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SHEX: Replacing my Main Machine at Home.by Michael Chang (09/27/02) Copyright (c) Directron.com.We have SHEX (share experience) posts in Directron.com Help Desk Forum. We now have compiled them into this new section on Directron.com. We hope more people will write such pieces to benefit the entire PC community. Copying the contents for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without Directron.com's written consent. However, you are welcome to distribute these computer support tips free to your friends and associates as long as it's not for commercial purposes and you acknowledge the source. You are permitted and encouraged to create links to this page from your own web site. SHEX: Replacing my Main Machine at Home. I have been using a PII 300MHz up until this moment when I am typing with my new P4 2.0GHz. I have finally got the time and energy to replace the old machine with this new one. I chose not to upgrade because I can let my kids use the old one. I would like to document what kinds of files that need to be TRANSFERED and RE-INSTALLED besides the OS and office suite. I hope this thread could be used as a "check list" for people who replace their machines with new ones. (1) I have a mobile rack, which is really convenient to transfer over all files under "My Documents." These include all Word and Excel files. (2) I have kept all my e-mails under the "My Documents." As a result, all my old e-mails and folders have been transferred. However, I have to re-boot the system in order for the machine to recognize the non-default location for storage of the e-mails. (Note: I use Outlook Express). (3) The major pain is to add all those e-mail accounts manually and REDO THOSE E-MAIL RULES! That will take me a while. Why couldn't Microsoft make these also transferrable like the e-mails? (4) I just re-installed Yahoo Instant Messenger. I am glad that all the contacts are kept on Yahoo's server so that I don't have to re-enter them. However, all my archived messeges are probably gone unless I really spend some time to dig them out of my old machine. (5) I have re-do all the desktop icons, especially those short-cut ones near Start button. That may take one minute or so to complete. (6) I forgot to copy over "My Favorites" (bookmarked web pages) through the mobile rack. Oh, well, I'll do that later. It'd be nice if I have networked these two computers together. I wonder if "My Favorites" can be saved under "My Documents" so that I can avoid such a problem in the future. (7) Jacob did an excellent job putting this system together. What's truly amazing is that the system got onto the Internet on the first boot! He copied the old configuration over manually. So far the 2.0GHz starts much faster. However, the Internet access is pretty much the same (I am using ADSL). I think the speed may improve once I build up the cached images and pages on this new machine. As for the speed of typing this message? It's still the same old speed - I didn't replace my fingers! You may ask why didn't I just plug my old hard drive to my new computer? Oh well, I know most of the time that's almost impossible to do since the MB/BIOS etc. has been changed. Besides, I had some strange problems with IE and Outlook Express in my old system. A fresh install may be the best solution. SHEX - Share Experience! "We love shex" Reply by Michael Chang (8) I just found out that I have to reinstall some special language packs from Windows. Some of the e-mails are from overseas and special language packs are required to read them. Unfortunately, Jacob didn't leave a copy of the OS onto the HD. As a result, I'll have to wait. (9) One of my daughers just complained that she lost her MP3 player etc. that was on the old machine. Well, she either has to reload it or use it on the old machine once I get that networked to access Internet. Reply by Tenebrae You should be able to get all the language packs from Microsoft's web site. They shouldn't take that long to download and install. I installed every single language pack from M$'s web site in oh, I forget. It was such an inconsequential amount of time. Reply by Michael Thanks for the advise. I'll take care of that later. Here are additional difficulties that I had to go through. (10) It took me a few times of trial-and-error to get the outgoing e-mail smtp set up correctly so that I can send e-mails from the new machine. I forgot that the outgoing smtp is different from the incoming pop since the ISP is a different company from the pop. Well, just one of those things I have to re-learn with the new machine. (11) I have to re-set the security levels for the Internet options to safeguard virus. (12) I have to re-install the anti-virus software. Reply by Michael Chang I downloaded the language packs from Microsoft.com. It took me a few tries to figure out exactly which ones to download. MS site seems to be very confusing since there are so many different versions of language packs. Reply by Michael Chang (13) I just realized that all the auto-saved e-mail addresses are gone. These are handy for auto filling the "To" field when starting an e-mail. It has to be accumulated over time. Unless of course if I figure out how to copy the Contact list from the old machine. Reply by Michael Chang (14) I have to download and reinstall Adobe Acrobat Reader. (15) I'll have to download and re-install ICQ. As you can see, it takes time to get all those functions of my old machine back in the new one. Reply by Dallasstar92 Outlook Files and Saving Personal Folders Michael, You have probably figured this out by now, but oerhaps it will help somneone else when they are saving Outlook Personal Folders. Go to "find" off the Start Menu, the put in PST under "Named" it will lead you to the Outlook .pst folder, it will look like notepad file, then save it, when you reboot, you will go to Outlook>File>Import & Export, and you can import the PST files back into the newly reformatted Outlook. It is much easier than the way you are doing it. This is one of the little tricks I learned from Gateway tech, of all places, when I was looking at a reformat. OF course, it can get tricky, but it does work. Also you can import the Address Book this way also. I hope I have contributed something in here. Reply by Dallasstar92 Replacing Outlook Files (cont) When you do the reboot, you can also save the Address Book if you go to Windows/outlook file. Then you can import it back the same way, or use explorer and reinstall it that way. For some reason half my message above was cut off! You can also replace the PST files in this manner, but I do not advise it. i ended up with an extra set of PST files that way. Reply by chester I'm thinking of getting a new system soon, so this thread has been quite helpful. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how to transfer over the "my favorites" folder? Reply by Craigweb Favorites are stored in a folder on your system and can be copyed to a disk then to the new system. For Windows 98 goto C:/Windows/Favorites For XP goto C:/Documents and Setings/YOURUSERNAME/Favorites And, as always, you can post a question on the Directron Help Desk! (by121504) |
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