Transfering my data from PC to Laptop

[viggen]

Hello everyone,

My PC has now reached its 8th year and while everything still works as intended, it did become slower and i want to upgrade.

The biggest fear of mine is the issue that i am over the years became so used to where everything is and hate change and how to get all my data from the PC to the next one.

The current PC runs on Windows XP Service Pack 3 and the new (well not so new but thats what i got for now) one runs on Windwos Vista, how difficult or easy is it to get the data to the Laptop including Outlook. ...does anyone know if Dreamweaver 2004 works with Vista?

thanks and cheers
viggen

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Isn't there some sort of drive cloning software you can use?

[caran1]

Acronis and Norton Ghost are 2 backup options available.

[vivalasvegas]

I usually like to reinstall everything manually - this way I can avoid installing software I no longer need. As for data - I copy it on a DVD or USB drive and again, I only place required data on the new computer.

Outlook or Outlook Express messages are easy to transfer. What you must do is find the folder where Outlook stores all your data. For example, in Outlook Express you go to Tools/Options/Maintenace and click on Store folder. You will see the address where Outlook Express stores all your folders (inbox, sent etc). You can now open this location, copy the data on the USB drive and, on the new computer do the same thing over (find the store folder and place the copied data in it). That's it.

I'm 99.9% sure DW 2004 will work with Vista.

[onlineleben]

For your email, i would recommend to archive the old stuff in a special archiving software. Go and check out Mailstore Home (freeware). It archives almost every mail format and with your old outlook files, you should be safe. Also keep in mind, that a large outlook file can slow down the whole email program (I experienced that with an outlook file dating back to 2003 - now everything is in the archive and I started fresh (with Thunderbird, not Outlook anymore)).

[rocknbil]

Why would you install Vista? It's Windows 7 now, Vista is already outdated.

You **may** experience some issues if you use the 64 bit version of either. You would need to run the program as administrator and in Compatibility Mode, and even then some 32 bit programs don't work. I lost about $1500 in software upgrading to a 64 bit machine and OS, ah well, it's only money, right? :-(

[aspdaddy]

I'd stay on XP Pro SP3 for another 6-12mths for business use. You can use XP Pro downgrade option if you buy business class hardware.

Windows 7 only really benefits home users and large organisations.

Just put all your data on an external drive and keep the old machine just in case you forget something

[rocknbil]

Support for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) ends on July 12, 2011.
Support for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) ended on July 13, 2010.

docs [windows.microsoft.com]

I am no fan of Windows 7. I hate it. I mean I really hate it, first time I've ever seriously considered giving up on all the apps that will never work in Linux and figuring out other ways. But there it is . . . M$.

[aspdaddy]

There is what? You can no longer pay £75 for the privelage of some geek in a call centre telling you what you find online for free,.

The recent Win7 SP1 fiasco shows its not ready for business use yet & XP SP3 is still being supported, downgrade options still avaialable when buying.

But XP is not dead. Not even by a long shot. Not at over 70% of the operating system market. And this is not about Service Pack 3, this is about the good old anti-Vista, XP SP2. Microsoft will continue to offer support for XP SP2 until July 13, 2010, which is two years from now. And XP SP3 will go even further than that.
"We understand some of our customers aren't ready to upgrade their PCs to Windows Vista. Although Windows XP will disappear from stores, we'll continue to offer Extended Support for the operating system for six more years, until April 2014," Microsoft added.

[news.softpedia.com...]