Soon I plan to buy a new computer for the first time in eight years – moving from a Win95-based PC to (likely) WinXP. I’ve migrated between computers before, but usually they haven’t had such a disparity between their ages, OSes, speeds, and whatnot. I could really use some tips on how to make this move!
Not surprisingly, in all this time I’ve collected/created oodles of files and applications on my old pal here, most of which I’d like to move over to the newcomer. There are several small programs I’ve downloaded (legally, thankyouverymuch) that don’t have installation disks, so simply reinstalling them won’t be that easy an issue. Then there are various settings and preferences that I’d like to transfer as well.
Dell, which is where I’m gonna be getting my new PC, offers a couple of different software solutions to speed the process: Intellimover by Detto and Dell’s own “PC Migration Suite,” which I think includes Intellimover plus a few other doodads. I know there are some hardware possibilities too, like setting up a network or somethin’ – but I don’t have a network card on my old warhorse here.
Anyone have advice for me? Software or hardware recommendations? Ideas for developing my migration strategy? Please help!
Windows XP has a built-in migration tool as well. And you can always make an image of your existing hard drive and copy that over to your new disk using something like Norton Ghost, Nero, or a number of other back-up type programs.
You can connect two machines using a serial cable as well as TCP/IP, if the old one doesn’t have a network card. I think it’s Norton Ghost or PC Anywhere where I’ve seen that option.
It might be easier just to install what *was *your primary drive as a slave drive in the new machine and copy files over at your leisure (a process I just finished last night myself).
Win XP’s interface is drastically different from that in Win 95, so be prepared for a learning curve. If you’re a lobg time Windows user, you’ll probably find it more dumbed down than advanced. Oh, and you can’t strictly upgrade from 95 to XP…so I hope your planning on having your new machine pre-loaded with XP.
Also, and it’s not a huge thing, but here’s a small tip: If your new hard drive isn’t already in the NTFS format, convert it *before * you activate your copy of Windows. Otherwise your disk ID gets changed and this has a minor impact on future activations of Windows (Windows looks at your hardware configuration when you boot up to make sure the OS is still on the computer on which it was registered. If too many things are different than what it expects it will give you problems with activation.)
Windows XP doesn’t run over DOS like 95, 98 & 98SE do. So if you have any DOS applications, condiser making a separate partition for those. There’s still a command line function for simple stuff, but you can’t boot into MS DOS like you may be used to.
I suppose you’ve decided on a Dell pretty firmly, so I’ll just keep my opinion there to myself.
Blimey! 95 to XP you say? I’m making the reasonable assumption that this is going to be quite a leap in terms of hardware too, including hard drive capacity…
Install the old hard drive temporarily in the new machine as a slave, make a folder on the new hard drive called ‘Old Machine’ (or some such) and copy the entire contents of the old HD into it; You could faff around and selectively copy, but you’ll always end up doing things like omitting the \windows folder and later discovering that some of your files actually lived in a folder in \windows\desktop, or that one of your programs was in the habit of saving its work in its own folder in \Program Files - copy the whole damn thing and be done with it - it’ll be a drop in the ocean in terms of the new hard drive capacity.
That assumption isn’t just reasonable, it’s spot on! I wrote about my current specs in this thread, and yeah, this is a pretty big change. I have a 20 gig HD now, of which I’ve used about 13 gigs.
So I can really just install the old drive temporarily into the new machine? Will this require a lot of tech installation experience? 'Cause I can install memory and CD drives, but I haven’t ever done more than that. Also, I’m giving the older PC to my sister when I’m safely ensconced in the new machine. (All she does is surf the web and write a few Word docs; it’ll be enough for her.) Will it be easy to reinstall the drive in its original home?
HELL yeah I am. But does this mean that the applications I’m currently using won’t run in XP? Does XP run older programs not designed for it? I do plan on upgrading several of the major ones anyway (Dreamweaver and Fireworks, for example), but until I do I’ll need to run the older versions in the interim.
Guh? What is NTFS format and what have I ever done to deserve it?
I suspected as much. I’ve never partitioned my drive before, but this sounds like a sensible solution. I’m trying to think of DOS apps I use … there are only a few, but you never know. Sometimes older games can be fun to play – although whether an ancient copy of Commander Keen and the Vorticons would work on a hugely fast processor, I have no idea.
Heh! I know there are many mixed feelings on the subject. As you can read in that other thread I linked to, I’ve had excellent experiences with Dells (only two tech support issues in eleven years between two different systems is pretty darn good!). It only makes sense to dance with the one that brung ya.
Still and all … in that thread I think I gave only a 90% probability that I’d buy a Dell. Do enough convincing and I could change my mind.
