Tech: Changing Computers

Subject: Tech: Changing Computers
From: eddie1
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:30 PM

Just got myself a new computer. While I don't anticipate any problems in copying data files using an external hard drive, Two things look difficult.
How do I copy my e-mails (in Outlook Express) to my new computer?
How do i copy my favouritr Internet sites?

I'd appreciate any help.

Eddie

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: nutty
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 01:27 PM

I just downloaded everything I wanted to keep onto a memory card. I put so much onto the new computer but can access the rest whenever I want.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: Bert
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 01:51 PM

You should be able to access you emails directly from your new computer, unless you had saved the files on your old machine.

I would use the opportunity to start again with the internet favourites. I've got so much old stuff in mine.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 02:00 PM

eddie1

If you are using Internet Explorer, click on File|Import and Export. You can export your favorites to a place you choose anywhere on the computer. The export will be an html page. On the new computer the same File|Import and Export function will let you import the html page and you'll have all your favorites back.

Other browsers should have similar Import/Export functions.

In Outlook Express, you need to go to File | Folders and choose
"Compact All Folders" before attempting to save messages.

After the "compacting" is finished, close OE, and use Windows Explorer to search (usually from C:\) for "*.dbx" to find the Outlook Express Folder under your username. You may have to use "Advanced Search" and tell it to Search Hidden and System Files, and be sure that Search Subfolders is on. It's recommended that you copy the entire "Outlook Express" folder and paste it somewhere accessible. Copying individual subfolders isn't always reliable.

On the new computer, OE can use File|Import to "import from external backup." Just browse to the "Outlook Express" folder that you copied from the old machine.

Outlook Express includes a File | Export that allows you to "export messages," and you might want to use it as a backup; but simply copying the whole Outlook Express folder and importing from it usually is more reliable (but not always). The files generally aren't enormous, so you may want to try both methods and make two separate backups.

You also will want to move your address book. You can use the same method as for messages, by searching for "*.wab" and copying to the new machine, then using File|Import to bring it back into the new Outlook Express.

Caveat: If the new computer uses Vista, it doesn't have Outlook Express. You will need to use Outlook.

Outlook cannot import an OE address book in .wab form, so on the old machine you need to use File|Export Address Book and save the addy book in ".csv" format, which Outlook can import.

At least that's the way I usually do it.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: eddie1
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 08:28 PM

Thanks for taking the time to explain that John.
The "new" computer is still Windows XP so everything should be plain sailing if I follow your advice.

Eddie

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 10:49 PM

I make a habit of defaulting all my program outputs to a separate folder for the documents and such that they produce, so that I can just copy that folder for backups. That doesn't of course back up the programs that produce the documents, but for a new "clean machine" you're usually better off doing a fresh install of the programs anyway.

A few programs insist vigorously that the program "products" must be in the same folder(s) where the program is installed. You may or may not have any in this category, but ones to check out are usually the "small ones" like some music notation programs, "easy-x" programs from smaller producers like "Quicken," "My Software" (My Invoices, My Collections etc.), and sometimes your Income Tax program(s). (A couple of "genealogy programs" are notorious for this too.)

Before abandoning an old computer completely, it's a good idea to spend some "thinking time" about what stuff may be on it that is not deliberately and purposely put where it will get backed up.

If you can set up the new machine so that everything goes into ONE FOLDER (essentially equivalent to a separate partition on a hard drive) - with appropriate subfolders of course, you'll be set up for easier backups with the new computer.

Your email program messages and address book are two things that theoretically can be moved anywhere you want them, but in practice it seldom works as well as using the default locations. I wouldn't recommend, for most people, using a non-default location for them (for Outlook or Outlook Express).

Most other programs that "embed" the results usually are fairly small (or at least smaller than Windows/Office programs) so that it may be feasible to install the programs directly in the "backupable" folder and just backup the program(s) along with the data.

Looking at what you've got is probably the best way to figure out the most usable new setup. A little thinking-in-advance can be a big help, although it's not usually a "big enough deal" to agonize over.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: pavane
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 03:10 AM

The biggest problem may be reinstalling all the software you need.
You need to have all the ditribution disks or files, any keys, and so on.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 03:28 AM

You could just take the hard disc from the old machine and put it in the new one as a slave, then import stuff from there, while gaining extra storage in the new box.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: eddie1
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:29 AM

Thanks for the continuing help guys. Both machines are laptops so using the old drive is not an option.
Does anyone else remember saying, "40 Gigs? I'll never, never need that much space?"

Eddie

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 05:51 AM

40 Gigs?

I remember buying a 40 MEG hard drive that I had to partition because the OS couldn't read it all in one piece.

(And a couple of people here are even older than I am.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: Susan of DT
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 06:09 AM

My first computer (Osborne in 1981) did not HAVE a hard drive: "Winchester" (hard) drives started a couple of years later. There were 2 floppy drives of 92k each and you put the floppy with the program (and CP/M operating system on the reserved 2k tracks) in the A drive and the data on the floppy in the B drive.

I just got a 500 Gig drive for backups and such. I had tried a drive image program that was supposed to be useful for regular backups and be used to transfer a whole drive image onto a new computer. PC Magazine recommended Shadow Protect. I am glad I downloaded the 30 day trial version, because it messed up MS Outlook, so I had to use a reset to the time before I installed it if I wanted my email to function.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 06:35 AM

eddie1 - Before you start doing much with your new computer, it is worth giving thought to programmes which either protect it, or allow you to recover from later problems such as virus attack.
A while back I starte a thread - Tech: Clean PC - Good Protection Software? - which came up with some useful suggestions for simple and free progammes worth installing.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 10:48 AM

A programme I have just stated to experimemt with is Ashampoo Magical Uninstall -Look at the menus on their home page.
The freeware programme is pretty clever. It makes a list of files and registry entries before and after installing a programme, then compares the two to make a file logging the changes made, which it saves, and can then use the information to remove or change back all files or entries if you decide to uninstall. Many programmes leave behind a stack of junk when you uninstall using usual methods, but this one is more clever. It even gives the option of saving the uninstallation, so you can use it to reinstall the same programme at a later date.
I only installed it this week, so am still evaluating it, but so far it seems really useful.
The pay money version also allows you to add information about updates to programmes, so they can be included with the original install log.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 01:39 PM

Having gone through a dozen or so computers and three decades of software updates, we've found it a good practice to IMMEDIATELY, when unpacking a new one, use a small box to put ALL OF THE PROGRAM DISKS, Manuals, registrations, etc for the new machine IN ONE PLACE.

We've used the small plastic "shoe boxes" you can find at places like WalWart, Hobby Lobby, etc. (About $1 each when we got our first bunch, but probably $4 each now?)

The boxes that purchased software comes in are made for display in the store, not for storage at home or at the office. In some cases you may need to clip off a "Registration" or "Certificate" or "Key Code" and put the original piece of the box panel with the disk(s); but the average 3 cubic inches of content usually is in 3,267 cubic inches of box, which makes for rather inefficient use of space.

While it must be recognized that nobody reads the manual, it is strongly recommended that you keep any user manual that comes with the computer. It probably looks pretty useless when the machine is new, but may be the only place to find which two points to short circuit on the motherboard to dump the BIOS when you forget a system password, or to find the specific specification for the chips you need if you decide to upgrade memory, ... or other trivia of the kind.

Manuals that come with software often are useless but be careful about discarding one you might need later. Some wise evaluation may be required in the interests of space availability. Program disks generally should go in the box for the machine on which the program is (first) installed.

Since at one time we were a thriving small business, Lin got busy and "organized" our supplies and we have a single shelf with 48 of the (nearly) identical shoeboxes. Each computer has its own box, with the rest of them devoted to "supplies."

As the business is less active now, anyone who wants a shoe box full of "brand-new" ballpoint pens filled with dried up ink, or a few hundred Post-It^® stickers with dessicated adhesive that won't stick to anything, or some of the few thousand staples that fit only the broken stapler, please PM her - not me.

If you do choose to put everything in one box, even if you only have ONE BOX, do put a good, visible label on the box.

And NEVER put a "rubber band" (elastic) in any box that contains ANYTHING you might want later.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 01:56 PM

GtD -

The potential problem with the new program is that many programs share files. The program described (or at least most like them that I've seen) will show a file that updates a shared file on the computer as being "installed by the program." If you just delete everything that that installation did you may find other programs that quit working.

Many programs also detect files that they can share, and if the existing one is "newer" than what the installation has, it usually will not be shown in a log of changes made during that installation. If you rely only on log programs to remove stuff, the removal won't include shared files if the "other program" that used one has already been removed, or is using an updated version.

Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs is the only method that should be used to manage programs that appear there.

For programs that don't show up there, you should look in the program folder for an "uninstall" provided with the program before trying anything else.

Any "Windows compliant" program you install already makes a log file of the installation, so having a separate program to replicate information your machine already knows seems like a kind of redundant thing to do; but if you find it interesting to look at a separate copy you probably won't hurt yourself with it - as long as you've got the original installation disks for everything you might need to reinstall after you use your log file to uninstall something.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: Amos
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 02:14 PM

Wow, you guys live complicated lives...



A

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: Gulliver
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 09:54 PM

When my desktop's motherboard gave up the ghost last year I bought a second-hand PC and installed the old hard drive as a slave. It's worked out great as I have access to all my data from the old PC. Is it possible to install another hard drive on this system?

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 11:33 PM

IDE drives - 2 drives per channel - most PCs have 2 channels (but a few might have only 1)- thus 4 drives. You can add a SATA adapter and then as many SATA drives as you want.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: GUEST,Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 04:28 AM

It IS possible to get the hard drive out of a laptop. But the laptop might not be a lot of use later! You can get cases for 2.5 inch drives.

3.5 inch drives is easy. Lots of choice of external housings, many will connect via a network cable or USB2 cable.

So if you can get the hard drive out it's easy to keep it on the shelf in a case to retrieve data from.

If you can't get the old laptop drive out, you can probably make an image of it on an external drive by using Drive Image or Ghost, and then you still have the backup you can use as a slave on the new machine.

Subject: RE: Tech: Changing Computers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 05:00 AM

If the old laptop isn't too old to still be in legacy archives, you likely can download a "service manual" from the manufacturer's website. That should give you sufficient instructions to get a hard drive out without major damage to the laptop.

You can get cases for 2.5" drives with USB translators built in, so that you could pop it into a case and use it as an external drive. If you can find a decent USB case, that's an easy way to transfer everything to the new computer.

If you don't want to put the drive back in the old computer, you could then just use it, in the USB case, as an external drive for overflow or backup.

Vista supposedly has an available accessory program for "transferring everything" using a USB or Firewire "zero modem cable." I've seen "rumors" that a similar utility and cable setup is available for WinXP but haven't looked for details.

USB cases are, as Richard says, easy to find, but many of them only accept IDE/EIDE drives. I've got a couple that will take either an IDE or SATA drive, to USB; but I've only seen a few of those in my local shops. Most of the dealers here haven't even heard of them - and the SATA-capable ones that I've seen are all for 3.5" drives.

John