Reply With QuoteI recently bought a netbook and transferred all the music, pictures and files I required from my PC using HP QuickSync. It was all done wirelessly and and took minutes.
I plan to install a new computer at the end of this month and will have to transfer lots of data from the old one. It's more than 4 years since I last did this and I recall that it wasn't an enjoyable event. Does anyone have a plan they've used to lessen the pain?
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
I recently bought a netbook and transferred all the music, pictures and files I required from my PC using HP QuickSync. It was all done wirelessly and and took minutes.
I generally just take the disk out of the old one, put it in the new one, boot it, then sync (using rsync) the new one with the old one. But, I'm generally keen to transfer the old operating system, configuration files, etc.
Best wishes,
Bob
I'd go for just installing the old hard drive into the new PC as a secondary drive - minimal hassle and you can move things across as and when (or indeed just leave them on the old drive permanantly). This way, you could also boot to the drive if necessary to use a piece of software you may not have the disk for anymore or that won't move across to the new drive easily.
Hope it goes smoothly :)
Paul.
Pre-Mac I used to 'get a man' in (he looked about 12 years old, actually) as it would be too much for me to do it with my lack of skills.Originally Posted by swanbourne
But nowadays whenever I bring a Mac machine home the wireless network 'finds' it and all that is required of me is to confirm my wish to have all data copied over and thereafter it just happens. 8)
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
The old machine has XP Pro and the new machine will have Windows 7 Pro 64. I want to use the old machine in another location so permanently installing the drives in the new machine isn't an option (unless I put new drives in the old machine).
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
I just reinstalled the OS on my computer at work. The main things I did to aid the job were:
1. Have two partitions, one for the OS and programs, one for data.
2. Move all user folders to the data partition. For example, in Windows 7 you can browse to the C:\Users\<username> folder, right click on the sub-folders such as My Documents, select properties and use the Location tab to move the folder to D:\Users\<username>. You can do the same in XP in the C:\Documents and Settings folder.
3. Make note of the programs you have installed. I took a series of screenshots of my Start > Programs menu to assist me.
4. Backup the C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data folder (or C:\Users\<username>\AppData in W7). This contains all the settings for all the programs you have installed. Programs such as Outlook store their data in these folders.
5. Deactivate any software that needs activating such as iTunes or Photoshop.
6. Download all drivers and internet security software before you start the process. Do not connect the new computer to the network until you have installed the internet security software. Some software installers download the installation files on the fly so make sure you have the full installer.
7. Install all OS updates and drivers before installing programs.
In your case Eddie, the first thing I'd do is partition the disk. Windows 7 allows you to partition the disk on the fly, without killing the data on it but can only do so effectively when you have the minimum of data on the computer.
I've got the same XP/Windows 7 set up Eddie, and transferred as my previous post.
In that case, you can use the built-in "Windows Easy Transfer" on the new machine.
1. Connect an external hard-drive to the new machine.
2. Run "Windows Easy Transfer" (it's in Start > All Programs > System Tools).
3. The WET wizard will ask if this is the new or the old machine, and will offer to drop the WET program onto the external disk, do this then swap the disk over to the old machine.
4. On the old machine, run WET from the external disk, and step through the wizard. It will gather up your all your data and settings.
5. Swap the external disk back to the new machine and run WET again. It will copy everything on to the new machine. Then restart the new machine, and you're done.
What does everyone do with their old machines? Is there a way to be sure that there's no confidential log-in data held anywhere that some wunderkind could access?
I currently have two old desktops that I'm too scared to take to the tip, just incase
Here's what I recently did.What does everyone do with their old machines? Is there a way to be sure that there's no confidential log-in data held anywhere that some wunderkind could access?
I currently have two old desktops that I'm too scared to take to the tip, just incase
http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=154788
I zero'd the disks first, but probably needn't have.
Best wishes,
Bob
I would, any secure wipe program will do, like http://www.killdisk.com/. Mac have their own option to do this as well. One pass will be enough unless you've got a lot of money to recover it.Here's what I recently did.What does everyone do with their old machines? Is there a way to be sure that there's no confidential log-in data held anywhere that some wunderkind could access?
I currently have two old desktops that I'm too scared to take to the tip, just incase
http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=154788
I zero'd the disks first, but probably needn't have.
Best wishes,
Bob
Remove the hard disk and smash it to pieces. Recycle the rest.
Pete
What does everyone do with their old machines? Is there a way to be sure that there's no confidential log-in data held anywhere that some wunderkind could access?
I currently have two old desktops that I'm too scared to take to the tip, just incase
Do remove the brilliant rare earth magnets in each hard drive. They're fascinating and capable of giving you a blood blister if you're not careful with them.
Don't wear your mechanical watch while your doing this!
Decided to tackle it this weekend and it took about 18 hours all in. Much of that was waiting for copying between drives and finding some install discs which I put away "somewhere safe" the last time I did this 4 years ago. Two hours was wasted when Windows insisted on overriding my choice of printer driver and although it reported that the printer was installed and working properly, it wasn't :evil: . Finally got that sorted and all seems well (apart from the network camera was a bit of a mare to get working again).
I also wasted a bit of time trying to find Outlook Express: nobody told me that it had been replaced by "Live Mail" which is not my favourite program at the moment.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
I recently bought a copy of PCMover, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. If it saves 18-hours of work, it'll be well worth the £15 I paid.Outlook-Express died with Windows-XP. Vista <spit!> introduced "Windows Mail", which was then superseded by "Windows Live Mail", which carried forward into Windows-7. WLM is is different from OE but usable once you get around it's idiosyncracies. Personally, I prefer Outlook (nothing to do with Outlook-Express), and I'm currently using v2010.
That's pretty well what I do, although I just attach the old disk with an adaptor cable.
You can't do that when you're upgrading your operating system :( . You used to be able to upgrade Windows to a later version without having to do a clean install but I think that stopped at Win 95. Besides, it's good to have a clean start occasionally.That's pretty well what I do, although I just attach the old disk with an adaptor cable.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
This always works.What does everyone do with their old machines? Is there a way to be sure that there's no confidential log-in data held anywhere that some wunderkind could access?
I currently have two old desktops that I'm too scared to take to the tip, just incase
Yesterday I moved my web server, FW, mail server, DNS, ntp, etc., to a new computer. It took all day, and I ran into some serious problems as a result of a typo, and a forgotten configuration option. It didn't help that the OS is on a microSD, and the folks manufacturing the computer had done some tricky things to it. This meant that I had to reformat and repartition the microSD, and then re-install the OS. Since the computer is headless (no keyboard/monitor) this made things even trickier. It does provide access via a really nifty debug console via UART/RS232. I was a bit worried about disk speed, but I put in an extra fast SD (8GB, Class 10, SLC) for the data partitions, and it seems to be fine.
The cool thing is that the whole computer is attached to the electrical plug. So, it is called a "wall wart" or "plug" computer (quite a bit smaller than a standard paperback) . It draws 5W: Arm 1.2GHz processor , 512MB memory and 10GB total storage. It also has 2 USB, 2 Gigabit ethernet, wifi, bluetooth, etc. In practice (as a server) it seems to use only about 300MB of the 512MB memory. R&D into phone computing is making its way into non-phone computing, I think.
Unfortunately, I'm now going to have to put in a couple of 16 hour days to catch up on other things.
Best wishes,
Bob
+1. No hard drive has ever been left in my machines, the rest of the gubbins have been recycled by a charity.This always works.What does everyone do with their old machines? Is there a way to be sure that there's no confidential log-in data held anywhere that some wunderkind could access?
I currently have two old desktops that I'm too scared to take to the tip, just incase
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Sounds interesting - could you post a link this please. Thanks.
http://www.newit.co.uk/shop/proddeta...prod=DreamPlug
Best wishes,
Bob
Thanks, I can see myself buying one of these. Not exactly sure what for yet though - I'll have a thorough look through web-site/forum.http://www.newit.co.uk/shop/proddeta...prod=DreamPlug
Best wishes,
Bob
I was going to suggest DBAN for wiping your hard drives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAN
Talking of cheap computers, have you seen this, from the guy that brought you Elite? http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/05/05/ra ... -keychain/
Cheers,
Tim.
Here's a picture of my new web server (mail server, etc. --- this picture is being served from it). Isn't it a cute little thing? And it draws less than 5W. :)
Best wishes,
Bob
I didn't mean the whole disk image .. I do the install first (Linux in my case) then copy data over. You're right about having a clean start, especially with Windows.
I really like the idea of those, but is it possible to install a different distro if you want to? A bit tough without a video port, I'd have thought .. I'd save some space on the floor, but I'd lose a bit of flexibility as well.http://www.newit.co.uk/shop/proddeta...prod=DreamPlug
Best wishes,
Bob
Would be nice if those had mains networking built in! Maybe a future model.
You can install a different distribution, with a bit of effort. It came with Ubuntu, I changed to Debian Stable after installing a vendor supplied (downloaded) filesystem containing Debian OLD-Stable. About the video port. It is meant to run headless. The thin coloured cables running from the side to the top hook up to a JTAG which provides a serial console (with a converter to USB) so that you can change the bootloader/firmware. When it is set up, one just logs on via ssh. There are ways of having it run video directly, I think, although I've not looked into it as I'm not interested in that.
Best wishes,
Bob
Is that the Australian version? What are the bare wires coming out of the casing?
Is that the Australian version? What are the bare wires coming out of the casing?
They go to a JTAG which provides a serial console. This means that you can connect with it, and alter the boot loader, etc., before it has an OS loaded. (It isn't, strictly speaking, part of the unit. Those wires unplug. It just happens that I like being able to access it directly. (The computer bit can be detached from the power supply. You don't want the computer bit to go below the power supply, as power supply plugs are often near the floor.)
Best wishes,
Bob
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