Geek Question

[gaystoryman]

So I have a question for the techie geeks around here. I have a client who has just bought a new computer, and wants to transfer the data and programs from their old machine to the new one.

What are your recommendations for achieving this task?

It is critical that the business data and programs be transferred seamlessly and the old machine was an ancient one, running windows 98. THe new one is XP simply as the business programs won't operate under Vista yet. Programs that are essential, so any suggestions here? What do you guys do when transferring data from one hdd to another on a new machine with a newere O/S?

[Lee]

Belkin makes a USB lead that will do this.

Its available at Office Depot for about $40

'Data transfer cable' at one of your online PC store sites in Canada should bring something up

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

What I thought but the so called computer geek they hired wants to do a copy to cd then reinstall... which i don't think is right, but me no geek. I'll tell them about the USB cable and yeah office depot has em up here too... thanks :morning:

[gaybucks_chip]

That's going to be pretty difficult to do seamlessly because XP and 98 are pretty different internally and so you can't just, say, copy the "program files" directory over and have the programs work on the new machine.

The data will be no problem and can be done with USB or CDs or whatever... but the programs will need to be reinstalled from the original install disks. Otherwise, the registry will not be correct and he will have tons of problems.

There's also a "move my files to another computer" function built into XP and might also be there in 98 as well... haven't used it but I'm told that it works...

[gaystoryman]

Thanks Chip, would the windows 98 machine need the 'move my files' or wouldn't XP just do the task? That might be an easier solution, but the guy they hired to install the machine says its simple to transfer the programs... but then he thought a 90 day warranty was also okay... for a machine critical to the operation of a business... have to look into that XP program... again thanks.

[Chilihost]

definitely reinstall all programs from original source CDs and copy your data over via CD burns or cable. Some programs offer ways to backup data and re-import it like outlook, otherwise a straight data copy will usually work.