How to transfer data from your old PC to a new PC

Getting a new PC? You may need to transfer data from your old computer's
hard drive to your new computer. There are several ways to do this. Lets
separate it into two things, transferring software programs and
transferring data files.

Transferring Software Programs

Software programs have to be freshly installed on your new PC from
installation/setup files. You cannot just copy the directory files of an
installed program from the old PC to your new PC. Also, make sure the
installation/setup files are compatible with your new operating system.

    Installing Commercial Software Programs

  • Install all commercial software programs that you own in the new PC
    directly from original installation CDs.
  • Or install from installation/setup files that you might have saved on
    your old PC and have copied to a new CD.
  • Or install from installation/setup files you can buy and download from
    the web directly to your new PC.

    Installing Free Software Programs

  • Install all free software programs that you want by downloading them
    directly from the web to your new PC. For example an office
    productivity suite, OpenOffice, downloaded directly from www.
    openoffice.org. We use this instead of Microsoft Office and its great,
    plus free!

Transferring Data Files

  • If your old computer has a CD/DVD drive that is also a writer, copy
    (write) your data files onto new CDs or DVDs and then use these CDs
    or DVDs to transfer to the new PC.
  • Or if you have an external USB flash drive (you can get a USB flash
    drive for around 10 bucks), and your old PC has a USB port, you can
    copy data files from your old PC to this USB flash drive and then
    transfer to your new PC.
  • Or, this third method is the most complicated as it will require you to
    open both computer cases and physically install the old hard drive
    into your new PC. You could then keep the old hard drive in your new
    PC as an extra hard drive, or just copy the data files and remove the
    old hard drive. If you keep the old hard drive installed in your new PC
    you probably should delete the old operating system (OS) on it. You
    don't want it to conflict with the new OS on the new hard drive. The
    same applies for software programs on the old hard drive, which as
    mentioned above need to be freshly installed on the new hard drive.  
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Western Digital Caviar SE
250GB SATA Hard Drive