Time for a new PC....

My desk top is beginning to get long in the tooth, so I guess it's getting time to look around for a new one. Can't complain about this one, since I bought it in November of 2002 and it has held it's own with everything I have asked of it. But time (and technology) marches on.........

So what is the *hot* setup these days as far as processor and motherboard? I confess I haven't been keeping up with things, so I am just starting the process of looking around. My general rule of thumb is to get the bestest and fastest system you can get NOW, so it will keep from getting painfully obsolete too quickly.

But Lordy, I am NOT looking forward to reinstalling all my *essential* software yet again on another box. This is one REALLY major pain. Just find the original install disks and any and all upgrade files just about drives me insane. I normally have to run both the old system and the new system side by side for 6 months or so during the transition.

Anyway, looking for feedback on what is the *BEST* out there at this time. Not what will be best next month, since I've been on that road before and you always wind up waiting and waiting for the latest thing that is just around the corner.

Thanks.

No need to do a complete install of all of your software. XP will clone your current hard drive onto a new larger one. Just install your old hard drive into your new computer along with the new one and clone it. Then remove the old drive, install the new one into the master position and you are all set. I've done this a few times during my upgrades and it really is quite simple.

Looks like this old dog is going to learn a new trick!

Does XP have this cloning utility resident within the system already? Or do I need to buy something else to do this?

Thanks!

Its built right into XP. When it detects the drive, it will ask you if you want to partition it or clone it. Atleast that is what I remember. It's been awhile since I did it last but I will be doing it again on another computer this weekend. I'll get you better instructions then.

Out of curiosity Dennis, is that a feature with both versions of XP or is that just with XP pro?
I ask because I run the home version and haven't noticed that option when installing a new drive.

When I first configure a new system I image the drive with a program called Drive Image from PowerQuest. I believe the program was purchased by Norton and is now known as Norton Ghost.
I love the program, it eliminates any future need to format and if you image the drive on a regular basis you always have something recent to revert back to should something bad happen to the system. I keep the original image and one most recent back up image archived.
I have used it on a few family members computers and twice so far it has saved having to do a complete format due to a particularly nasty virus that proved difficult to remove completely.

I've also used it the same way you describe using the XP clone feature. Image a drive to be replaced and then restore the image to a new drive.

Not sure about home, I use XP Pro. As you said, there are several 3rd party disk imaging solutions out there that work well.

I'm wondering how well this will work for me. I have both SCSI and EIDE hard drives in my current system. Had to do some voodoo stuff to get it to recognize the SCSI drive as the main system drive. Plus I'm not sure if the cable I have in the system has a spare connector to add in another drive into the chain.

And I'm not so sure about the cloning at all. The operating system itself isn't cloned, now is it? I'm sure the drivers in the new system will ALL be different because all the hardware will be different. Not to mention the registry entries themselves.

I think I need to know more about this before I go and wipe out everything on the new system.

All I would want is the application programs copied to the new drive, not Windows itself and all the associated support files.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

All I would want is the application programs copied to the new drive, not Windows itself and all the associated support files.

Rich,

I recently went through this dilemma having gotten a new desktop in July. I wound up re-installing all of the software which did not take that long because of the processor speed and the configuration that I used. The biggest problems that I had was with Adobe Creative Suite and allegedly that was due to my RAID configuration according to Adobe's tech support people. They pointed me to a patch file which quickly fixed that issue. I also had trouble initially with a scanner but that was in part due to the fact that I couldn't find the install disk.

I have a 500 GB network drive set up here so I copied all my data files that I needed to migrate onto that and then uploaded them onto the new system and I was up and running.

Of all the components of my new setup, I am most happy with the 3.00 GHz Dual Core processor. I also went with 2GB of RAM. I can actually do work during a back up, a virus scan, even copying a DVD between the two drives (definitely worth having two), or anything else that is processor intensive. I set it up with dual 7200 RPM 160 GB SATA II drives in a RAID 1 and I'm sure that helps as there are two copies of all of the data.

Happy shopping!

Umm...

I have to use SysPrep (resident in XP) and Norton Ghost (Not resident in XP) to clone drives. Sysprep re-seals the security IDs and ghost transfers the image.

This article describes the proper use of SysPrep:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;302577

If you just want your documents to transfer, you can use the user state migration tool (USMT):
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;302577
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/des...stateusmt.mspx
The USMT does NOT transfer applications.

But yes, ghost does copy the entire hard drive from one to the other. The way Sysprep works, is it loads all the drivers it knows as well as re-runs the "mini setup wizard" or the "windows Welcome screen" and requires your CD-Key and activation information on first boot.

Given what you are doing here, it may be simpler to start over with the OS and apps on your new system and then use USMT to copy your files and settings over.

Kind of late, but better than never

Just last month I decided my AMD64 3700+ was getting a bit slow. I also had an ATi x1800XL and after getting a Samsung 204B LCD, the XL couldn't cope with the native 1600 x 1200 resolution for many games (my previous was a 17" Hitachi with a max of 1280 x 1024).

Intel had just announced their new Core 2 Duo line of processors and I really wanted one , so instead of simply removing the 3700+ and dropping the highest end dual Core AMD64 (the 4800), I bought a Core 2 Duo E6700 (2 x 2.67 with 4mb of shared L2 cache), an ASUS P5N SLI board because it was cheap and ended with 2 gigs of DDR2 667 memory (Patriot/PDP Systems branded and made in the USA). Everything else just dropped in (funny enough, it ran fine without reinstalling the OS, but I did just to be sure). I also picked up a 512mb 7900GT (not a 7950, just an eVGA 7900GT with 512mb of memory and a very nice factory overclock).

Everything is peachy now. I was warned not to upgrade and wait for Intel's quad core CPUs, but those are going to be expensive (a $1000 Extreme edition later this year and an $800 model early next) and I don't really have a use for 2 cores now, so 4 is definitely overkill. Everything runs great now and hopefully the next upgrade (aside from a new video card) can wait until after I move to Oregon (I certainly hope so)!