Moving from Old Laptop to New Laptop!

Whats the best program-transfer software?

from WinCustomize Forums
HELP!!!

I have just been handed a NEW Dell D610 laptop. Yee haa.. oh well, I have a C600 that has my 80gb hard drive, all my programs, setup exactly like i want it to be, everything is working fine. Now comes the question.. How the HECK can I copy all this to the new pc, and not have to spend DAYS making it all work??

Have any of you used any of these programs like "move me" etc? do they work?

Can i just stick the drive in there and do something in windows to have it work in the new drive????

PLEASE help!!! I want to do this ASAP, as the stupid company wants the old laptop back in a few days.

please let me know what you do to make this work?
3,944 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Are they running the same version of windows?
Did the comapny put any new software on it?
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have a "clone" of my hard drive, and yes they will have the exact same sw XP SP2 loaded on them.

As for what the company sends, that drive NEVER gets used, well it does when they bitch that i havent been audited lately...

Its XP SP2, and the drive will fit in the new machine, no problem, its just the differences in the machine itself.
I put in an older XP drive i had, and it BSOD'd when i tried to boot it.

I would like to use the clone drive and just load XP over it, but i think i will loose all my setting that way.. Unless someone knows a trick?
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
okay first off, those programs tend to only move stuff like your IE favorites, your 'my documents' folder, basic stuff like that. they usually don't transfer programs, minus norton ghost and similar "cloning/ghosting" products, but that does the whole 9 yards.

well your main problem with cloning or putting the old drive in the new laptop is going to lie in the drivers. you're going to need to install drivers for a large chunk of your devices if you stick the old hard disk in the new laptop (if it even boots)

windows doesn't store drivers for extra third party hardware, so all of that stuff you're going to have to find on your own. thankfully most of it is given to you on the cd's you get from dell, which is very important considering if your laptop boots with the old drive or a cloned drive, i can almost guarantee your network adapter drivers will not be installed. thus, you've got no internet to retrieve drivers. but as long as you remove the new drive from the new laptop, you are safe to try and boot from the old HD. you can't do any damage, since you can always put the new drive back in and you're back to square one.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Cal0140, and all..


Here is how I made it work!..

1. Download all the drivers I needed and made a CD (I used the drive that came with the laptop to be sure I had the right drivers)

2. Put in my Windows XP W/sp2 CD, and loaded windows, then picked to "repair" the current windows install. Not using the "console".

3. Once it came up I went into Device Manager, and deleted all the ?'s items, rebooted, and let it ask for all the drives needed, and used the cd created above.

4. I had to "repair" my AVG Anti-virus, and a few other minor things, but it seems to be working great!

This was the easiest upgrade i ever did.

Oh yeah, step 0 - use "True image" to clone my old drive to a new one so that I can still use both laptops to make sure i got everything working, and to go back and de-suthorize iTunes, etc.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Update.....
well its amazing how fast things can go from great to crap.

After using the laptop with the "repaired" drive for almost 1/2 a day, i tried to use quicken 2005, and then corel draw 11, and photo impact 10, and lo and behold NONE WORKED!!!

There seems to be something messed up in the video drivers that i cant seem to fix, and after a day of trying i gave up.

Im now on the new laptop with a brand new drive, and its getting re-loaded, but dang i hate this, reloading the laptop sucks!!