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John
Breeden II, Special to the Washington
Post
Dec.
26, 2004 -
Moving
from an old computer to a new PC can be
as arduous as moving to a new house --
aside from a lower risk of injury.
Unfortunately,
Windows offers no one-click method to
gather all your files from their diverse
locations for transport to a new machine.
Doing this by hand risks leaving out important
data -- many important settings in Windows
hide in an invisible directory. The best
option for many people is to use a program
that automates this otherwise painstaking
process.
Windows
XP includes one such utility: Microsoft's
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (from
the Start menu, select All Programs, then
Accessories, then System Tools). If your
old machine runs a pre-XP version of Windows,
you can run this program from the new
computer's XP CD (if included with that
computer) or copy it to a disk to run
on the old PC.
To
use Files and Settings Transfer, first
connect the two computers with a slow
"null modem" serial cable or
a crossover Ethernet cable (budget $10
to $20 for either item), then run the
program on both machines. It will automatically
copy basic preferences such as your desktop
wallpaper, Internet options and a variety
of common files, including e-mail archives.
In
a test, this process successfully transported
data from an old Windows 95 machine in
about 40 minutes via serial cable. If
you use many non-Microsoft applications,
however, you may find that Files and Settings
Transfer requires too much configuration
before it can corral all of their data.
It also can't move any programs.
Detto
Technologies' IntelliMover®
(Win 95 or newer, $50,
www.detto.com)
allows you to pick what to transfer in
a pleasantly laid-out graphical interface;
you can select files by type or location.
In our tests, it has worked reliably and
smoothly (among some thoughtful touches,
it backs up your new PC's Outlook Express
contacts before overwriting them with
the old PC's data).
Detto
includes parallel and much faster USB
cables in the box. Like the Microsoft
utility, IntelliMover won't take along
your old software.
Eisenworld's
AlohaBob PC Relocator Ultra Control (Win
95 or newer, $70, www.eisenworld.com)
costs a bit more, but the earlier versions
we've tried earned that expense for their
ease and speed. The program will analyze
the old PC's files and settings, sorting
them by what it thinks should be copied,
what might be copied and what shouldn't
be touched.
You
can then let AlohaBob transfer that data
-- via parallel, USB or crossover Ethernet
cables, of which USB is included -- or
switch to its advanced mode for more exact
control. If the two PCs aren't in the
same room, AlohaBob also allows you to
copy files to CD or other removable media.
AlohaBob
can even transfer individual programs,
but we would think twice about using that.
Just uninstalling a program can be chancy
in Windows; transplanting one is even
harder. And AlohaBob can't move some applications
at all, such as antivirus utilities. It's
safer to reinstall your software from
the original discs or downloads.
Fortunately,
AlohaBob -- unlike its competitors --
offers an undo option to reverse its changes.
What
if you're moving from a PC to a Mac? Apple
recommends another Detto program called
Move2Mac (Win 95 or newer, $50), which
will gather your files and some settings
and copy them over to the right folders
on a Mac (via an included USB cable).
It will convert such basic Internet data
as mail archives to Mac formats, but it
doesn't translate other documents -- that's
work you may need to do yourself. But
it did its job quickly, hauling over about
300 megabytes of data to a new Power Mac
in about seven minutes.
A
migration from an old Mac to a new Mac
is simplest of all. If the old Mac runs
Mac OS X and includes a FireWire port,
the Setup Assistant program on new Macs
will copy all your stuff -- documents,
settings and even programs -- automatically.
If
the old Mac lacks OS X or a FireWire port,
Apple provides clear directions for an
alternate procedure at its Web site. Visit
www.apple.com/support
and search for "moving to a new Mac."
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