Once again I consult the Chiff & Fipple Oracle of Smart People:
I’m about to replace my aging Dell (c. 1997) with a new one. I can’t imagine the horrors of setting up the new one. Reconnecting my peripherals (especially the DSL Router & Wireless Broadband Router) and all the programs and all the files and holy cow.
I know there are some commercial products available for doing this via USB cables. Anyone have any experience with these or any tips for me. I’ve honestly put off purchasing the new computer because of the nightmares of making the transfer.
If you buy the computer locally you can have (pay) them to migrate your files and connections to the new system. Professionally, it’s a good choice to make rather than spend 4-5 hours and cables and frustration.
with the DSL modem it should be pretty easy, I never use the software that the ISP gives you, simply take the ethernet cable that it comes with and plug it into your network card, the dell should be set up from the factory to automatically grab an IP address and go from there. for you software make sure you have all your discs and any CD keys you may need, if oyu’ve got software that you’ve downloaded from the web make sure you’ve got the install files handy and either burn them to CD or write down the URLs where you can get them again.
with your files that you want to keep you can take the hard drive out of your old computer and put it in the new one and copy things over, or you can network the two machines but that gets a little more complicated.
Take what I say below with a grain of salt, as I’m really a Mac guy, but I do use Windows for work and I’ve gone through this process a few times.
There are ways to do this with “ghosting” or making a copy of your entire hard disk and transferring everything to the new computer, but I think you want to avoid that as you’re facing a somewhat more complicated scenario.
Almost certainly your new computer will be running a different version of Windows than your old one. Probably you’re running Win XP on your new computer and what, Win 95 or 98 on your old one. Connecting your peripherals will probably be much easier than you think, because Win XP recognizes a lot of stuff right off the bat and you don’t have to install the drivers. I bet it’ll recognize your wireless router, for example. It should recognize your printer too, if it’s not too old.
For programs, the best approach is to reinstall them from the original CDs. (presumably you’re not running any pirated programs; if so, now’s your chance to get legal ) That way everything will go where it’s supposed to go and you won’t miss any crucial bits of the program that may be in different directories on your old computer. If you’ve got software that you downloaded from the net, such as ABC2Win, go to your old computer and copy down the serial numbers, and then download the software afresh on the new computer.
For your documents and other files, you could try networking your two computers (since you already have the wireless network in place) and transfer the files through the air from one computer to the other. It’s slow, but it works. Or you can burn them onto a CD from the old computer (if you have a cd burner), or do it with zip disks if you have a zip drive.
For your internet connections, your wireless broadband router will probably remember its current settings and you won’t have to do anything. All the connection information is kept on the router, not your computer. When you set up your XP machine, it’ll ask you how you want to connect to the internet, and if you tell it to connect to your wireless router you should be all set.
Don’t let the above posts lead you astray!!! M*cs will ruin your life!!!
When you get your new computer, make sure it has several USB ports. Just pick up any adapters (if necessary for your peripherals), and get a data transfer cable (i think its called that), that plugs into each computer’s LAN port, and allows you to move everything.
Most important, remember that you are smarter than the computer, and that you CAN make it do everything as long as you believe in yourself.
That said, I’d rather be sentenced to 3-5 years of rc**dr music than ever use a M*c again.
How about taking the harddrive out of the old machine and putting it in the new? (having two harddrives is what I mean) You could then transfer the programs to the new harddrive as you need them.
This works great for data (like your documents and pictures), not so good for programs. Because the operating system of the new machine will be on disc one, and the program on disc two, Microsoft OSes don’t take kindly to that. But by all means, throw the old hard drive in the new box and bring your documents along, and get the extra space to boot.
I use a Dell Dimension 2400 at work (company’s choice, not mine), with a flat panel screen (really nice on my eyes: no distortion). I use an iMac (the transluscent cover one, not the one pictured in the thread).
I’m thinking about purchasing a second desktop workstation for home. I like both the Dell and the Mac. Obviously, if I purchase a Dell, I’ll need to purchase a slew of software I don’t already own, but the long-term prospects for games and such are better.
On the other hand, I love Macs for their ease of use, and (guess what?) they aren’t susceptible to all the viruses that plague PCs.
'Tis a quandry, I tell ya! At the risk of opening the age-old Mac vs PC debate ()I believe they both present strengths, depending on what you wneed to do), any thoughts?
And I’ve always wondered: why isn’t a Mac considered a PC (as in “personal computer”)? Mine is personal and it’s a computer!
If you buy a PC as a second computer for home and if you intend to keep using a Mac indefinitely as well, then you’ll find yourself paying out more as you upgrade both machines in the future. Of course you don’t HAVE to keep them up to date, but Mac OSX is such an improvement over OS9 (I’ve never had a system crash in 2 years) and the “iLife” applications for the Mac are so good (iPhoto, iTunes, and the new GarageBand), that you’ll probably find yourself wanting to keep up to date. And you’ll probably find reasons to upgrade the programs on your PC as well. So keep in mind the “product lifetime” costs of maintaining two computers with two different operating systems.
If you do want to continue to use both operating systems, a cheaper way might be to buy a new iMac or G4 (or even a G5 if you need that kind of horsepower) with a big hard drive (80 gigs) and run Virtual PC on it. That way you have both a Mac and a PC on one computer and you can switch quickly between the two. Microsoft is now selling Virtual PC and I think it’s supposed to be pretty nicely priced once the new version comes out in a month or so…certainly much cheaper than buying a separate computer. Virtual PC currently doesn’t run on G5s, but the new version will fix that.
If you’re not wedded to the idea of keeping a Mac around, then buying a PC is a good idea. If you’re using one at work, you won’t have to worry about any compatibility problems if you ever have to bring work home with you…Macs are quite compatible with most of the major PC programs (Office, etc.), but you may find yourself running into roadblocks occasionally. The reason I use a PC at work is because one of my clients requires me to use some software that’s available only for PC. There are 10,000 applications available for Mac OSX, but there are probably hundreds of thousands available for PC, and sometimes you just need a PC.
Both will get your work done, so that point is a wash. It really boils down to a matter of personal style. For me, I have much more fun using my Mac, and I have much less frustrations using it. That, in addition to the better security and almost nonexistent virus worries, makes the choice simple for me.
If you are a gamer, and need the newest, hottest games and can’t wait a second for them, then get a PC. Macs do have a good (and increasing) selection of games, but you have to wait an average of 2-6 months for them to be ported over. A small bonus for the Mac is that the drek games never make it over, so you are only getting the quality games. Plus, most of the really evil bugs have been patched by the time Mac users get them.
For me, music is increasingly important to my life, and with the amazing new program called GarageBand (which you will get free with a new Mac) that Apple just announced, my Mac is going to be even more important to me. I’m going to have a whole lot of fun playing whistle with my daughter, recording it, and whip up simple songs. When it comes to audio programs, the low latency on the Mac is great, as is the stability of the OS.
it mostly doesn’t work for programs because of the registry, then again I always found it much simpler to reinstall the software than to hack the registry to make things work.
Seriously Dale, You should get a network card with your new computer, hook it up to the router with the other computer, turn on sharing and transfer the files that you want to transfer.
You can transfer data but you won’t be able to transfer programs from a Win 98 machine to XP - it will through fits over this. Unless you have ways of making it work.
I Just got my “new” PC up and running too Dale. Mine completely crashed out during a major lightning hit before the holidays… took out my drive and processor (Cheap Wally-World surge protector was torched)… major hit. I’ve rebuilt and spent more than the rebuild in getting my smoked hard-drive transplanted and data retrieved… got 84% of it which is more than I ever hoped. Got almost all my important stuff onto a new drive which is all that matters!
I’m all set back up with SuSe Linux and VMware running Win98,2000, and XP virtual machines. IIIIIIIIIiiiiiiii’m in heaven…
Hope you and everyone is doin’ great. Nice to be back on line and fully functional … WITH my data in tact!
Take care all,
John
P.S. If you want stability… go with Linux. You can always run a VMware virtual machine with windows on it if you have to have Windoze handy, but that way if it ever crashes… you just start another virtual session again… never have to power off or reset your actual machine due to an “illegal operation”
) That way everything will go where it’s supposed to go and you won’t miss any crucial bits of the program that may be in different directories on your old computer. If you’ve got software that you downloaded from the net, such as ABC2Win, go to your old computer and copy down the serial numbers, and then download the software afresh on the new computer.
