Transfer of old computer contents to new

13 years ago

I'm going to retire my old fifty pound pc and buy a lap top. Pc is loaded with Windows XP. I assume the new computer will come loaded with Vista, which I have heard bad things about. Should I have Best Buy transfer the contents of my old computer including XP to the new, or get the new fully loaded with whatever comes with it?

Also, any suggestions on a very simple but good laptop. All I do is check email and visit a few favorite news and other web sites.

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Comments (7)

azinoh
13 years ago
If you are really going to buy a NEW computer, it won't have Vista...it will have Win 8. I wouldn't let BB touch any computer of mine...but that's just me. Do what works for you.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
Oh yeah vista is almost as outdated as xp. You can still find a lot of new ones with windows 7 but the newest will have windows 8 on them.
As to transfer of files I too would not let BB touch my computers.
It is not difficult to transfer files, pictures, etc. You can plug in a thumb flash drive into the old pc select the files or folders you want to copy to the new one then drag to the flash drive icon or right click on the selected files and select the flash drive to copy to.
Windows 7 has a built in feature for doing this easily, you will need to install it to the xp machine but it is pretty easy. The link below will have instructions

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy transfer
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I'm now leaning more towards doing the transfers through external hard drive (gulp) - however, I'm confused on how to hook up the new computer with the old computer still hooked up. Would I just plug it in, and then connect it to our wireless home network? It seems the (old) monitor has only one hook-up spot which the old computer is plugged into. Should I wait for the new monitor to arrive (which is supposed to be about a month from now according to the estimated delivery date)? Or do I need the new computer hooked into a monitor just for transferring data? Now I'm thinking maybe I just need the new computer plugged into the monitor, and the XP computer not plugged in - lol - I'm confused. Maybe I should wait until everything arrives.
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"Everything" covers a lot of ground, including some things you may not want. Were you running any 16-bit apps on that XP box? Be prepared for them to not run under 8.1 . Are you sure there are no "nasties" lurking around? If there are, they may get transferred too. As to Documents-Pictures-Video...do you really have so many that it would be inconvenient to put them on a flash drive and simply drag/drop them to the new computer? I won't address email except to say that if you really need to retain old ones, you should research the instructions specific to the email client you use. You could also forward the important ones to your own junk email address and then forward them back to yourself once you have email set up on the new machine. I am not inclined to trust anything that Microsoft says is "easy", but that's just me.
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acraftylady
13 years ago
I wouldn't let BB touch a computer of mine either. After what they did to my friend at our local one I don't think highly of their geek squad and would far better using the local guy that has been in business 20yrs around here and that's what I do.

I heard windows 8 is way different than 7 and geared towards touch screen computers or some such, is that true? I have a fairly basic toshiba laptop that is 2yrs old and not one bit of trouble with it. Never had to use their tech support so can't say how it is but this brand works for me. Mary
emma
13 years ago
I wouldn't let BB touch mine either, but I do buy from them because I have no choice in this city. They tried to sell me one that had been opened, they installed their protection software on it and set it up for me. I insisted they get me one in a sealed box. They acted like I was nuts. LOL
acraftylady
13 years ago
I buy from them also. That's all we have here since circuit city went belly up. Well office max does have some computers I think and maybe sears and radio shack? Well maybe we have small locally owned places that sell computers that I don't know about. I miss Comp USA, used to get a lot of stuff from them and had a computer fixed by them once and they were great. Mary
grandms
13 years ago
Certainly hope you can find a nice laptop with Windows 7, because if you have been using XP all this while, Windows 8 will be more of a change than you'll easily adjust to.

Raven's suggestion for transferring your files should make the change fairly easy. Another way to accomplish the task would be to use USB flash drives and copy any documents, pictures, etc. that you want to keep to the drive. Then plug the drive into the new computer and copy from the drive to the computer's hard drive. That's what I did.
mikie_gw
13 years ago
If you install drop box on your old computer now.., it will back up the folders you tell it to.

Then when you get your new computer, just install dropbox and all those files will appear like magic on the new computer.

Here is a link that might be useful: DropBox referral = 2.5gb

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Transfer of old computer contents to new

Comments (7)

azinoh

ravencajun Zone 8b TX

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