Transfer files, data and programmes ?

Happychappy

Hi

I have just ordered a new PC Tesco/Dell my pc at the moment has Windows XP and the new one will be Visat Premium, How do I transfer all the files and data including emails, outlook, music, pictures and programmes between the two computers

My existing pc has a 75gb hard drive and 72gb is full. Any help gratefully received. I do have an external usb hard drive with a 320gb capacity, but dont really want to go down the road of a full download or backup as I dont want to re-install the XP onto the new one, I basically want to take most stuff off and then give the computer to my daughter leaving all the office programmes etc

Thanks

HC

Viper_7

Are they both wireless? Network them together and transfer.

I did this just the other day from XP to VISTA.

Some of the programmes - like office I had to reinstall due to registry settings etc, but everything else just dragged over.

Only problem I had was with E-mail. Couldn't export/import properly.

Happychappy

Hi, I dont use wireless on my existing one, it is connected to an Orange livebox? the new one I beleive is wireless but I dont intend to use the wireless.

Anthony2oo5

Use windows XP backup utility. Then restore it with Vista backup utility.

Your programs you will have to install again. 1) because as Viper said, registry keys have to be inserted and 2) because most apps need a different version to run on Vista.

Have a read of these

http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/guide/79/how-to-transfer-your-data-from-xp-to-vista

and particularly this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=2B6F1631-973A-45C7-A4EC-4928FA173266&displaylang=en

geewhiz

This is a really old problem but it's great for backing up emails and importing them again.

Outlook Express Freebie Backup

Happychappy

Thank you everyone, I will have a look at the links and read up, I need to do it this weekend, just didnt know if it could be as simple as a cable? and almost a windows explorer type programme to cross over data, I appreciate some programmes will need re-installing.

Viper_7

You can do it with a null modem cable, but you'd need to get one made up and the data transfer is pretty slow, but more importantly, most laptops these days don't have the interface. All pigging USB!

Happychappy

I have connected up my usb external hard drive and just copying folders over to it, rather then using Acronis to image the files and folders? I dont want to image the OS system which is XP as the new pc has Visat home premium.

I thought it might be easier this way, but it takes some some as I have 20gb of music files and 15gb of photos. Should I put the photo,s into one of the partitions? the hard drive is 320gb and has drive E,F,G,H,I, etc I havent used these before, I just kept everything on the C drive of my 75gb hard drive.

Advice would be appreciated as to whether to put all the music in one partition and the photo's in another and all my other documents in another, or is there really no benefit.

Thanks

esbo

When I went from a windows98 program to XP I took the hard drive out of the 98 and in put it in XP as a slave drive, then I could just copy (drag and drop) the stuff I wanted across. I had to change the jumper settings on the 98 drive but that is easy enough as the settings are usually on te drive.

Later on I bought an ethernet cross-over cable like this:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5M-Crossover-Cat5e-Ethernet-Network-RJ45-UTP-Cable-UK_W0QQitemZ280245525965QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280245525965&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318
And set up a network so I could copy stuff back and forth. (nrtwork set-up wizard, or do it manually).
That worked really well when I got it working (firewall was blocking me initially), it was just like the drive was in your machine.

Putting the drive in as a slave is probably easiest though, unplug computer, unscrew drive, pull of power and data cables, change jumper setting from master to slave, or to cable select if that is being used, then put in new computer plug in power and data cable, reboot and that's it. If you have enough space you can literally drag the whole contents of the drive accross into a folder. I could also run a lot of the stuff too if it is not too fussy about there it is located and does not rely on the registry. Then you can just use it as and when you want.

Happychappy

Esbo

Thanks I may well settle for that. I just didnt want to confuse anything with having two different operating systems such as XP and Vista, although I suppose really all I shall do is boot up with Vista and use the old XP drive for anything I cant copy across, such as some programmes etc.

evilgoose

The microsoft tool is definately worth looking at, will transfer your files and settings from XP to Vista, you've got your external drive the tool will copy settings, files etc to that and then configure your vista os as was your XP. I think the link is above, but just incase,

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/1a3fbe72-9de8-4b94-b254-586a61843a041033.mspx?mfr=true

To be a dampener there is a chance that your old drive will be IDE and your new PC may only have SATA ports, thought you can get an adapter if there are no ports available.

Its strange that they've created so many partitions on your new PC drive. For ease of data management its sometimes worth putting your files into seperate drives.
Performance wise you wont really benifit unless they are actually on physically seperate discs.