transferring apps to new pc?

[pill2u]

i'm just about finished building a new pc for myself, giving the old pc to my wife to play solitaire or whatever(well its what she does with a pc .. shrug),
i have 2 hard drives in it chock full of my stuff.(one 40gig one 80 gig drive)
the new pc has one 37 gig raptor(just using it for windows and Halflife2) and one 160gig sata data drive..
i'm pretty sure xp has some kind of transfer program in it..but how do i transfer whole drives(Minus the windows folders)? do i need to hook them together with a null modem cable? or can i use my wireless net to transfer, i only want to leave the old pc with the basics..(xp,spyware/antivirus and firewall apps).I DO have a powerdesk backup program...not sure if thatd be useful for this.
any help from the pc gurus would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance
Barry

[mobo57]

Files and settings transfer wizard in XP. Try this:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...ovember12.mspx
or this:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;306187

[dajogejr]

I'd almost be tempted to say now is a good time to start fresh.

I'd do it the old fashioned way.

Install the apps you need, customize 'em the way you want 'em...

Of course, saving and moving your data over from the old PC.

[pill2u]

id almost agree with you, but after 3 years.. im not even sure i have all the software to reload all those apps...and besides...in some cases..ive got years of game save positions and all.
reloading every single app again manually makes me shudder...itd be hours..days even...ewww. i dont think so.

[pill2u]

ack i just read the transfer wizard url...i DO have to reload every single App...sigh.. all it does is transfers settings...so much for it being easy.. ahh screw it im just gonna fdisk the whole **** pc and reload xp..

[dajogejr]

Well...I was gonna say...I've never had great luck with that wizard.

However...when it comes to games. Copy the whole folder elsewhere.

Install the game, and then copy the original folder back to the Program Files folder.

I've hosed my PC once (ok...once I'm willing to admit.. ) and just copied the Tigerwoods 2004 folder, restored my PC from a ghosted image...then, copied that folder back.

Whalah...nothing lost.

[mobo57]

The transfer wizard only transfers work files and settings. It won't transfer programs, those will have to be installed along with the os on the new computer. If you want to transfer the whole hard drive totally you will need a disk clone program, though there are usually problems putting a cloned disk into a different setup. A lot of times the os won't work or there will be problems along with a lot of the apps. It is best to just do a new install of everything on the new system and then use the transfer wizard to get everything else over. I've done it a couple of times in the last couple of weeks and it works great. Though it does take some time if there are a lot of files to go over.

[DVOM]

If you're happy with the way your OS is running, I'd use Ghost to clone both drives then do a repair install of the OS. That way you won't lose any installed programs.

Cloning drives is fairly fast, I can do about a gig a minute.

[dajogejr]

I've had and heard of a lot more problems doing it that way, then the right way...

Scratch install, apps you need from there.
Like I said...most of the time, you can keep the program folder, and move it back once you install the application so your "customizations" are still there...

[DVOM]

dajogejr, I do a similar thing with the programs. I initially install all programs to another partition. Then when I reinstall the OS I can reinstall the programs into the same folders they were in before. Very few programs will overwrite any files that are already in the folder. So I end up retaining all my customizations.

Works great in a multi boot machine.

[dajogejr]

Yeah buddy...

I do similar...

I'll save the program file folder to a different hard drive, install the program as normal, then...move that copied back.

I've never been a big fan of installing programs on a different partition or drive...