I’m in the midst of configuring a new computer. The subproject du jour is setting up working emulation environments to replicate older computers I once had. I’ve gotten into a few discussions with people that have led me to think I’m some kind of unusual outlier insofar as most people discard their previous computers and scarcely bother to move anything over from them when they get new ones. So I decided to do a poll.
Which most accurately describes the extent to which you preserve and maintain your previous computing environments when you get a new computer?
Can’t do it as a classic poll, the answers are too long. Use cut & paste:
A)You throw the old computer away and start using the new one. You don’t care about your old emails, Word documents, projects from yesteryear. You don’t even OWN any software aside from what the old and new computers came with and if the new computer comes with different software you’ll adjust.
B) You have a pile of installation CDs to install various programs you’ve bought over the years and you’ll be installing them on the new computer just as you had them on the old. You’ll look up installation codes and licenses on the old computer. Maybe you’ll transfer a handful of documents (resumes, photos you took, etc) from the old computer as well. You will probably look at some settings on the old computer while entering them on the new one.
C) You use a migration assistant / upgrade wizard that came with the new computer, plugging the old one in so it can suck in all of your installed applications, settings, user profiles, preferences, and documents. There are some applications that worked on the old computer that may not work on the new one; you’ll find an equivalent and use that. The stuff that you’re bringing over doesn’t go back to a yet-prior generation of computer: whatever you were using before the “current old one” is lost in the mists of time
D) You’ve always migrated your settings and preferences and personal documents from one computer to the next and you have documents and programs on your computer that were originally installed 2, 3, or more computers ago. As applications have become obsolete you’ve mostly just let them go and learned new programs to replace them but you have seriously considered emulating an older computing environment and maybe set one up so that you could run older software that’s not compatible with your new computer’s OS and/or hardware.
E)You’ve preserved, as if in amber, the environment of each and every one of your former computers (perhaps multiple incarnations of some of them as you upgraded the OS) and you have every email you ever wrote or received and all your documents and the arcane long-forgotten applications that generated them. You sometimes boot up XTREE in MSDOS or System 6 with MultiFinder to revisit the environment you used to work in way back when.
Almost everything that I ever want saved is either saved to a cloud storage of some sort or my flash drive, so it’s very easy for me to just move everything over to a new computer and get started on the new one as though very little changed.
In fact, I tend to just keep my old hard drives since they still work. Stick one of those in your new computer and you’re back where you started. When I built my current computer I didn’t even bother getting a new hard drive, just took the old one and stuck it in the case with the rest of parts and I was good to go.
Then that hard drive died, which only frustrated me because I had to go through the hassle of getting off my various storage devices but once I did it was exactly how I had things before.
EDIT: And if we must choose a poll option, I’d go with C. I do not use any sort of assistant to migrate my stuff, it’s all on storage devices. If a program becomes obsolete I have no qualms getting rid of it and using the newer better program, which is indicative of C I believe.
© I use the Apple Migration Assistant - that way, the new machine is essentially identical to the old one, except faster, bigger, stronger, etc. Having to start from scratch would be miserable.
By the time I get a new computer, hard drives are generally an order of magnitude or two larger than the were on the previous computer, so it’s no burden to just copy everything over. If I find that I have use for something on the new computer, I copy it over to some more convenient place, but otherwise, I just have a nesting set of Matrushka dolls of old hard drives. Like, on my current laptop (Tagii), I have a directory that holds everything that was on my previous laptop (Dora), including a directory that holds most everything that was on my Mac desktop (Cassandra), which includes a directory containing everything that was on my second generation of Windows computer (Teena), which contains a directory with everything that was on my first Windows computer (Mycroft). And yes, I do still occasionally dive through all those layers to dig up something from that first computer.
add the old hard drive as a slave to the new computer.
I’m basically screwed… All my data is safely backed up, but my applications are a scattered mish-mash. For instance, my music-processing program is version 11, and I’ve been buying updates ever since version 3. And I don’t even have my version 3 installation disks any longer (I think they were 5 1/4 inch floppies!)
I’m going to have to write to my vendors and ask if they will send me installation files. I’m registered properly with most of them, so they’ll likely say yes.
It’s gonna be a hell of a mess…
Well, the “settings” part doesn’t really work, since my newer computers tend to be a different SO, but:
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I migrate my old docs. Well, nowadays I also store them in external HDs, but one of the uses of the external HDs is storing my collection of “documents I’ve generated in a bunch of different projects and which are often useful for other projects”. The Collection gets copied over to the new computer.
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I have a series of programs I use, and which get installed the first time I light up a new computer. The List changes with time, of course, but part of my “first bootup routine” is getting Irfanview, whichever musicbox I’m using at the time, OOO, etc.
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Some things will get installed or not depending on whether the new computer is intended for work (gets the GUI for The Big Blue Database, does not get fantasy pics), for home use (does not get that GUI, gets fantasy pics) or for both (here comes nothing…)
So, a mixture of copyover, reinstall from disks (some games, drives for my scanner) and downloads, but in any case I know exactly how I want my computer to behave and all the vendor-installed stuff gets a kick to the butt.
I still have files from my early college laptop days on an external hard drive (I never use it, of course, but I know it’s there if I wanted to look). I also brought over my old hard drive when I built my 2nd tower, since it’s still in good shape. With the prevalence of local data storage for regular people these days (docs, pictures, programs), it’s hard to imagine that people just chuck their old pc in its entirety.
If nothing else… who’d want to lose all their old cat pictures?
I have not reloaded my main OS (Linux) since 2003. I have virtual machines running on my current hardware platform that date back to 1997.
In 1997 my machine was a 350 MHz Cyrix processor with 32 Megs of RAM and a 40 MB/sec 7200 RPM 9.1 Gig SCSI hard drive.
My current platform is a quad-core Phenom-II overclocked with 8 gigs RAM and 6 320 MB/sec 15K RPM SCSI drives.
I really can’t count the hardware upgrades between then and now; this particular platform is exactly 2 years old now.
I never reload, I always migrate the system. I keep it fully patched and up to date, but that is done by just updating it as I go. Since my older Windows installations are all virtual machines, I can move them without any trouble at all and expect them to work.
I no longer use the Windows NT installation from 1997, though I can boot it if I need it. I do, however, use its successor (Windows 2000 Pro, which dates back to 2000) on a daily basis. I still play some old DOS games on it. In fact, it is running right now in this machine (though I’m browsing in Linux, as I always do) and it has my Windows development environment up and running.
When my ex got a new computer from his sister in Jan 2003, we installed some software from the old computer and transferred our files (on floppies) to the new. I have that computer now. I’m still using Quicken 2000 and have also replayed some games from before this computer was made (Alpha Centauri (1999), Civilization III (2001)). We did not use a migration assistant as we had no way to hook up two computers at the same time. I have done two OS re-installs and have always started fresh, did not transfer or back up my settings. My personal files all fit on a thumb drive, so that’s easy enough.
I will not be getting a new computer, so I will not have to worry about this again.
B) You have a pile of installation CDs to install various programs you’ve bought over the years and you’ll be installing them on the new computer just as you had them on the old. You’ll look up installation codes and licenses on the old computer. Maybe you’ll transfer a handful of documents (resumes, photos you took, etc) from the old computer as well. You will probably look at some settings on the old computer while entering them on the new one.
This is the way to go and these days it is extremely easy and free. Just get VMWare’s vCenter Converter, install and create a clone of your existing system. You can then move that around if you follow a few basic rules and run the clone through VMWare’s VMPlayer. Both utilities are free and very powerful.
I normally build my own computers (have 6 running right now for a distributed computing project) and so far I’ve been able to do an upgrade install of Win7 over the existing install to account for the change in hardware.
When that isn’t possible, I normally bring all of the personal directories over and over a period of months (years?) gradually reinstall the software I need from the original msi/exe install programs or CD/DVD rips.
I always take my old system hard drive and install it temporarily in the new computer. The last time I used a external USB enclosure that I bought for $20. Mount the drive and plugged it in using USB. Then I easily copied my files, photos, and bookmarks to the new computer.
Tip: don’t forget to save your bookmarks from Firefox before shutting down the old computer. Show All Bookmarks, Backup. Then import bookmarks-yyyy-mm-dd.json into Firefox on the new pc.
I guess B) is closest to what I do, but few of my installers are CD based.
It’s some combination of grabbing and running installers from old drives, then grabbing things like favorites and documents, and for everything else installing the drive as a slave (I also have a thing to connect internal drives via USB).
But…it’s not a great policy. About 80% of the stuff on my old drives is junk. So there’s a lot of rooting around for stuff, and then occasionally a drive dies and I later realize it had something important and not backed up on it.
© I’m a Mac guy and have used Migration Assistant every time I get a new machine, even if I don’t get rid of the old one. All it takes is an ethernet cable (much faster than over wifi) and half a brain cell.
C or D. Although I’m not sure why you put
as part of C.
Presumably, if I’ve used a migration assistant every time, then I do have everything since forever. It’s not like the stuff that was migrated from computer A to computer B is discarded by the migration assistant in the move from B to C.
D I guess. I put everything onto my external hard drive and just plug it into the new computer. I move bookmarks etc over. All my email is either on Yahoo, Google or the servers at work, so that’s not much of a problem. I reinstall any software that I’m still using, and download new versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. Some of my files date back to my 486 machine, so they’ve moved quite a bit. When my wife moves computers she has stuff that goes even further back.
Somewhere between C and D. Most everything is stored on various flash drives and the like, or on the wife’s computer, so when I get a new one, I transfer most stuff over. But not all. The new system is an excuse to dump a lot of trash apps and data.
I guess that A) most accurately describes me. I do have a bunch of files that I’ll port over, but I do nothing to preserve my environment and settings. My e-mails are out there on servers, so I don’t need to do anything with them.