New laptop blues

[Dave A]

I don't know which is worse, getting a new laptop because your old one bombed or getting a new laptop when your old one is still working.

Sure, when your old one bombed you might have lost some critical data, but at least you don't have to torture yourself deciding what to take onto the new machine and what has become litter worthy of losing.

Spring clean or just move the whole mess across?

[Mark Atkinson]

Spring clean Dave! Don't be lazy!

I'd be happy to take your old one off your hands, I love playing around with laptops. Ha ha.

You've just reminded me that my laptop is in desperate need of a Windows reinstall, which I am not very happy about!

[AndyD]

My biggest problem with the new laptop I bought was getting rid of all the bloatware it comes with. The amount of crap that comes pre-installed is nothing short of ridiculous. I ended up having to wipe the main and hidden partition using a live linux disk and clean install from ground up. It was time well spent.

Once that was sorted out I just moved the whole lot across. Spring cleaning is for wussies.

[Mark Atkinson]

Once that was sorted out I just moved the whole lot across. Spring cleaning is for wussies.

Thanks for inadvertently calling me a wussy, Andy!

[AndyD]

[Mark Atkinson]

[Dave A]

I'd be happy to take your old one off your hands

That's been the other surprise. The vultures started circling almost immediately. It's a six year old machine

[Mark Atkinson]

Haha, don't worry, I've got far too much junk around here already (including my own laptop!)

[Chrisjan B]

Now be careful AndyD - playing on the railroad is dangerous to your health. It is okay to reinstall Windows if it your own machine, but when I work on clients machines with almost all software CD's and serials gone haywire spring cleaning is a very attractive option. Reloading Windows takes about 45 minutes, loading Windows Updates another 2 hours and reinstalling programs another two hours if you have the necessary. You shouldn't forget the three weeks it takes to customize the install to your liking and there is always some damn program or setting one tend to forget about.

[tec0]

What I normally do is I ghost everything, once the system is to my liking that is. Then I can always restore when need be.

That said I do backups all the time so restoring everything takes “forever and a day” thanks to the supper fast speed of an outdated USB 1 external DVD ROM... I normally don’t use the laptop’s Rom for restoring as it “kill’s it” in the end of the day.

Just keep it organized or the process will always be painful.

[Dave A]

Just keep it organized or the process will always be painful.

Easier said than done. Sifting through, I see I actually transferred the works from my previous laptop 6 years ago, and did the same with the one before that. What I have here is a collection of all sorts of things going back over ten years.

I think I've got a plan though. I'm going to transfer what I obviously use regularly + the statutory stuff I have to keep for 5 years etc. + photos (which surprisingly is fairly organised. I'll leave the rest on the old machine and whatever I don't need over the next few months will be assumed as ready for the bin.

[tec0]

If I may make a suggestion Dave, Please copy “everything” as bulk to a desktop computer “as there DVD burners are cheaper to replace” and just back the lot up to DVD. That why you always know that “yes if I need it I can still recover it”

Trust me on this one; it is always when you think you don’t need something when it becomes absolutely critical. It always happens I promise you. I have recovered many “scrapped” HDD data by means of “special software” to the extreme of Frankensteining the HDD to get the data back. I am successful “most of the time” but not even a pro can get data back once the physical medium is lost forever.

[AndyD]

......I see I actually transferred the works from my previous laptop 6 years ago, and did the same with the one before that......

....I'm going to transfer what I obviously use regularly + the statutory stuff I have to keep for 5 years etc. + photos (which surprisingly is fairly organised. I'll leave the rest on the old machine and whatever I don't need over the next few months will be assumed as ready for the bin.

Dave, I strongly urge you to rethink your proposed strategy. What you're suggesting here is going to eventually result in the stifling of technological progress and could even put homo sapiens back in the Dark Age. The motivating force behind drive space increasing exponentially over the last two decades is nothing more than people refusing to spring clean their computers. You're about to upset this delicately balanced apple cart.

[Dave A]

OK then, can't risk collapsing the digital economy. (He says after running the Easy Transfer wizard this afternoon and ending up transferring the whole lot anyway ).

[Perform Computers]

It's weird though. I'm in the IT industry & I always tell clients to backup & what will happen if they don't. Yet, I hardly ever backup my data at home / office. Until that dreaded day comes when your rig locks up and you're like, "Eish".