanted about $175 to upgrade and I didn't consider it worth it as I still get the security upgrades. Will have to make do with save documents on the hard drive, it's more than I've ever had before when I've changed computers!

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Postby El Cid » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:48 pm

Oh dear - so you have a pirate copy of XP then :oops:

Get someone else to download a copy for you and use that or take your old laptop with you and download the program onto the new PC and copy it across to the old one.

Sid

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Cassandra
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Postby Cassandra » Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:22 pm

Yup, didn't know it at the time though :evil: A friend of my son built it for me. Unfortunately it's not a laptop, it's a pc so would have to lug the whole lot with me but I don't use it for business so it's not as if there's any critical files on here, maybe I'll just keep it till it croaks then buy a shiny new up to date one in a year or two.

Thanks for trying to help though :D


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