Didn't know where to stick this

[smashfactory]

my husband bought me a new laptop for an early christmas gift and the kids a new desktop- it was supposed to be a surprise, but they called our home number to set up delivery! so now i know, but he doesnt know i know- he tries


anyway, when they set up, they do a data transfer,no programs. how do i get my stuff to the new laptop from here? this puter has no burner- i need my mail, programs, etc...

 

[Morph]

Chances are I am wrong - BUT, can you make a "ghost image" of your hard drive and then transfer that to your laptop?

 

[smashfactory]

Chances are I am wrong - BUT, can you make a "ghost image" of your hard drive and then transfer that to your laptop?

i have no idea what that means ;-(

 

[-NC-]

Whenever I rebuild my laptop and start fresh ( which is essentially the situation you are in ), this is what I do:

Programs: download all the latest installers, and put them all on my external harddrive ( along with pretty much all the other installers I have ever used, which are on the external hdd )

Program Data such as email, browser bookmarks:
Any decent program has an export facility, so I export from the programs to the external hdd.

Then, I reinstall everything and reimport all the data/settings.

Also, I just know that there is usually a lot of stuff I have installed that I don't use anymore, so I figure that if I need something, I will soon realise and then download it / reinstall it, if I never realise it's gone, then... meh... I didn't really need it anyway...

I figure as long as all the data for all the programs is backed up, then I should always be able to get back to where I was.
You're in an even better position - you can start using the new laptop and moving things over as you discover you need them.

Yes, it's a pain, but it does mean the machine is fresh and clean....

You could use Norton ghost to copy everything from one machine to the other, but IMHO, that would be like moving house and not leaving behind all your junk!