Like
moving into a new home, there's ecstasy
and there's agony in moving to a new or
reformatted computer.
It's a daunting task to abandon a familiar
and personalized system for a naked desktop,
empty My Documents folder and cookie-cutter
options that tell a Netscape, Windows
Explorer or MS Office program how to behave.
These
days, there's a growing assortment of
migration programs that promise to transfer
copies of existing drive settings, preferences,
shortcuts, bunches of files categorized
by folder or file type, even software,
to new Windows installations or machines.
Agony
alleviated? Not exactly. After testing
three prominent migration utilities, I
could get only one to correctly move the
tough stuff, like settings, Start Menus,
shortcuts and software.
I
tried Windows XP's free Files and Settings
Transfer Wizard, IntelliMover by Detto
(ranging from $40 to $70; detto.com) and
Alohabob PC Relocator UltraControl ($70;
alohabob.com). The latter program, or
Bob as I call it, is the only one of these
three that offers to move programs along
with the other stuff.
Granted,
with simple onscreen instructions, all
three closely guide the user through the
move. The programs do the heavy lifting,
like scanning the contents of the existing
drive (computer No. 1), which can contain
a Windows version as early as 95. Then
all three programs allow you to automatically
select all possible -- or hand-pick just
the desired -- settings, files and folders
for transfer. Finally, you run the software
on the new drive (computer No. 2), where
it installs the chosen data and options
from No. 1.
Depending
on the application, you can easily hook
together computers 1 and 2 via a parallel
or serial cable (generally slow), a USB
cable (faster), home or office network
(often faster still) or simply by saving
the stuff found on No. 1 to a writable
CD, Zip disk or other movable storage
that you then insert into Windows No.
2.
Still,
simple is not the same as successful.
The
biggest disaster came with Windows' Files
and Settings Transfer Wizard. It did migrate
existing Desktop and Start Menu contents
and settings, as I requested.
However,
it also transplanted onto computer No.
2's Desktop and Start Menu oodles of icon
shortcuts to files and programs that it
left on No. 1. The shortcuts were worthless
because FST wasn't smart and capable enough
to skip the shortcuts or move the files
and software along with them. Nor could
you undo the transfer.
Alohabob
PC Relocator UltraControl, or Bob as I
call it, was next. A pioneering influence
for this relatively new category of software,
Bob stands out by promising to install
not just files and settings but also programs.
Handily, it has a migration undo button
and writes a report of everything to be
transferred.
But
I found that, when I wanted to first test
Bob with a manageable transfer, I had
to keep whittling down the amount. For
just two utilities, a couple of settings
and, as Bob mandates, my user profile,
the move would require one to two gigabytes
-- longer than an eight-hour sleep. To
be realistic, any large migration can
take as long as a day. But I spotted Alohabob
loading up on migration items that were
not even close to my selections.
I
finally chose to transfer just one puny
mouse utility (rated by Alohabob PC Relocator
as highly likely to be transferred), Internet
Explorer options and my user profile.
It still required 373 megabytes, took
about 45 minutes and failed to get the
mouse utility working on the clean drive.
I attempted another, more ambitious transferal,
but my always-on, fast-access network
connection suddenly switched off after
two hours, with almost eight more to go
and no way for the process to resume where
it left off.
If
Goldilocks were fashioning a review of
the three programs, Detto's IntelliMover
(www.detto.com)
would be just right.
One
major reason: It provides a long and detailed
list of potential settings to be transferred,
and it kept the settings process separate
from the transferal of files and folders,
which it also handles. For instance, under
Internet Explorer, MS Word and Windows
Explorer, IntelliMover broke down settings
into many categories within each program,
ranging from security to start-up options,
and from performance to appearance options.
It
doesn't attempt to install on computer
No. 2 the software from No. 1 (a decision
I've come to believe is commendable).
But if you first install on the new drive
popular programs like Microsoft Office,
IntelliMover has the intelligence and
capability to reproduce all your prior
settings. For me, setting these options
from scratch is what takes so much time
in customizing a new system.
IntelliMover
also produces a report of migrated items
but doesn't have an undo option.
Let
me make this clear: All three programs
will move folders like My Documents or
Favorites, even if some broken shortcuts
come along with it. But if that's all
you wanted, you could easily handle that
kind of copying on your own -- and weed
out the broken links.
About
Detto Technologies
Detto Technologies, a leading provider
of migration technology for consumer and
corporations is focused on advanced technology
to enable migration of data and personal
settings - the profile of the computer
user. Detto Technologies products provide
a software solution to intelligently transfer
and integrate settings, preferences and
files from one computer to another quickly
and cost-effectively. Corporate headquarters
is in Bellevue, Washington. More information
can be found at www.detto.com
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