Laptop upgrade (just copy everything?)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Erik
  • Start date Start date
E

Erik

I am in the process of upgrading a laptop (Win XP, SP 2) to a newer version
of same. Unfortunately, using Norton Ghost could not be completed due to
some obscure and stubborn error messages. I was just wondering if it would
be possible to just copy all the folders from the old to the new, including
Documents and Settings, Program Files, Windows and WINNT (that would
probably include the registry?) and then just use File and Settings Transfer
wizard for additional settings that might have been missed.

Is this a workable solution?
I am particularly concerned about installed programs' settings such as MS
Word user dictionaries, etc., auto-complete and IE history.

Thanks.
 
Erik said:
I am in the process of upgrading a laptop (Win XP, SP 2) to a newer version
of same. Unfortunately, using Norton Ghost could not be completed due to
some obscure and stubborn error messages. I was just wondering if it would
be possible to just copy all the folders from the old to the new, including
Documents and Settings, Program Files, Windows and WINNT (that would
probably include the registry?) and then just use File and Settings Transfer
wizard for additional settings that might have been missed.

Is this a workable solution?
I am particularly concerned about installed programs' settings such as MS
Word user dictionaries, etc., auto-complete and IE history.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Are you upgrading to a different laptop or to a larger disk of
the same laptop?
 
Erik said:
To a new laptop.
Click to expand...

Porting an existing WinXP installation to new hardware
will usually result in the dreaded "Inaccessible boot device"
error. Here is some light reading to avoid it:

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q249694
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314082

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
(applies to WinXP too):
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q292175.ASP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q315341
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;271965

Alternatively you could install Acronis DriveImage plus
Acronis Universal Restore on your laptop. You then create
an image file of your laptop which you subsequently restore
on the new laptop, using the Acronis boot CD. The new laptop
will boot into Windows but you will still have to find the various
specific device driver files (video, sound, network, APM).
 
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