Rick said:Let's say I backed up entire C: drive to an external USB drive.
Now the old C: drive is headed to the scrap heap and I have a brand
new computer.
How does one transfer backed-up user-files AND downloaded s/w (no
CD) to the new computer?!
Let's say I backed up entire C: drive to an external USB drive.
Now the old C: drive is headed to the scrap heap and I have a brand new
computer.
How does one transfer backed-up user-files AND downloaded s/w (no CD) to
the new computer?!
You can and should use "Image Backup" software to make a complete backup
of your Windows partition (usually the C: drive) to a USB drive. If you are
just installing the new drive in the same computer then there should be no
problem.
However if you install the drive into a different (new) computer after you
finish the
restore process (using a restore/rescue CD) you may need to perform a
"Repair Install". Therefore I would suggest you put the new drive into
your old PC first and then do the restore, verify your PC boots and there
are no problems, then move the drive to the new PC.
Image backups are stored in a compressed image file which is about 40% less
in size than the amount of space used by the Windows partition (pagefile is
excluded from a backup).
You can also specify the file size break point, so for instance if a full
image backup creates an image file of say 8GB the beak point can be set to
4GB resulting in a split file of 4 GB each which then can be saved to a DVD
or optionally during the Image backup you can specify the DVD drive as the
destination and create the backup directly to DVD media.
You can only Image and Restore FAT32 to FAT32 and NTFS to NTFS.
So for example an image of a FAT32 drive or partition can not be restored
to an NTFS partition on the new drive.
To restore the image backup you created boot from the "Restore/Rescue" CD,
point to the image backup file stored on the USB drive and then start the
restore
to the new drive.
Norton Ghost - has a 30 day trial available
(Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD AFAK)
http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost14
Product Review "Symantec's 14th Ghost":
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Norton-Ghost--Review-78775.shtml
True Image 2009 - has a 15 day trial version available,
(Trial version can create a Restore CD/Rescue Media)
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
User's Guide: http://us1.download.acronis.com/pdf/TrueImage12_ug.en.pdf
May I thoroughly recommend Acronis True Image - Just did exactly as
you describe - A cloned HD through the USB port using a caddy - Worked
perfectly so now have the old HD with all the info on it -
Superb back-ups too - though it does take 9 hours for a full back-up.
Ken Blake said:Simply connect the external backup drive to a USB port on the new
computer and copy all the backed-up *data* files to it, into whatever
folder or folders you want them in.
When you say "downloaded s/w," if you mean the installation files for
the software, and you understand that you will need to reinstall them,
simply do exactly the same thing with those files. Copy the files to a
folder on your new computer's hard drive.
But if you meant the installed software, be aware that--with a very
rare exception--installed software can not be transferred to a new
computer, and has to be reinstalled there. That's because most
software has many entries within the old computer's \windows folder,
in the registry and elsewhere, that won't be on the new computer.
Let me point out that the amount of time it (or any other such
program) takes is dependent upon how much you have to back up and the
speed of the drives. It is not necessarily anywhere near 9 hours.
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