Recommendations for migrating to a new laptop
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I love my old Dell XPS 17, which is why I've hung on to it for 10 years. 17" screen, plus a KB that isn't all scrunched together. Also has a second HD bay which was handy when I upgraded to a SSD drive (made my original drive the secondary, copied files across that I needed). If Dell is making the XPS 17 again, I will probably get one...
That's what I had before my current XPS15, and now I'll finally have one again.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop. Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration? The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.The laplink software will run on local ethernet. My biggest complaint about it is that it transfers things that don't work properly after they arrive, some rearranging and reinstalling is always needed.
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A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop. Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration? The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.0. Make sure Windows is activated on the new laptop. 1. Make an image backup of the new laptops hard drive. 2. Reinstall Windows from scratch on the new laptop (#1 is in case you have issues with this). This probably includes several loops thru Windows update. May have to get drivers from the Dell website. 3. Reload all software you need from scratch on the new laptop. 4. Copy over any files you need from the old laptop. Either by sharing the drive on the network or by pulling it and connecting to the new laptop (USB enclosure or something). There are variations on every one of these steps so you can choose how you do each step. You can swap steps 3 and 4 if you want. I’ve built three new PCs and migrated to them (me, wife, relative) in the past year or so. This seems to work best. A fresh start and no ad-ware left over from Dell.
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0x01AA wrote:
continue with a fresh and clean laptop and forget the old trash
I actually second this. I also followed this path when upgrading - installed stuff on the go, as soon as I noticed I needed it. Not beforehand. At first sight it looks like you'll miss a lot of stuff (like *really* a lot), and are more busy installing than working, but it pays of in the long run. Now I only have stuff on my laptop that I really need (i.e. no more Visual Studio, no more IIS-shit, which saves me tons of gigabytes). If needed, I can always RDP into my main machine (let's face it: how many times did you work in the last couple of years when there was no internet connection? For me: almost none. There you go). I now enjoy a lightweight laptop. Until the next upgrade, that is :laugh:
I'll strongly second the second. It's amazing how much stuff from your old machine you think you'll need, but you won't. At least, that's been my experience. The only thing I'd add would be to make sure you have a full backup of all personal files from the old laptop. Personally, I'm comfortable with them on OneDrive or Google Drive (both companies know everything about me already). Then, start fresh on the new machine and just pull files down as needed. It is a very freeing experience.
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I'll strongly second the second. It's amazing how much stuff from your old machine you think you'll need, but you won't. At least, that's been my experience. The only thing I'd add would be to make sure you have a full backup of all personal files from the old laptop. Personally, I'm comfortable with them on OneDrive or Google Drive (both companies know everything about me already). Then, start fresh on the new machine and just pull files down as needed. It is a very freeing experience.
Similar here. My solution is not to scrap the old machines and stow them away as a backup(?). And the reality: Now I have at least six old machines... never touched/needed them for years, but still afraid to throw them away. This is also a/my kind of paranoia :laugh: [Edit] :-O I do the same with coffee/espresso machines :-O :wtf:
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A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop. Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration? The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
Similar here. My solution is not to scrap the old machines and stow them away as a backup(?). And the reality: Now I have at least six old machines... never touched/needed them for years, but still afraid to throw them away. This is also a/my kind of paranoia :laugh: [Edit] :-O I do the same with coffee/espresso machines :-O :wtf:
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A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop. Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration? The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.I'll make a different recommendation- In the last days of your old laptop's use, install OneDrive and move all your important data into that base folder, otherwise maintaining the directory structure you have been using, but now with the OneDrive folder as the base. Leave your computer on all night to sync with the cloud. Then upon opening your new laptop, again install OneDrive under the same name, go to bed and leave your new computer on all night. Come morning both computers will contain the same data files. The best of both worlds. Apps? Carefully decide and re-install the ones you really need and use. Some you may have to first uninstall so that you may be allowed to install on the new laptop. Keep the old laptop for a year. Sometimes there is a buried gem you need to go back and get.
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A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop. Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration? The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.Why not just work from within a virtualized OS? All you need to do is copying the vm files to the new box. My setup is as this: A linux host and a bunch of virtualized OSes including Win10, Win7 and Raspbian OS.
Behzad
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A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop. Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration? The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.I'm always ready to migrate. For any software installed on my machine (except for free stuff, which can be downloaded again), I archived the setups + serials in my personal folder, so I can install again on any new machine. And my personal folders (Documents, Desktop etc.) are not stored on the computer's drive but on an external USB drive. Although I must admit on a laptop it wouldn't be practical do always have an external USB drive connected. But in addition, I'm doing a differential backup of all relevant folders to a second external USB drive once a week using "FreeFileSync", so I could just take the backup and copy it over to a new laptop, if I ever bought one.
