Moving Files From One Computer To Another

[davidk65]

My current laptop, now 7 years old, is showing signs that it is about to give up on me. Everything I have on it, files and applications are important to me, unfortunately I do not have the original discs for some of my applications. On the old computer, the operating system is Windows Vista and I use a student version of Office 2007 for which I do have the disc.
Is it possible to transfer/copy all of the content of one pc on to another laptop. and how do you In go about this.
I have a new Toshiba 1.0 Terra-bite external drive can I use this for the transfer?

[VHG]

Do you mean move EVERYTHING on the hard disk from one PC to the other, including Windows and all the programs and all your personal files?

Well you can (sort of), but read the following.

When Windows is installed on a computer it looks at all the hardware on the computer and installs certain files and makes certain settings based on the computer hardware.

Because each computer has different hardware in it then you cant just move everything on one PC to another PC and expect it to work.

Also Windows makes a note of the hardware on a PC and when Windows is activated it records the hardware details of that PC. If you move Windows to another PC the underlying hardware will be different so Windows will not activate or work properly.

Having said all that, there is software around that allows you to make an "image" of all the files on a hard disk. You can then store this image on an external hard drive.

Later you can restore this image back on to the same PC, but there is nothing stopping you trying to restore it back to a different PC.

It probably wont work properly, and you will get all sorts of errors, and you will need to update all the drivers, but the actual process of moving it from one PC to the other can be done.

Macrium Reflect Free Edition can be used to make an image, and I have used this:
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Also product called EASEUS can be used to make an image, but I have never used this. I believe there is a free edition.
http://www.easeus.com/

Note to do this you do need some technical knowledge, so if you have never done this sort of thing before you may need help from a friend.

[VHG]

Few extra things.

You say you are going to move all this on to another laptop.

What is on that other laptop? Has it already got Windows and programs on it?

Because if you move everything from your old PC to the laptop you will destroy everything that is currently on the laptop.

Also note that laptops often need special software drivers to make the hardware work.

If this is a new laptop then make sure there are VISTA drivers for this laptop. If it is a new laptop you may find there are NO Vista drivers and certain hardware components may not work.

As you have probably gathered from my replies, while you CAN move everything from one PC to another it is not really a good thing to do and you could finish up with a laptop that does not work properly but you have no way of getting the software back that was on it as you have over written it.

To keep it simple, you CAN move your PERSONAL files from the old PC to the new one.

But you CANT move programs, they have to be reinstalled from the original CD or DVDs or installation files you may have downloaded.

[davidk65]

Hi. Thank you for your reply. The laptop I am looking at does have Windows 7 on it, but I am vague about the rest of the content. It belongs to a friend who describes it as being very fast. Most of my stuff is done in Microsoft Office and from what I have read you seem to suggest my files should therefore copy across (whatever that in tales). I have a lot of photos will they also "travel" easily to the new laptop?
I having read your comments I don't need to take everything just my personal files.
I now think I have just two main concerns:
1) How do I get my emails and contacts from my old computer to the another one?
2) I rely heavily on Quicken 2004 accounts package. I installed Quicken on my current laptop which uses Vista some years ago but I am not sure about the new computer and backward comparability. I have tried in the past to contact quicken about a later version but failed to get any info.
Any more comment!

[davidk65]

What I dreaded has happened; my loyal HP laptop has died.
I had backed up everything recently and thought I was saved i.e I would simply connect up my external drive to my replacement computer and do a restore. My old computer had Vista on it and my new has Window 7, it could not do a restore. My problems have multiplied because I have some older applications and they too are not compatible with Windows 7, my installation discs are rejected.
Two Questions I would value answers on.
QI: My new computer has a 500gb disc. My old HP computer was supplied with a recovery disc. Question, can I create a partition on my new computer and using the HP recover disc create another operating system i.e. Vista. If I can I could then install my application. But is this possible?

Q2: I am told it is probably the HDD that has failed on the HP laptop.
Could I replace that drive with a replacement and then using the HP recovery disc,
hopefully it would install vista, and I could carry on using my applications?

Note: I have looked into buying applications that are compatible with Windows 7 but the cost runs into hundreds of pounds.

Any comments gladly received.

[VHG]

As I explained on my first replies, you cant do an image copy on one computer and restore to another computer.

To answer Q1. You CANT restore your old Vista image back onto a partition on your new computer. I explained that very clearly in my first two replies.

To answer Q2. If you are sure it is the hard disk that has gone in the HP laptop then if you replace the hard disk, and you have the recovery disks then you should be able to reinstall Vista back on to the HP laptop.

You can then reinstall all your applications back on the HP laptop.

[bhg481]

VHG is dead right.
It's easy to fit a replacement disc into your old laptop and try the restore.
If it fails you can buy something like this from Amazon
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation
then fit the disc into it and use it as another external disc for your new laptop. You can't have too many backups.