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Efficiently Migrating
To Another Computer
I just completed moving to a new hardware platform. This subject was all but ignored yet by most major software vendors. So, next time it's your turn also you will largely have to rely on yourself. This article might help you with it.
Every 2 to 3 years at most you have to expect that you have to work on a new computer. (If you are interested in an outline of the reasons, click here [+].)
Main reasons
Why you should reckon to have to move to a new computer every
2-3 years:
- Real hardware/software failures: After a number of movements, the access arm of a hard disk or CD-ROM may get stuck. Consequently, software or data are not stored correctly, in turn giving rise to a software failure. Or, very simply: the push button by which you switch on the computer every morning - after some time of operations, the innards break!
- "Wear and tear" of software: Though not physically, of course, there's something like abrasion even with software. Buffers fill up; binary switches are not steady eternally, causing recovery operations that (in the wake of a hardware failure, perhaps) bring about another data loss.
- Resources gradually exhausted: Whatever your storage space is - eventually it will become too small. By the time it's getting clogged with "data garbage".
- Growing system overhead: With every application installed, your free RAM is melting down, calling for more and more page swapping by your operating system. Which, of course, is taking time. So, in the course of time, your computer objectively tends to getting slower!
- Getting uncompetitive due to outdated hard- and software: When you are a professional computer user, by necessity you have to keep up with the latest developments in software technology. So you are virtually forced to install new software tools ever again - till you feel the pinch: one day, a tool will refuse to install, unless you extend the hardware. So you try to extend - and, with some tough luck, you end up with a real hardware failure!
For professional computer users, it would be completely impossible to simply let go all the data of the old computer and to start anew - data they created themselves, collected by downloading from the Internet or from other sources, in the course of a long period. Unfortunately, that's a fact that seems not have spread yet among major software vendors.
So, it's very worthwhile to carefully think about how to do it efficiently. Such that you can continue your work virtually "seamlessly" - ideally, with everything in place just as you are accustomed to. Only, that you are working on a more powerful hardware then.
Or, let's look at it the other way round: When you take a new computer in operation today - what should you keep in mind, given that in 2-3 years from now it will be an outdated contraption and you will curse every hour more you have to waste with it?
In fact, at least with a computer there is no clear borderline between operations everyday and the day when you install a new computer. You will see when you read the following sections. But first - what should you do before setting up the new computer?
Pre-migration
The day before setting up the new computer, on your old machine you should do the following:
- Copy user-specific files and directories onto any removable storage, such that you can easily restore them on the new computer. For details see this sub-section.
- Note or print all those "hidden" user-specific data, such that you can easily re-generate them on the new computer. For details see this sub-section
- Get ready with all those CD's (and other storage media, if any) you will need to re-install your main applications on the new computer.
In particular, print out the list with all the registration numbers and other keywords you will need to re-install all the software you downloaded from the Internet. (You did as I recommended in my article Multi-Level Backup, didn't you? Then this list should be stored in your long-term backup !)
Before you can do that, however, two preconditions should be met (click to go to the sub-sections giving the background):
- Hard disk should be organized efficiently
- Multi-Level Backup
Precondition: Everything under an Own directory
You can save a lot of work if you organize your hard disk as I recommended in my article Organize Your Harddisk: All the files you directly created yourself can be accessed simply by C:\Own\… Notably for backup and for migrating to a new computer that's very useful.
In a few cases, you can even have files created indirectly under your \Own directory. For example with Eudora software, transfer your \Own data first. Followed by installing a new version of Eudora (pointing at C:\Own\Eudora… when you are prompted: Where to store your data (mail, address book, etc.)? ). Then the new version will look exactly like the old version on your old computer, your mailbox hierarchy will be the same, all the entries in your address book are available, etc. All of that without a single mouse click!
Unfortunately, most applications are not so well designed as Eudora . With most applications you can buy, user-specific files are scattered all over. A good guess to find these files is this application's \Program sub-tree. Just as little the naming of those files is standardized. (If you want to know a trick how on your old computer you can find out the names of indirect user-specific files , click here [+].)
Trick to find out
an Application's Indirect User-Specific Files:
- Make sure your computer's system clock is set to the correct time.
- Enter the application and create or modify user-specific files. Do so for all indirect user-specific files you can think of. (E.g. create a new template, modify an entry in any of your application's references, etc.)
- Leave the application. Out in the operating system, search for files within the sub-tree under the application's \Program directory that have been accessed within the last minutes.
- The search results are the names of the indirect user-specific files.
All these indirect user-specific files must be transferred separately. To make things easier, before migration on your old computer you should create additional sub-directories under your \Own directory and copy those IUS-files there. Thus they will be transferred along with your direct user-specific files. Then, on the new computer, you can re-install the applications and move the copies of the IUS-files to the appropriate places.
And, sorry to say, in many applications there are not even indirect user-specific files. There are user-specific data in these applications as well, obviously. But they are hidden somewhere deep down in the operating system, virtually impossible to access.
With these applications you can do nothing better than printout screenshots of the user-specific settings, to type them in by hand on the new computer (see this section).
Precondition: Multilevel Backup
A good way to have your \Own data plus your direct user-specific files readily available (e.g. on CD-ROM) is the Weekly Backup you created on your old computer anyway, if you did what I recommended in my article ...: Multi-Level Backup.
Thus on your old computer you don't even need to collect the directories and files you want to transfer to the new computer.
However, you still need to take screenshots of the settings of your main tools and print them out, to type them in manually on your new computer.
Copy User-Specific Data
If you did as I recommended in my article Organize Your Harddisk, the bulk of data you want to take along to the new computer will be stored in any of the sub-directories of you \Own directory. So it will be very easy to transfer.
However, in most of today's major applications you just don't have the choice where the data will be stored. They are scattered all over the place. In many cases it's the same \Program directory where the exe-part of the application is stored, or in any of the sub-directories thereof. Typically, you will want to transfer the ini -file of the application, along with some other files that will control how the application behaves. E.g. in a text processor with spell check there will be any "dictionary" (usually a dic-file).
Unfortunately, there are many applications (even of a leading software house!) that do not even have an ini -file and hardly any user-specific file . Obviously, there are many user-specific data . But they are hidden somewhere deep down in the operating system. Where they are really stored, that's virtually impossible to find out for someone not belonging to the inner circles of this company. All you can do is described in another sub-section.
One thing you should not forget to copy is your old desktop and any folders you might have arranged there to hold links to a class of applications and system features - simply for not to overcrowd the desktop. Though not all of them will be working on the new computer from the very start. You will have to modify some of them in the first place (see section Re-arrange User-Specific Data).
Print Out Settings Of Your Main Tools
A good way to transfer the hidden data is simply to take screenshots of the user interface and print them out on the old computer. Then, on the new computer, type them in manually, as printed on paper.
That's why it is better to print out screenshots, not simply note them down by hand. You never know in advance what details will be significant on the new computer!
Sure, you will end up with a glut of printouts that you will need only once. Many of them will turn out to be fully incompatible with the environment you come upon at the new computer. And, after all, that's not a very elegant method for a professional computer user.
Yet, I know no better way to take your user-specific data with you, if all else fails!
Transferring Raw Data
I think it's a good idea to transfer your \Own data and user-specific files first , before installing applications. Thus you have all the data right at hand when you are going to tweak applications to suit your requirements, without having to recourse to your old computer ever again.
Depending on the way you are doing the data transfer, accessing the data on your old computer might be a matter of seconds, some hours of work, or hard work altogether. You can transfer your data:
- by continuous data transmission
- In big chunks, by CD-ROMs or DVDs
- Stepwise, by any mass storage, via USB port
- By zipping onto diskettes
Click the list item you want to read more about!
| E | I found it a good idea to keep the hardware you arranged for data transfer. There are good chances, you will need to have recourse to data on your old computer (see, for example, Re-arrange User-Specific Data). If you can do that, it's a matter of minutes. If not, some of your old data might still get lost! |
Transferring Data - Continuously
Once a continuous data transmission is established, this is the most comfortable way of transferring data. The alternatives are:
- point-to-point connection: perfect if you have a service engineer right at hand, or if you know yourself how to establish such a connection.
- a network: If you are working as a member in a network, it will usually be no problem to link both your old and new computer into it. Then you can do the data transfer via the network server.
- outsource copying: If you don't want to do it all alone, you can as well leave the data transfer to a service company. Just be sure that all data will be transferred, even those files that will hardly be needed.
The amount of data transmission is virtually unlimited. Even gigabytes of data will flow within seconds to minutes. This convenience, however, has its price:
- You either have to be quite knowledgeable to establish such a connection yourself. Even so, you might not have the hardware right at hand that's needed to do so.
- Or you will have to hire a service engineer or a service company, incurring additional costs and dependence on other people's time table.
- Or you are stuck in a system providing the network but expecting strict timing of you.
Transferring Data - In Big Chunks
If your data transfer will comprise several hundreds of megabytes, or a few gigabytes, this alternative will be good for you. The requirements are small:
- a CD- or DVD-writing drive on your old computer
- a CD- or DVD-drive on your new computer (Currently it needs to be only for read . But for backup and for the next transfer in 2-3 years from now you will need a write drive, as well!)
- a number of pristine CD-ROMs or DVDs
The charm of this alternative is, I think, that it's giving you independence of other people. If you do professional computing, you will have read/write drives for CD-ROM or DVD anyway. Still, it has its limits: once you are working with many gigabytes of e.g. video data, you won't get far by it.
Transferring Data - Stepwise
If you have no CD- or DVD-drive available on your old computer, but you want to transfer some hundreds of megabytes, look: Most modern computers have at least one USB-port. If this is true for your old as well as the new computer, you will need some hours of work and perhaps a few dollars (or euro, or … ). Get yourself:
- any mass storage with USB-connection (e.g. a compact flash, memory stick) of 64, 128 or 256 MB
- two USB-cables of some 1-2 meters length
- if you don't have two monitors, you will also need two VGA-cables of about the same length.
Before touching your hardware, it's a good idea to mark one end of each cable (the one where the mass storage or the monitor will be plugged in) with tags "1" and "2". During data transfer you will frequently have to change your connections, and in that mess of cables you will be glad to know at a glance which cable connects to which computer.
Now, plug one USB-cable into the USB port of your old computer, the other into the new computer.
If you have only one monitor that works on both computers, you don't need to buy a second monitor: Just plug the two VGA-cables one into the VGA port of your old computer, the other into the new computer.
Place the marked cable ends such that you have them right at hand (while both computers might be stowed away somewhere under the table).
Now you can alternately load into the mass storage a part of your data, switch over to the new computer and re-build the data structure there. (Click here [+] for details.)
Do alternately:
- On your old computer:
- Plug your mass storage to the one USB cable connected to your old computer (and, if needed, do the same with your monitor).
- Load the data to be transferred, as much as the mass storage can hold.
I found it useful not to use up the full mass storage but to load only full sub-directories. Thus it is easier to restore them on the new computer.
- Prepare removal of mass storage: Before you can unplug the mass storage, you got to tell your (old) computer to disable it. To do so, click the pertinent icon in the task bar (system tray).
- Put your old computer in stand-by mode.
- On your new computer:
- Plug your mass storage to the other USB cable connected to your new computer (and, if needed, do the same with your monitor).
- Read the data from the mass storage into the same structure as on the old computer.
Even though you will usually have more storage space on the new computer, it is useful to take the very same data structure over from your old computer. Thus you will need a minimum of manual work for adaptation.
- Prepare removal of mass storage: Before you can unplug the mass storage, you got to tell your (new) computer to disable it. To do so, click the pertinent icon in the task bar (system tray).
- Put your new computer in stand-by mode.
Transferring Data - Zipping onto Diskettes
If you want to transfer data from an older computer, it might not have CD-/DVD-writer or USB. At least - even the more, if it's an older computer - it will probably have a diskette drive.
Let's hope the mass of data will not be more than a number of megabytes. Then you can help yourself by zipping onto diskettes.
To do that, here's what you should do:
- First, get yourself any archiving software that can span diskettes (e.g. download an evaluation version from http://www.winzip.com) and install it on your old as well as the new computer.
Prepare a stack of empty diskettes. (As a rough estimate, you will need as many 1.4 MB - diskettes as the number of megabytes you want to transfer.) On your old computer, put the first diskette into the diskette drive.
- In the Explorer select the directories and files you want to transfer. Right-click. In the context menu popping up now click Add to Zip This will bring up the WinZip main window plus a sub-window Add
- Zip the data onto the diskettes (for details click here [+] )
- In sub-window Add , click button New . Another sub-window will appear, waiting for you to select the diskette drive (usually A ) in the drop-down box Create in: . In box File Name: , enter any name you will recognize on the new computer. (Extension zip will be added automatically.) Finally, click OK or press the ENTER-key. The sub-sub-window will close.
- Most of the other boxes in sub-window Add you can leave in their defaults. (Just be sure that in box Multiple disk spanning there is: Automatic . And check the option Save full path info
- Click Add or press the ENTER-key.
- Now WinZip will start compressing the directories/files you selected before in Explorer, writing them to the diskette until it is full. Then you will be prompted to put another diskette into the drive (usually A ) and press the ENTER-key. This will go on until all the directories/files you selected are archived on the diskettes.
- Later, for restoring from the stack of diskettes, you will need to use them in the correct order. Therefore you should write a diskette's number onto the label, as soon as it's full and you take it out from the drive.
- Turn to your new computer. Put the first diskette of the stack into the diskette drive and select its zip file in the Explorer. WinZip will be activated automatically, recognize the zip-file as the first part of a multi-diskette archive, and prompt you to insert the last diskette of the stack. Do so.
- Before you start extracting, in WinZip check option Use folder names Then the data will be restored exactly as they were on your old computer.
- From now, follow the prompts from WinZip while the software is extracted.
Installing Applications
Let's assume, you have set up the new hardware and installed the new operating system. Then you new computer is still quite "dull". You need to install a number of applications to make an effective production machine out of it. So, start installing:
- Old applications from your long-term backup.
If you did as I recommended in my article ...: Multi-Level Backup, you will have quite a number of application setups on your long-term backup. And if you took notes of their registration numbers and installation keys, you can easily install them again.
Re-installing an old application has the edge that you know it already, that you don't need to spend time for learning it. The drawback of an old application is that it might be insufficient to make full use of the opportunities offered by the new hardware (or operating system, if you switched to a new version).
Just make sure before: If you are using a new version of the operating system, it's not so clear that an old application will still be working. If it doesn't, you will need a new application.
- New applications you downloaded from Internet or bought from outside sources.
Frequently you will want to take the occasion to switch to a new version of an old application, be it because
- you can do the same as before, yet more efficiently
- it will make your work more competitive
| E | When you download an application, be sure to store it to disk (don't execute its setup right away!). Thus you will be able to include it to your long-term backup (see section Keep Your Longterm Backup Up-To-Date). |
Smuggle in Applications
You might find yourself in an awkward situation: To an application you are appreciating and that you would like to take along to the new computer …
- You do have the original CD's (so you could install it again).
- But …
- you have lost the installation key,
- the application is locked against re-installation
- (or a regular installation doesn't work for another reason).
Then you still can try to smuggle in that application: On your old computer … (click!) [+]
- Onto any mass storage, copy the full directory holding the application (including all sub-directories).
- If it's still a 16bit-application, from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM (or what it is on your computer) copy all DLL's into an extra directory on your mass storage. For a 32bit-application the corresponding directory is C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 .
- Likewise, copy your system's configuration files (mainly WIN.INI ) into an extra directory on your mass storage.
Now, change to your new computer. Make your mass storage accessible and … (click!) [+]
- Copy the application's full directory from your mass storage to the new computer's hard drive.
- Tentatively, start the application. Most probably you will get an error message at first. Fortunately, these error messages are fairly meaningful, telling you something like: ….DLL not found .
- From your mass storage, copy the requested file ….DLL into the corresponding directory on your new computer (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM for a 16bit-application or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 for a 32bit-application).
- Start the application again. You might get another error message now, something like: Section … not found in WIN.INI (or any other system configuration file).
- On your mass storage, open WIN.INI (or the other system configuration file). Copy the missing section to clipboard. Then open WIN.INI of your new computer's operating system and paste the clipboard contents at its end.
- Finally, start the application once more. It should work now. (If not, another iteration of steps 3 to 5 will be needed.)
- Be aware, however, that this doesn't mean very much. You will need to do some finger-exercises to find it whether the old application is fully productive on the new computer.
After successfully smuggling in an application, you should try to find out the missing registration key (usually in the Help menu, About item). Or don't forget to make a note of the DLL's requested and of the required section in e.g. WIN.INI . Next time you want to migrate, taking that application along again, you will be glad about it!
Post-Migration
Once you have setup the new hardware and installed most of your applications, you are still far from being done with migration. First you have to
Read on, or simply click the list item you want to know more about!
Re-arrange User-Specific Data
Just a few examples:
The ideal case is when you can install an application pointing at a sub-directory of your \Own directory (see Everything under an Own directory). Then, when you activate the new application for the first time, it will come up with exactly the same settings, object hierarchy, etc. as you are accustomed to by your old application.
Unless, that is, if you happened to name any user-specific object by a word that is a reserved word in the new version. Then all sort of things can happen, that you can fix by hand only.
Then all you can do is to fix by hand and re-name it somehow. To do that, however, you might to have recourse to your old computer. (You see, it's quite worthwhile to keep the hardware you used for transfer!)
Remember section Copy User-Specific Data: A perennial problem it is to re-arrange the desktop of your new computer such that all the multitude of your applications is right at hand, notwithstanding its limited size. One way to do that is creating folders on the desktop with links to a sub-class of applications, system features, etc.
A copy of the corresponding folders on your old computer is not of much help: You might have another operating system now, and some things might be named disparately now.
Again, you can only do that by hand!
There are many other things why you should not expect a smooth working on your new computer, right away. You will have to fix them manually before!
Learn New Software
True, it's no fun to struggle through a software documentation, with just a few finger-exercises now and then with the "real thing". On the other hand, I sometimes had a hard time with new software. Just to find out later that I could have done the same in a much more efficient way - if I had known it!
So, that heading " Learn New Software" is not to say that in the end you should know every detail by memory. It's enough if you get yourself an overview what can be done, and where to look if you need to know the details.
Take a look into the online help. (Do you know how to activate it? Usually there will be a menu Help , sometimes it can be evoked by pressing key F1 . Some applications have a context help . That is, there is a button labeled ? or similar. When you click it, the cursor turns to something like an arrow with a question mark. When you move that cursor to any element of the application's user interface and click, a brief explanation will pop up. When you click a menu heading, this menu's body will drop down; clicking any of its items brings up the brief explanation.)
If you also have a print documentation, shelve it in a way that you can easily take it in hand without long rummaging.
Prepare for Daily/Weekly Backup
You plan to use your new computer as a production machine just like your old computer, don't you? (See my article Multi-Level Backup.) Then you will have to arrange for regular daily and weekly backups, from the first working day on.
Don't forget that your daily backup will archive all those files whose archive attribute is on, while your weekly backup will reset all those archive attributes again. Now, after transferring your \Own data, the archive attribute of all files is on. You have to reset them all before you can start working.
To do that, simply run the good old MS-DOS command
ATTRIB -a C:\Own\*.* /s
Now, if you have arranged a link to your daily-backup batch program in directory \Autostart , you can have a daily backup each morning when you switch on the computer, just by one key press.
Prepare for Future Migration
Now that everything seems to be done, it's the time to remember: This will not be you last migration. In 2-3 years (at maximum) you will have the same problem. At that time you will be glad if you can have recourse to fairly up-to-date resources.
That's not to say that you cannot start working now. But in the following days or weeks you should do:
Just click the list item you want to know more about!
Keep Your Longterm Backup Up-To-Date
In the process of moving to a new computer you will probably have bought/downloaded a new version of an application you were already accustomed to, or new software altogether. Next time you will migrate, you might want to take it along.
Then you will be glad if you can simply insert a CD labeled Long-term Backup into the drive and copy all your software within a few minutes. Instead of hours of scouring the Internet for downloading it again. Let alone the money you would spend for buying it again.
That doesn't mean that one and all pieces of software you have collected makes sense on your long-term backup. In some cases it's a trade off:
- On a CD, storing hundreds of megabyte costs a few cents .
- However, if it's obvious that it will be outdated in 2-3 years time - there's no point in storing it in your long-term backup.
Or, consider it this way:
- If it's software by a reputable vendor, you can assume that in 2-3 years time there will be a new, improved version available. So there's no point in storing it in your long-term backup.
- If it's software by a not-so-reputable vendor, chances are that you would not even find him on the Internet in 2-3 years time. If you think you will still appreciate that application, it's better to store it in your long-term backup.
Make/Update List of User-Specific Data
In making this migration, you will have realized how helpful it is to have an up-to-date list of all those files and directories out of your \Own directory that you need to collect and copy, in order to restore them on your new computer (see section Copy User-Specific Data).
If you didn't have such a list, you might have seen how laborious it is to think of everything you need to copy, just within a few minutes. And ever again, you can do nothing but going back to your old computer to collect a few things you forgot before.
This will give you a good motivation to make up a list of all your user-specific dirs/files and structures, or to update it if you had already such a list.
I found it a good idea to have that list not on paper but in a txt-file, preferably in your long-term backup. Thus you can easily update that file, each time when an item is added on your new computer or another one is removed. Only once you are about to do your next migration, it makes sense to print out that file.
Make/Update List of Settings Of Your Main Tools
The same as above is true for all those structures that you cannot copy in files or directories. Instead, you can only restore them manually, once you have installed the applications on your new computer (see section Print Out Settings Of Your Main Tools).
Again, it's a good idea to have that list in a txt-file, preferably in your long-term backup. Thus you can easily update that file, each time when an item is added on your new computer or another one is removed. Only once you are about to do your next migration, it makes sense to print out that file.
| E | Watch out for the difference:
- It would make no sense to print out the settings - they might change several times during the 2-3 years to come.
- However, it will be quite useful to have a list of the settings you will need to print out next time when you're about to migrate.
|