Changing Machines.......

[Ross M. Greenberg]

So I'm in the process of changing machines. I had a major fire, and lost
everything including my main machine. My main machine was a dual core
machine running XP Pro. This machine is running an Athlon, and the Windows
Media.

My replacement machine is due in a week or so. What is the best method of
"porting" all the applications on this machine to my new machine when it
comes in?

If I say if everything went to an external USB drive, I can restore
everything by just bringing the drive across. However, how do I move
already existing software to the USB drive and then to the new dual core
drive? The registry I figure it's going to be a problem.

Ross

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

So I'm in the process of changing machines. I had a major fire, and
lost everything including my main machine. My main machine was a
dual core machine running XP Pro. This machine is running an Athlon,
and the Windows Media.

My replacement machine is due in a week or so. What is the best
method of "porting" all the applications on this machine to my new
machine when it comes in?

If I say if everything went to an external USB drive, I can restore
everything by just bringing the drive across. However, how do I move
already existing software to the USB drive and then to the new dual
core drive? The registry I figure it's going to be a problem.

Ross

You can't just copy your installed applications from one box to
another....you have to reinstall them, unless you were to use imaging
software (Acronis, Ghost, whatnot) but that would overwrite your whole new
OS / config, and would likely be pissy about the hardware not matching. The
important stuff to back up is your *data* - and keep your installation media
for all your software, handy. A big pot of strong coffee and some
entertaining music might help for the process.

 

[Paul Smith]

So I'm in the process of changing machines. I had a major fire, and lost
everything including my main machine. My main machine was a dual core
machine running XP Pro. This machine is running an Athlon, and the
Windows Media.

My replacement machine is due in a week or so. What is the best method of
"porting" all the applications on this machine to my new machine when it
comes in?

If I say if everything went to an external USB drive, I can restore
everything by just bringing the drive across. However, how do I move
already existing software to the USB drive and then to the new dual core
drive? The registry I figure it's going to be a problem.

In all honestly it looks like reinstalling your applications and then
copying files across manually.

Unless you've got an image of the drive (which would then only work if you
had a near identical machine to copy it to), it looks like you'll have to do
things the old fashioned way.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

So I'm in the process of changing machines. I had a major fire, and lost
everything including my main machine. My main machine was a dual core
machine running XP Pro. This machine is running an Athlon, and the Windows
Media.

My replacement machine is due in a week or so. What is the best method of
"porting" all the applications on this machine to my new machine when it
comes in?

If I say if everything went to an external USB drive, I can restore
everything by just bringing the drive across. However, how do I move
already existing software to the USB drive and then to the new dual core
drive? The registry I figure it's going to be a problem.

Ross

You have to re-install your applications. Unless you're dealing
with a very simple application, you don't stand a chance of getting
all the registry entries and all the files right.

 

[Richard Urban]

With rare exception, you have to install the programs fresh on the machine
you wish to use them on.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Ross M. Greenberg]

I recall a PowerQuest utility, part of Partition Magic, called Magic Mover
that did this, but I no longer see it on their Website......

 

[Richard Urban]

That was for moving from one partition to another partition on the same
computer.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Ross M. Greenberg]

Wouldn't it work onto an external drive/partition?

 

[Richard Urban]

Not to my way of thinking it wouldn't. When a program was moved, it altered
the registry entries in the host operating system, as well as moved the
program files. So now, the program may operate from the external drive - BUT
ONLY ON THE SAME COMPUTER.
--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Ross M. Greenberg]

What about running depends.exe and finding all matching entries in the
registry (you can see what I'm after, I guess.....)

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

What about running depends.exe and finding all matching entries in the
registry (you can see what I'm after, I guess.....)

Even if this could work (and you aren't taking stuff like dlls, things that
are not in the program files directory, etc) it would be an incredibly
mind-numbing and lengthy process. Get out yer CDs.

 

[Rock]

What about running depends.exe and finding all matching entries in the
registry (you can see what I'm after, I guess.....)

"Richard Urban" wrote

Give it up Ross. Reinstall from the original Media. There are thousands of
registry entries to recreate. You might not be able to to locate all of
them for even one program install.

 

[Gary Richtmeyer]

In all honestly it looks like reinstalling your applications and then
copying files across manually.

Unless you've got an image of the drive (which would then only work if you
had a near identical machine to copy it to), it looks like you'll have to
do things the old fashioned way.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

FYI,

The new 9.1 version of Acronis True Image (TI) has an add-on called
Universal Restore that allows you to do a system restore to a PC with
different hardware than the original. During the restore it makes the
appropriate driver changes to accommodate most hardware differences, and, if
necessary, prompts you to provide any other drivers that might be needed.

I have used TI myself and for my customers for quite a while and I was
curious (and a bit skeptical) of how the Universal Restore feature would
work in "real life". I had a Gateway 700C (Win XP Pro, 1.8GHz, 512MB, 80GB)
and a Dell (2.5GHz, 256MB, 120GB). I did a full backup of the Gateway and
then restored it to the Dell and the Dell came up just fine with all my data
and programs intact! I was not prompted for any additional drivers, TI made
all the appropriate changes.

I was pleasantly surprised that a new method of migrating PCs may now be
possible.

YMMV, but it worked for me.

p.s. I also tried restoring a backup of a real system to a virtual machine
under Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and that worked fine too!

Gary Richtmeyer
C&G Web Enterprises
http://www.CandGWeb.com

 

[Ross M. Greenberg]

Give it up Ross. Reinstall from the original Media. There are thousands

of registry entries to recreate. You might not be able to to locate all
of them for even one program install.

Alas, Rock, Due to a massive house fire there *isn't* ANY original media
anymore: http://www.ramnet.net/fire

 

[Rock]

Alas, Rock, Due to a massive house fire there *isn't* ANY original media
anymore: http://www.ramnet.net/fire

Ouch. Sorry to hear that.

 

[Ross M. Greenberg]

Ouch. Sorry to hear that.

Ouch,indeed: my wife, son and I made it out. *All* else was lost.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Ouch,indeed: my wife, son and I made it out. *All* else was lost.

I'm sorry to hear about this, too. Your homeowners insurance ought to cover
the loss of your computing equipment (including media), I'd think.