data transfer software query

Dear Folks:

A software query re; data transfer.

This is my situation:

Last week, a power surge knocked out my laptop. The surge protector...did not protect. But the data was backed up, and furthermore, the HD seems to be intact. Cost of repair for the out of warranty machine persuaded me to get a new one.

Old one was a Toshiba a105 running Windows XP. New one is a Toshiba a505 with Windows 7, 64 bit. Old HD is in an enclosure I can connect with a USB cable.

Question is how to transfer not only data but programs and settings. I just got off a chat with the tech support person at Laplink, who said PCmover professional is the right program *if* I can get the old HD to boot up on the new laptop (have not tried yet). Then there is a process for swapping, etc. that they detail here:

http://www.laplink.com/help/kbs_data/pcmover/1050.html

But the ideal program for my situation, they say, is another software coming out in two months, detailed here:

http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/pcmov...assistant.html

Any thoughts on what is best? Is there some comparable product that is available right now?

Hmm do you have the original source/install disks for your software? Transferring the data should be easy, but migrating installed apps to another system probably...isn't.

I think just biting the bullet and reinstalling your software on the new machine is probably the best bet.

I used PC Mover to migrate my Thinkpad to Windows 7. It worked well enough, although I think I may still need to do a clean install in order to resolve a few lingering issues.

That you're moving to Win 7 will make for a rather untidy transition, IMHO

I can't really speak from experience, transferring installed apps to another box...our IT guy does that. But, it just seems to be a bad idea from the get-go.

Any sort of errors, screwups, whatever currently existing in your installs are going to be migrated over to Win 7 as well, and probably in addition to a whole host of new issues.

But, it kinda ties into my diehard stance AGAINST upgrading. Never upgrade. Format and do a clean install.

It would really suck to move a bunch of BS from an old computer to a new one and in return your new computer starts running just as crappily as the old on.

If at all possible, reinstall your apps. It will be time consuming but you'll be grateful you did.

As far as backing up your data, that should be easy, because ya should have been saving it all to My Documents all along, so that should just be a matter of copying that folder to an external hard drive, that is, if you can get your old system up and running long enough.

And for future reference, check out dropbox.com. Best damn application of the decade if you ask me.

Short answer: Reinstall everything.

Long answer: Unless you are migrating between two instances of the exact same system (down to the component level) and can do a full hard disk image, you are going to have to reinstall everything.

Applications of any useful size will scatter all kinds of crap around the hard disk. You may be able to trick your programs into starting up but at best you'll end up with missing features and at worst corrupted data.

Buy a cheap USB cable or external enclosure and pull the old hard disk out of the old laptop (usually one screw and it slides out), then plug it directly into the new laptop and just use Windows' file manager to copy your data files across. No need for third party software.