Angelo PC

Buying a new computer can be a bittersweet process…
The good news is that you’re getting a new computer! I, myself, love having the latest technology at my fingertips. I get excited whenever the possibility exists that I’m getting a new piece of “tech” gear. Ok…that may just be me. Anyway, you know that your new computer is going to have a sleek new design and, more importantly, increased speed, capability and capacity to boost your computing enjoyment and productivity.

The bad news is that you’ve spent years storing important data and programs on your old computer. You most likely have a ton of applications (some good and some bad), pictures, music, documents, emails and more. This article will help you prepare to have SOME of that content transferred to your new computer.

Completely Automated

A great way to move all of your programs, files and setting, if you choose to do so, would be to use PC Mover, by Laplink Software. PC Mover comes with the required transfer cable and it’s probably going to be the best and fastest option for you. PC Mover won’t image one hard drive to another. Instead it copies the files, settings and programs, of your choosing, to your new computer. I’ve used this program and I was shocked at how well it worked. The only drawback was that I (ignorrantly) chose to transfer the selected programs and files, over a small office network. It took forever. Using the supplied transfer cable would have been the smarter move. This was confirmed by the technical staff at Laplink.

Limitations With Installed Programs

This is where you’ll be the most disappointed with the process of buying a new computer. If you want ALL of the same programs and settings transferred from your old computer to your new computer, the only way to do this is to have your old hard drive imaged and then re-image your new hard drive with all of your old information. I don’t recommend this at all, because this process is too indiscriminate. You have no choice but to transfer everything from your old computer to your new computer…even the junk that you don’t want. In effect, all you’re really doing is moving ALL of your old junk to NEW hardware. Is that really what you want? You have to consider that getting a new computer is, in reality, a “fresh start”. You have a brand new (clean) hard drive and operating system. Imaging really works best as a backup system for a new computer.

Manual Instructions

Here’s a list of steps to take, PRIOR TO GETTING YOUR NEW COMPUTER, if you want to do this the right way.

1. Download the “Belarc Advisor” from www.belarc.com (or a similar piece of software). This will list all of the software you have on your computer and, in some cases, will also list your “license keys” that you can use to reinstall the software you want to keep. This is a free program.
2. Make a list of the programs that you’re SURE you want on your new computer. Most people, myself included, install software and end up not using it. Just because you paid $19.95 for it, doesn’t mean you need to keep it.
3. Make sure you either have all of your installation CDs or that you’ve saved the installation files to a location on your old computer that will be transferred to your new computer. You can create a folder name “Software Installation Files” or something similar. This will keep you from wasting time looking for these files, later.
4. Be sure that the documents you use are not stored in the “application’s” installation folder. For example, lets say you have PROGRAM-X installed. We’ll say that this is a word processor application. You use it to write letters or to make documents for work. The installation folder is “C:\Program Files\PROGRAM-X”. When you create or edit a document with PROGRAM-X, you don’t want to save it to that location. You should save it to your “My Documents” folder or another folder that you’ve created specifically for those documents (somewhere outside of the “Program Files” folder). A common misconception is that you save your PROGRAM-X documents in “PROGRAM-X”. This isn’t true. PROGRAM-X is just that, a program. You can’t save documents to programs, you can only save them to “locations” or, more specifically, folders. The reason for bringing this up is that you won’t be transferring your “Program Files” folder to your new computer.
5. Set aside some time to install ONLY the programs you’re sure you want to keep, when you get your new computer.

Pictures, Music, Movies And More! (data)

Not enough can be said about preparing to move your old data to your new computer. There are however, three key words to remember. They are ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!

Start moving your important data to easily recognized folders, NOW! You’ll be surprised (and a little shocked) when you see how much data you’ve accumulated over the years. You need to organize it now. Get rid of the things you don’t need and organize the remainder. Create a folder on the hard drive named “STUFF TO TRANSFER”. Move everything you want to keep into folders with related names (create a folder for pictures named “PICTURES”). Then move those folders to the “STUFF TO TRANSFER” folder.

Email

If you use a local client (program) to receive, send and store your email messages, such as Outlook or Outlook Express, you’ll need a way to transfer all of your email, addresses and settings to your new computer.

This is probably the best time to consider a switch to a web-based email application, such as Gmail or Google Apps. With an online email account, you’ll never have to backup, move or fear losing your email messages, contacts and appointments.

A Google Apps account (domain name required) will not only give you the ability to setup your very own, personalized email address (yourname @ yourdomain .com), but it will give you a way to upload all of your existing emails and contacts, from Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird.

Do yourself a favor…make the switch now.

The Transfer

If you’ve completed the steps, above, and can put the information (folders) on a CD or DVD, you can make the transfer yourself. If you don’t have a CD/DVD burner on your old computer, it may be best to have a computer professional transfer the data for you. In most cases the hard drive will be removed from your old computer and connected to your new computer (as a “SLAVE”). Then the data will be transferred to your “MASTER” hard drive on your new computer.

I hope that this article will make the transition, from an old computer to a new computer, a little easier for all.