Question for the computer experts out there

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I have an HP desktop I have had for almost 4 years. My DH said he is going to buy me a new one (Dell) for Christmas. I have a lot of things on my computer, software programs, like Trend Micro and some other things that have been downloaded off the internet. Is there a way to transfer PROGRAMS from an old computer to a new computer without having to track down and download all these programs all over again. Like more than just documents, actual programs. Can they all be moved? My DH said he bought some kind of cord that he used on his 2 laptops that let him move some stuff from one laptop to another but I know it is different with desktop towers. One is plugged into a monitor and you can see what you are doing but the second tower wouldn't be plugged into a monitor so you couldn't see what you were doing. He said Best Buy may do it for a fee but I am unclear just how much stuff can be moved and if there is a way to do it yourself to keep from having to pay the Geek Squad $250.

Is it possible to move all the programs and documents/data etc from one old computer to a new computer? If I could have all my stuff off my hard drive, like pictures and music too it would be cool.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

Transferring the data is easy - you can spend sometime organizing it and transfer via a flash drive, or if you have a router - set up a little LAN in your home with multiple computers and just transfer the files from one computer to the other. As for the programs - that might be tougher. Usually when a program is installed it copies over alot of files into various shared locations in your system folders. It isn't as simple as a drag and drop and the program starts working. The other thing you can look into for transferring your files is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) Drive - this too plugs into a router and becomes a network storage unit for files...you can then access those files from multiple computers in your home, and in some cases depending on your setup even remotely. If it were to cost 250 to have geek squad do it - I'd just buy the NAS drive for that price...you should be able to get at least 500GB maybe even 1TB drive at that price.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

I'm an IT guy, but I haven't been in PC maintenance for quite some time so there might be some new things I don't know about.

Pictures, music, documents ... that stuff is pretty easy. You can transfer those in a lot of ways (thumb drives, external hard drives, SD cards, NAS); some new PCs even come with a program that connects two PCs through a special cable (usually NOT provided) that will facilitate the move (lets you treat your old PC's HD like an external HD for your new PC).

However, programs are a much bigger deal because most of them not only install themselves and their data, the put in DLLs, registry and other types of settings and directories. It's hard to sort them all out.

Simple ones like downloaded games are usually OK in one directory, and can be copied without breaking them, but big things like MS Office or commercial software are usually to "distributed" to get all of the parts in a copy.

Every time I've ever moved a PC, I did reinstall the programs and copy all the data. But, I like knowing I've got the latest versions freshly installed on my new PC....

This is why I save CDs/DVDs of my favorite downloaded software....

 

[Geoff_M]

However, programs are a much bigger deal because most of them not only install themselves and their data, the put in DLLs, registry and other types of settings and directories. It's hard to sort them all out.

If your old and new machines were compatible in terms of their hardware (i.e. motherboard, video card, sound card, network card, etc.) then you might be able to "Ghost" (a popular utility program of that name) the entire contents of your old hard drive to your new one... but if you're going to a Dell from an HP it's highly unlikely that would work. As has been said the data is "easy" (assuming you have it stored in easily identifiable folders), but long gone are the days when you could move a program from PC to PC by just copying the contents of a folder.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I was hoping there was some really easy way to do it but it looks like re downloading and re installing everything is pretty much what I am going to have to do. I am not to tech savvy. Thanks for your replies.

 

[gallaj0]

Here's a link to some software that will make almost everything transfer over:
http://www.laplink.com/

I used it transferring programs, data, everything from an old XP computer to a Windows 7, and it brought over everything except Windows Office; it moved all the files/archives, etc, but we needed to reinstall Office.

It's worth every cent, and it wasn't too expensive at the time.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I've done it as a two-step method which does take some time.

I have a directory which I call "Storage" on my hard drive. Any program that I download from the Internet goes there to be stored. I will then click on the executable to actually install the program on my computer.

When I have gone to a new compute I would copy all the programs in Storage to the new computer, and then install them so that the System Registry knows they are installed and where they are. My next step is to go into the "Program Files" directory on the old computer and then, using a Flash Drive, copy each program into the same directory in the new computer. This way all my settings and data for the programs are now installed in the new computer.

It does take having both set up and working to do this, and it is time-consuming.