Copying contents of 1 PC to another

[neilie11]

I recently purchased a new PC and I want to copy all of the program files from my old pc to my new pc. I am at a loss on how to accomplish this task. I would apperciate any help

Thanks,

Neil

[daveleau]

The only thing you can really do is to image the disk on the old machine and take it to the new machine. This has inherent problems when the two PC's have different hardware setups because everything is going to be different and Windows is going to be very slow and unstable while it tries to figure out hwat you've done. There is no way to copy apps from one hdd to another. The apps have fingers spread throughout the system and are next to impossible to get out.
Sorry
Dave

[SDT]

I agree with Dave, The only thing that you can reasonably do is to copy your data from one pc to another. Programs will have to be reinstalled.
You could image the source pc's disk and copy it to the target pc but you would then have to reinstall any drivers that your new pc requires and uninstall any drivers from your old pc' drive image (on the new pc). I advise against trying this as it will be a lot faster to install the programs on the new machine than it will be to diagnose all of the wierd problems that you will have by imaging the disk. Disk imaging really only works well if the two machines are virtually identical or if the image is used as a backup to be restored onto the same machine.

[neilie11]

Thanks. This is pretty much what I thought. However, to copy from PC to PC, Should I use a link cable or backup the data to a ZIp disk and then copy the files to the new pc off of the Zip disk?

[Ironforge]

You can copy HD contents exactly using imaging programs such as GHOST. But if you are getting a new machine, the best thing to do is just install everything from scratch. You will get better performance that way.

Of course there will always be files you need to transfer over. If you have a Zip drive that would be an easy way to transfer the files over.

Another easy and fast way is via ethernet NIC's. If they both have ethernet NIC's you can just hook them up directly to each other using a crossover cable, then it's just drag and drop!

[ByGolly!]

So many solutions!

The best solution depends on many variables. If you are running the operating system you want on the old computer you can copy the entire partition using MaxBlast from Maxtor (similar format/copy software is available from most harddrive manufacturers). MaxBlast copies between any two harddrives as long as one is a Maxtor.

Mount the harddrive from in the computer in the old computer.

Make sure you have your harddrives correctly configured as to Master or Slave so they will be recognized by your computer system.

Transferring the entire partition of say, 3-4 Gbs takes about 20 minutes. Now boot from the new harddrive. Should be fine.

Remove the new harddrive from the old computer and reinstall in the old computer. The new computer should make adjustments for the new device drivers on the new machine. Reboot the new computer to make sure everything works ok.

On the desktop right click on MyComputer, click on Properties and enter Device Drivers. Go through each device driver deleting the entries for the old computer. Obviously, you have to know what is on your new computer. Generally, nothing is hurt by not deleting the old computer entries.

Works for me and is much faster than reinstalling the many programs I have on my machine.

If you are running old versions of software and want to install new versions, then maybe you should start fresh with the new computer as others have recommended.

Hope this helps.

ByGolly!

[Krymson]

I have a similar problem and solved it by mounting my new hd in my old comp and copying the files, but I would recommend that you use zip disks, since it would be easier and less of a hassle. Unless of course, the files you're trying to copy are like 5 gigs, then you probably wanna mount your drive in your old computer.