[TheOne]

I'm about to buy another computer and am going to give my current comp. to a relative. However
I don't want to have to reinstall everything on the new computer. So I was wondering if it was possible
to transfer files from my computer to the new one.

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yes you can do this there is many ways in which you can some methods are
1) burning the files to DVD
or
2) plugging in your old hard drive into the new system and copyig straight from hard drive to hard drive

option 2 is alot faster and alot better when yo recieve your new system open up the case and plug in the hard drive from the old computer (make sure the old hard drive is set to slave) this will allow the computer to see the drive and allow you to acsess it in my computer then search for the files you wnat and save them to your new system

if the old hard drive has the operating system installed on it it may be alittle more difficult to do but still do-able.

if there's any questions feel free to post back
i can give you a step to step guide on installing the hard drive
troppo

[troppo]

yes you can do this there is many ways in which you can some methods are
1) burning the files to DVD
or
2) plugging in your old hard drive into the new system and copyig straight from hard drive to hard drive

option 2 is alot faster and alot better when yo recieve your new system open up the case and plug in the hard drive from the old computer (make sure the old hard drive is set to slave) this will allow the computer to see the drive and allow you to acsess it in my computer then search for the files you wnat and save them to your new system

if the old hard drive has the operating system installed on it it may be alittle more difficult to do but still do-able.

if there's any questions feel free to post back
i can give you a step to step guide on installing the hard drive
troppo

[Kemasa]

There can be issues if you copy the OS from one machine to another. Are you talking about just your data files or the complete OS?

I have seen on this forum that you need to do a repair from the boot CD before you boot the machine, otherwise issues can result.

You could swap disks, if the disks are the same.

Personally I think it is best to reinstall, but that is just me. Also before you give your old machine away, you might want to wipe the disk completely to ensure that there is no personal data left on it (free program such as dban).

[hudihoo]

the easiest and fastest way to do this is buy a program such as ghost or another image making program. What this does it makes a complete copy of your current harddrive. then you over a network you boot the second pc up to the program and it copies everything at network spees faster then cd or dvd. also the second pc will boot up and be exactly like your first pc was. then you format the first pc harddrive and give it away

[troppo]

you cant just make an image and copy it across and you cant just plug in the old hard drive and away you go its much more comlicated.
but yes you can do a repai install but this is risky and doesnt always work

the thing is you cant copy across the os because it is configured for use on the old motherboard.

what you have to do is get your new machine and open up the side of the case find the cable which the NEW hard drive is plugged into and place your OLD hard drive onto the slave connection (about a third of the way down the cable) and set the OL hard drive as a slave (by changing teh pins on the back of the drive) (see pic below its from seagate but should work the same) and then going into the bios and select "boot from master" or something similar then once the machine is up and running the drive will appear in my computer as more than likely the D: drive if not you will have two hard drives and select the other one (not C:)
it will have all of your OLD files on it then you can use the old copy-paste method and select all of the OLD files you want to keep

but when you get your new computer you do want a fresh install of windows and new programs the OLD os will have heaps installed on it and will cause your new computer to run slower

you will have to install any new programs and other things you want on there.
it is better this way because in the end after you have installed all of the things you want the computer will run faster and be free of clutter and useless rubbish

if you need anymore info just post back,
troppo

[troppo]

you cant just make an image and copy it across and you cant just plug in the old hard drive and away you go its much more comlicated.
but yes you can do a repai install but this is risky and doesnt always work

the thing is you cant copy across the os because it is configured for use on the old motherboard.

what you have to do is get your new machine and open up the side of the case find the cable which the NEW hard drive is plugged into and place your OLD hard drive onto the slave connection (about a third of the way down the cable) and set the OL hard drive as a slave (by changing teh pins on the back of the drive) (see pic below its from seagate but should work the same) and then going into the bios and select "boot from master" or something similar then once the machine is up and running the drive will appear in my computer as more than likely the D: drive if not you will have two hard drives and select the other one (not C:)
it will have all of your OLD files on it then you can use the old copy-paste method and select all of the OLD files you want to keep

but when you get your new computer you do want a fresh install of windows and new programs the OLD os will have heaps installed on it and will cause your new computer to run slower

you will have to install any new programs and other things you want on there.
it is better this way because in the end after you have installed all of the things you want the computer will run faster and be free of clutter and useless rubbish

if you need anymore info just post back,
troppo

[hudihoo]

you can do the image and copy because ghost makes an image and runs the xp mini setup so it reinstalls all the drivers. After you do that it should run fine. Different hardware shouldn't make a difference. But i only know for a fact using ghost as the program(more expensive though)

[troppo]

well ihavent heard of thatr but i ask why would you want to do that?
i understand that you wont have to reinstall any programs but why would you want to copy across an old os that is full of junk that has been colected through the years?

would you want a new os that is free of junk fast and have a fresh new computer?

and what happens if the new computer already has an os installed on it? will it copy over that?

troppo

[hudihoo]

well if you image it is faster the a fresh install. it keeps all programs and files and settings. And yes it will erase an OS if the harddrive already has one. there is another program i have read about that makes an .iso file of the windows xp cd but adds all your programs and files to it. then you burn to dvd and install it and it has the programs and files.

[troppo]

but what happens to all of thoose files that have different extensions as in like what ahppens if they are installed on a d: drive and you are installing them on a c:drive they will be all mucked up and plus as i said earlier it will slow down the new pc with old junk form the old pc?

is "the one" building this pc or buying it from a retailer?
troppo

[TheOne]

Hi sorry for not posting earlier. I am buying a p.c. froma retailer and it comes with windows media
center OS and my current comp is running XP home. I only really want to transfer some media files
and a couple of programs. BTW could i move the set up files only then reinstall the program to my
new computer?

[troppo]

so all you really want to do is copy over some videos pictures and some music?

and maybe some programs?

as i outlined before by copying the old operating system you will have all of the old junk form the old system that has been left behind this will cause your computer to run slower and have many bugs and things wrong with it.

im assuming that because you are getting it from a retailer you dont want to open up the case ad plug in the old hard drive? well the best thing to do would be to burn everything you want to keep onto DVD's and copy them to your new computer.

but you will have to install any new programs the thing is the setup file is one thing but it also need all of the other files to go with it. dont you have the original discs that came with these programs? or are they downladed programs? what exactly do you want to copy across? a little more information would be helpfull,
troppo

[TheOne]

Ok. Most of the programs are downloaded. To be specific the more important ones are : nero,limewire + downloads, aprox. 30-50gigs of media files, azureus, Zonealarm firewall, microsoft office, and a variety of other programs. I dont want to transfer everything.

To be more clear this is what I was asking: You know when you download a program you
download the set up.exe file? could you copy over that file then reinstall in the other comp via
burned DVD? Or better yet could I copy the entire folder over? Thank you for your help.

By the way I dont mind opening up the new computer as I am familiar with the components of a
p.c. It just seems that using the slave drive method is risky and will reduce the performance of my
new computer.

[troppo]

well with downloaded files yes just copy across the .exe files and install them
and plugging in another hard drive will not slow down the computer at all and its not risky whatsoever unless you are really silly and bend all of the pins then the drive wont work.

trust me the best thing to do is plug in the old hard drive and copy anything you want to keep there is no other way to trasfer all of that stuff because its so large.

with nero and other programs do you have the original CD's? if the new computer comes with any type of burner then nero should come with it if you dont have the original cd's

troppo