Transferring contents of hard drive from old computer to new

[Steph1]

Can anyone help please, how do I transfer the contents on the hard drive of my old computer to my new computer? Any help would be most appreciated.

 

[AnOther]

The best way, if you feel up to it, is to remove the HD from the old PC and put it in the new one as a slave then you can transfer what you like off it.

It's quite likely though that you will find that the HD connection is different in which case you can temporarily disconnect the ribbon cable from the DVD drive and use that for the old HD instead.

If this solution doesn't appeal then then consider getting an external HD enclosure which will simply plug into a USB port. 

 

[Bob T]

Two ways of doing it. one is with a Windows program that is not very good and involves connecting both PCs together. The other involves fitting the old hard drive into the new PC and using a program called Acronis True Image. This will make your new hard drive look identical to your old one.

Another option is to fit the old hard drive into the new PC as a second drive and just use the stuff that you need off what will become the second drive. This does mean that the old PC no longer has a drive in it and can't be used without one.

[Bob T]

Two ways of doing it. one is with a Windows program that is not very good and involves connecting both PCs together. The other involves fitting the old hard drive into the new PC and using a program called Acronis True Image. This will make your new hard drive look identical to your old one.

Another option is to fit the old hard drive into the new PC as a second drive and just use the stuff that you need off what will become the second drive. This does mean that the old PC no longer has a drive in it and can't be used without one.

[AnOther]

WARNING - UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ACRONIS FOR THIS JOB.

Sorry Bob T but doing what you suggest would effectively destroy the new PC. Acronis drive cloning is for replacing a HD in the same PC [:(]

 

[Bob T]

Just to make things clear, the only way to destroy a PC is with a large hammer. What Acronis will do is wipe a new hard disc, that probably has nothing but Windows on it, and copy everything from the old hard disc onto it.

I used it on my wifes new PC and it was not destroyed

[AnOther]

Not looking for a fight here Bob but please permit me to make things clear and of course I don't mean destroyed in a literal, smashed to pieces sense !

Steph1 has a new PC and contained on the HD and in the Windows Registry is all the information pertaining to it's specific hardware components and their relevant drivers, e.g. the Motherboard, the Graphics card etc. This is cruicial and machine specific data.

Similarly the HD and Windows Registry on Steph1's old PC contains the unique information pertaining to it's components.

These two sets of Registry data are absolutely NOT interchangeable.

If you make an Image of the old PC and restore it to the new one's HD you will end up with a "destroyed" PC because what you will have is a HD which will work perfectly in the OLD PC, not the new one.

The only way to recover the new PC will be to completely re-install Windows from scratch which is something that may not even be possible because if the new PC contains the neccessary recovery software on a hidden partition on the HD, as they sometimes do, then this too could quite possibly get "destroyed" in the imaging process.

I have to say Bob that if you claim to have taken an Image from one PC and successfully restored it to a totally different one then I'm very sorry but I think you must be mistaken. Maybe you mean you've restored images previously taken from the same PC which is exactly what Acronis is for of course [:)]

 

[Russethouse]

To be honest when I changed PC and wanted to transfer my 'stuff' I let the guy who 'looks after' my PC do it, I was 'PC less' one night and it cost £30 - worth every penny IMHO !

Sorry if its not the answer you hoped for, but it was painless and not the least bit fraught.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I managed to destroy a pc by throwing it across the room once.

So there is more than one way to destroy one.

:)

[Ecossais]

Steph1,

You say you want to transfer the “contents” on the hard drive of  your old PC to your new PC - could you clarify if are you asking how to transfer just your “data” files like documents, pictures, music files etc, or are you also wanting to transfer the Windows operating system and other programs?

Your answer may help you get the right advice.  Also, a couple of guys have mentioned temporarily fitting the hard drive from your old PC into your new PC as a “slave” in order to copy the files from one hard drive to the other – how comfortable are you with dismantling your PCs?

 

[Patmobile]

I wouldn't use any of the solutions proposed above.  Any software that you were using on the old computer and that is now needed on the new computer, should be installed properly from new (i.e. using the original software disks) otherwise it may not (probably won't) work properly.

Data files can be transferred on CD or by direct cable connection between PCs. (I prefer to use Laplink - a piece of bulletproof cable transfer software I have been using since the days of DOS.  I use an updated version now, of course.)  Alternatively, if you have a home network put both PCs on it temporarily to facilitate the transfer.  Another rather tedious option would be to email the data files to yourself and collect the mails on your new PC.

E-mails and address books etc should be exported to a file, perhaps on the desktop of the old PC, and then transferred by cable or CD to the new PCwhere they are imported into the new software.

I don't think you can go wrong doing it this way.  Copying the hard drive is, in my opinion, a very bad idea.

Patrick

 

 

  

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

If you use outlook express you don't need to export your emails. They are found in this location:

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/blueblarg/emails.jpg[/img]

Just copy them and paste them into the like directory of your new computer.

[Steph1]

Thank you for all the replies but  as I am not a computer whiz I need the most simple solution. I only need to transfer data, photos, etc and not the operating system as the new computer comes with Windows Vista installed. The Laplink sounds ok, does anyone know where I can buy this? Once again thanks for all the help.

Steph 1

[tenniswitch]

If you're just transferring files, and you're going from a non-Vista PC to a Vista computer, the simplest way may be just to copy the files to CDs on the old machine and save them on the new one.

Direct transfer of files from a non-Vista PC to a Vista machine may get you into some software conflict problems.

[Clair]

I have a newish laptop (XP2) and transfered my documents from a (ME) PC using a USB Superlink similar to this one, which I bought in Carrefour.

[Andrewjspencer]

hi Steph 1

tenniswitch's suggestion is probably the easiest way to tackle this.

If all the documents and images etc you want to transfer are held in the "My Documents" folder on your old PC copy this to a CD or USB dongle thingy - they are cheap and are available with more than the limited 650MB capacity of a CD- and then copy the contents to the "My Documents" folder on the new PC.

I've done this with no grief on many occassions.

If the documents and images are scattered across your hard drive then best to create a folder under the C drive to "round up" all the files and the copy these to CD/USB dongle and copy to to new PC as above.

Hope this helps and that you enjoy your new PC !

regards

Andrew

[peterj]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

I have to say Bob that if you claim to have taken an Image from one PC and successfully restored it to a totally different one then I'm very sorry but I think you must be mistaken. Maybe you mean you've restored images previously taken from the same PC which is exactly what Acronis is for of course [:)]

[/quote]

When I used to be a network and systems manager with over 400 PC's on a network

That is exactly what I used to do but using ghost keep one master image of one machine  then just roll it out to any pc on the network.

If it was a different machine from the master it would boot up install specific window drivers it needed, at a worst case it would ask for the driver disk

for maybe the graphics card.

Regards Peter