Archive for August, 2008

Transfer Info from Old to New Computer

This month I finally broke down and bought a new computer. That was the easy part. Transferring six years of essential information from my old computer was another story. I do, however, have some tips based on this interesting experence.

Create a spreadsheet of all login id and passwords. Keep it updated. On your new computer you will have to know every single one.

Create a spreadsheet with all software serial numbers. When reinstalling your software you will need every single one. To make it more fun, if any software is an upgrade, you will need the serial numbers from the current version and the previous one. Also review authorization procedures before starting this. Software from Adobe and Autodesk, for example, require you to transfer authorizations.

Email can be transferred by exporting from the old computer and importing on the new one. My email software, Microsoft Outlook, allows me to do this using a .pst file. You will also need to export browser favorites using the export and import procedure.

Save all preferences, if possible, from your software. For example, brushes, gradients, patterns, and style can all be saved from Photoshop and reloaded on your new computer.

If you are like me, and you have a tremendous amount of data files such as artwork, photos, Itunes, etc., an external hard drive will help you considerably. Copy all of that to the external on the old computer, and then just plug it into the new one. A simple trick, that took me a while to figure out, is that if you copy your iTunes Music Library.xml file from your old C Drive to the new C Drive, you can retain your library and playlists just the way they were before.

The most important thing: keep your old computer, plugged in, connected to the internet, and readily available. Two weeks after I started this process, I am still transferring vital tidbits from the old computer. Six years, in the computer world is a long time. You will not believe how much important “stuff” is stored there and taken for granted.

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