You finally got that New Computer! Now What??
by Andy Trask

You may have spent weeks online researching all the latest technologies, comparing processor types, gigahertz, gigabytes, RPMs, access speeds, resolution and aspect ratios. Or you might have spent hours in a retail store listening to salesmen drone on about USB, Firewire, Dot Pitch and more while you tried to sift through what's important and what's not. Or, you might have come home one night and found a pile of boxes sitting in the foyer and a "Oh honey, I bought a new computer, can you help me set it up?" But no matter how you got your new computer, you have a challenge ahead of you that we all face when upgrading to a new computer. A challenge that often we don't even realize or stop to think about until the new computer is set up and booted for the first time.

So there you are, sitting in front of that glorious new machine. It fairly sparkles with newness and that flat-panel display looks extra sharp up there on your desk! It starts up and the designer audio system pumps to life playing background music as you neatly navigate through the handful of introductory screens that set up the date, time, and native language of your system. Before long you are logging into your new computer and looking at it's barren featureless desktop and that's when it hits you - your life's work is on that old machine you just disconnected and stuck in the corner!

Okay, so maybe it's not your life's work. Certainly if you're a writer or a graphic designer your life's work could be inside that old box, but if your computer isn't central to your work, that's probably not the case. Still, there are key bits of data likely stored on that old machine that even the casual user may wish to rescue and carry forward into the new machine. For example, just about everybody uses email and has built up an address book of names, or perhaps you have a calendar of daily activities, a list of Internet favorites, or important documents or creative works such as family photographs. Maybe you have the more mundane but certainly very important financial records or tax data on your old machine. And now that you are thinking about it, you may be able to add to this list a few other choice pieces that you'd rather not leave behind.

A few words about the differences between moving data and programs from one machine to another. As a rule, you can copy data (documents, stored email, photographs, etc.) from one machine to another, but you must install programs (Microsoft Word, America Online, Outlook, Quicken, etc). What does this mean? It means that if you used Microsoft Office on the old machine you will have to install from original product CDs a copy of Microsoft Office on your new machine in order to access those data files that you moved. If you used Quicken on the old machine, you will have to install Quicken from an original product CD onto the new machine, etc. I differentiate between programs and data because you cannot simply copy programs over from the old machine and expect them to work. Basically, your application programs and the Windows Operating System need to be "aware" of one another and this awareness is created during the installation process where both your program and Windows are modified to make them work together.

Think of it as though you were shopping at the grocery store with a child. You have a list of specific items that you are going to buy and have budgeted only enough money to buy the items on the list. Items that are on your list are like programs that have been installed into windows from original product CDs (yes, Windows really keeps a list. It's called the Windows Registry! And Windows "budgets" system resources such as disk space and memory for these installed programs). Now let's say as you shop, your child also places items into the cart that aren't on your list. This is comparable to you copying a program from an old PC to a new one without going through the installation routine from original product CDs and therefore without that program being listed in the Windows Registry and having Windows resources allocated to it. When you get to the checkout counter, you find "unknown" items in the cart that aren't on your list and you can't "process" them because you have no awareness of those items nor have you budgeted for them. Likewise, if you copied a program from your old machine to your new one without going through the proper installation process, Windows will not run those programs as they are unknown to Windows and no system resources have been allocated to them.

So how does one bridge this great divide? With key data locked away on the old machine and the new machine begging to be used, how do you go about moving all your data and programs from the old computer to the new one? For starters, think of it as two operations. In operation one, you should install all the programs on the new computer that you want to use from the old computer. In some cases, this will be easy, as you may have ordered your new computer with current versions of those programs already installed. In some cases it will require you to chase down your original program CDs that you installed on your old computer. In some extreme cases, your older version program may not be compatible with the newer version of Windows and you will need to go out and buy a newer version of the program to install on your new machine.

In the second operation, you are going to move your data from the old machine to the new one. Start by sitting down at the old machine and make up a list of items that you want to move. If there are other people that use the computer, include them in this step as they may have created their own folders and you don't want to have to go back in the future to do this again. Of course in any given folder there may be far more than you actually want to carry forward (None of us are very good about housecleaning on the PC if you catch my drift and that old tennis club schedule from 1997 can probably safely be deleted at this point) so there's never been a better time to do some data "housecleaning". Think of how you used your old computer and what you most often used it for. For help, look at the accompanying sidebar "What People Move" for a short list of common data items that people carry forward from an old computer to a new one.

Finally you're ready to actually move your data. And making this job easier is a variety of tools available including cd writers, zip disks drives, home networking, and direct connection cables available from most major computer and office supply chains. One thing to look into for anyone upgrading to a Windows XP machine is the Microsoft "File and Settings Transfer Wizard" which is included as part of Windows XP and is accessed by clicking the "start" menu, opening the "All Programs" list, clicking on "Accessories" and going into the "System" submenu. Although a tad clumsy to use, this tool does a reasonable job of moving data and program settings from one PC to another. Transfer services are available also from in-home computer service providers such as Geek Housecalls. This is particularly valuable if conventional transfer methods fail or if your older machine is unstable or inoperable or if you'd just like some assistance getting the new computer up and operating smoothly.

Andy Trask is the Head Geek at Geek Housecalls (on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com). Based in Lexington Mass, Geek Housecalls provides computer hardware and software troubleshooting, networking, installations, upgrades, and general assistance to residential and small business computer users in Boston and the surrounding North, South, and Western suburbs as well as Rhode Island and southern New Hampshire. If you have a question or topic you'd like to see addressed by The Geeks, please send email to: agtm@geekhousecalls.com

If you're interested in reprinting this or other articles from this series on a website or in a printed publication please contact Andy Trask at andy@geekhousecalls.com for information about our liberal sharing policy!

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