What's the best software for moving everything from an old computer to a new one?

Question

I have been thinking about getting a new PC, but I don't want to deal with the pain of moving programs and data to the new PC. Is there an easy way to do this with some software program? Thanks.

Answer 1

Two options:

"Cloning" software such as Norton Ghost or Drive Image. It makes a perfect copy of the original drive onto the new drive. That way you get everything that was on the old drive moved to the new. This includes any corrupt files, fragmentation, drives for the old computer that you do not need on the new one, errors, etc. So you may want to think about if that is really the way you want to do it. (If your current PC is running fine, then it may be good choice. If you are having errors and issues, you may be copying them to the new PC...)

The other is to move your old hard drive into the new PC as a second drive and just drag and drop the thing you want over to the new PC. This works best for data, but not always for programs. You should install all programs properly onto the new PC to reduce errors, missing files, etc. But you get the advance of a "clean" install of Windows and all the programs. It takes longer, but make for a more stable PC when done. (You are either going to spend the time setting up right at the beginning, or you are going to spend longer fixing it later)

Answer 2

Hey Dude,

95% of the time, you can install the old hard drive into the new computer, copy it off, and then stick it back into the old computer. You can go through what you copied over and delete what you do not need.

If you are capable, the easiest way it to copy what you have over your network.

Tom

Answer 3

I would use Acronis True Image...It will make a exact copy of everything on your HD including the OS, and put it on any HD even if it's not formatted.