Moving to a new PC
RIVER BENDER - January 2002
I think I must have about the oldest PC in town. I remember when I bought it in 1996 it was the fastest gun in NBCUG at 200 mHz and 65 megs of RAM. Most folks then had PCs about half that speed and much less memory but now it seems everybody is running more than four times the speed of mine and has double or more RAM. Our grandkids even have 1.0 gHz PCs.
So how come you're so cheap Wallace? Why don't you get a new PC? Hey, it's not about money. My PC still seems pretty fast to me. Faster won't do much for e-mail and web pages show up pretty fast so I'm not missing too much. Besides, what would I do with a 20-80 GigaByte hard drive when I've only filled half of my 4 GB drive?
Nevertheless, I do drool over the ads showing PCs getting more powerful and at the same time much cheaper. It might be nice to have a CD-RW drive, a better printer, a scanner that works and not have to worry whether some new software will fit on my hard drive. Software is really becoming humongous!
Then I get to thinking about all the stuff on my PC. Perhaps one of the big reasons people don't buy a new PC is because it's such a chore to move all the stuff accumulated over to a new one. Moving files isn't too bad, but then there are application programs and worst yet the settings that go along with the programs and your system.
After years with my PC I'm comfortable using it. I know my way around in Windows 98 and I have Microsoft Word and Excel set just the way I like. My wallpaper, fonts, bookmarks, e-mail folders and all the other personal flourishes are going to take a lot of time to duplicate in a new PC. I was beginning to think that it might be easier to move to a new home than to a new PC until I heard about a few utilities designed to make PC migration a bit more manageable. Let's talk about them
I discovered that Upgrade Commander, PCsync, Detto and Aloha Bob's PC Relocator are all PC-based "relocation" utilities designed to help you move files and more from one PC to the next. Through a series of wizard-like menus and a variety of connections - parallel cables, Universal Serial Bus, networks, Internet-based shared drives, or some sort of removable media, these programs let you specify both the source and destination machines. The major differences in the products are in the amount of control they give you over what and what not to transfer, and the types of connections they support.
Upgrade Commander (http://www.v-com.com) retails for $49.95 and uses a fairly straightforward interface that asks some simple questions and then analyzes the difference between the two machines and starts transferring.
PCsync (http://www.laplink.com) is slightly more expensive at $99.95 retail but it's much more capable. It can help you migrate to a new system, or it can serve as a remote access utility to let you access and control your computer from another location. It lets you share folders and files with others over the Internet and lets you keep your files on multiple PCs synchronized
Another popular choice is Detto (http://www.detto.com). It's so popular in fact, that Hewlett-Packard ships Detto's Migration Kit with every HP Pavilion. The newest version of the program is Detto's Intellimover. Right now, it's just included with HP computers, but very soon everyone will be able to purchase it. It's probably the simplest of the bunch to use but unlike the others it does not recommend moving your applications, encouraging you to stick to data transfer
PC Relocator (http://www.macmillansoftware.com), at $49.95 retail is perhaps the most well regarded transfer program. Like the others, it will compare the Windows settings on your old machine with those on your new machine and make appropriate modifications. It also provides a nice walkthrough of questions you'll be asked and the screens you'll view before a transfer
How do you choose among these products? Read all you can about them and try finding someone that's used them. I haven't used any of them and personally I'm not so sure about transferring application programs. You certainly don't want to buy a new PC and clobber your new software with an older version of the program. Be careful and don't forget that some of the programs include cables and others don't. It could become an expensive proposition to move your stuff to a new machine. I think I'll hang in a bit longer and wait for the super machine.